Analysing political engagement: an interpretive and functionalist discourse analysis of evolving political subjectivities among public activists and intellectuals with a Moroccan background in Flanders
(2011) , 528 pages
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- Authors
Zienkowski, Jan 
- Abstract
- "Analysing political engagement : an interpretive and functionalist discourse analysis of evolving political subjectivities among public activists and intellectuals with a Moroccan background in Flanders" is a PhD on the relationship between politics, discourse, and the self. Jan Zienkowski obtained his degree of doctor in linguistics on January, 26th, 2012 at the University of Antwerp. The main supervisor of this project was prof. dr. Jef Verschueren. Co-supervisors were prof. dr. Marie- Claire Foblets and prof. dr. Henk De Smaele. By means of a theoretical and methodological exploration of poststructuralist, pragmatist and linguistic pragmatic approaches to discourse and subjectivity, Jan Zienkowski constructs an interpretive and functionalist heuristic for analysing large-scale socio-political debates. As such, this PhD is more than a set of case studies of the discourse of activists and intellectuals involved in the Flemish minority debate. The author empirically investigates the way people use abstract categories such as identity, community, and integration. He describes the various functions these notions perform in relation to a preferred sense of self and in relation to a preferred sense of politics. This involves an exploration of the large-scale interpretive logics people use when linking these concepts to each other and to the socio-political practices constitutive of the public sphere. This PhD thesis addresses key issues related to discourse, subjectivity and political engagement. How do activists and intellectuals analyse, criticise, and shape the various worlds wherein they find themselves? In what ways are preferred modes of politics linked to a preferred sense of self? How do people manage to make sense of the multiplicity of abstract categories that structure socio-political debates? How can one identify the boundaries of a debate? Why do people value one set of abstract categories over another? And how may one empirically investigate the way one functionally relates a preferred sense of self to a preferred mode of political engagement? The analyses presented in this book exemplify the heuristic and theoretical concepts Zienkowski argues for. He provides a set of empirical studies of the various functions that abstract categories such as identity, community and integration perform in relation to a preferred mode of subjectivity. Throughout these analyses and theoretical explorations, a debate characterised by a high degree of reflexivity emerges.
- Affiliations
Univerisiteit Antwerpen
Citations
Zienkowski, J. (2011). Analysing political engagement: an interpretive and functionalist discourse analysis of evolving political subjectivities among public activists and intellectuals with a Moroccan background in Flanders. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/93491