Discourse Analysis and Austerity: Critical Studies from Economics and Linguistics, 1st Edition (Hardback)

Critical Studies from Economics and Linguistics, 1st Edition

Edited by Kate Power, Tanweer Ali, Eva Lebdušková

Routledge

354 pages | 9 B/W Illus.

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Description

In the immediate aftermath of the global financial crisis of 2008, governments around the developed world coordinated policy moves to stimulate economic activity and avert a depression. In subsequent years, however, cuts to public expenditure, or austerity, have become the dominant narrative in public debate on economic policy.

This unique collaboration between economists and linguists examines manifestations of the discourses of austerity as these have played out in media, policy and academic settings across Europe and the Americas. Adopting a critical perspective, it seeks to elucidate the discursive and argumentation strategies used to consolidate austerity as the dominant economic policy narrative of the twenty-first century.

Foreword by Anne Pettifor

Foreword by Darren Kelsey

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Interdisciplinary* approaches to austerity discourses: A case study in why and how economists and discourse analysts should work together Kate Power, Tanweer Ali and Eva Lebdušková

Part I: Approaching austerity through discourse

1. Deep interdisciplinarity and responses to crisis Bob Hodge

2. Austerity and the eclipse of economic alternatives: The theoretical terrain of neoliberal economic crisis narratives Ellen Russell

Part II: Historical perspective

3. Austerity in the Commons: A corpus critical analysis of austerity and its surrounding grammatical context in Hansard (1803–2015) Lesley Jeffries & Brian Walker

4. ‘Less State’ in austerity: A concept masking the central agent of neoliberal policies Nuria Giniger & Irene Sotiropoulou

5. Discourses of crisis and representation of Greece in a period of austerity Bessie Mitsikopoulou & Christina Lykou

Part III: The notion of ‘crisis’

6. The recent economic crisis in Brazil and beyond: Some discussions on the weight of empirical issues, methodology and rhetoric Eduardo Strachman & Inês Signorini

7. Tales of austerity, and a crisis of wealth distribution Naoise McDonagh

8. Discursive uses of “abnormality” in the Greek crisis Yannis Stavrakakis & Antonis Galanopoulos

Part IV: Metaphors

9. Are the metaphors underlying institutional and academic discourse on austerity reliable predictors of the stances adopted? Catherine Resche

10. Metaphors in times of crisis: Legitimizing austerity? Antonella Luporini

Part V: Argumentation

11. The “eternal character” of austerity measures in European crisis policies: Evidence from the Fiscal Compact discourse in Austria Stephan Pühringer

12. The mirage of expansionary fiscal consolidation to resolve the euro-area crisis Giuseppe Mastromatteo & Sergio Rossi

13. Why should we all tighten our belts? On arguments for austerity in political discourse Emanuele Brambilla

Part VI: Responses to ‘crisis’

14. The austerity discourse of the Romanian economic-political elites: Neoliberal or (pseudo)European? Alina Bârgăoanu & Loredana Radu

15. An analysis of El Roto’s newspaper cartoons discourse as social indictment against Spanish austerity policies Piedad Fernández Toledo & Virginia Villaplana-Ruiz

Conclusion Kate Power, Tanweer Ali, Eva Lebdušková

Index

About the Editors

Kate Power is a lecturer in Management Communication at the University of Queensland Business School, Australia. A critical discourse analyst with particular interest in interdisciplinarity, she has published linguistic analyses of both religious and economic discourses.

Tanweer Ali is a lecturer in finance and economics with Empire State College, SUNY. His research interests are in corporate governance and the application of linguistic methods to economic questions. He has guest edited two special editions of On The Horizon, focused on language and economics.

Eva Lebdušková is a PhD candidate at the J.E. Purkyne University in Ústí nad Labem. In addition she holds a senior administrative position with the Charles University in Prague. Her main field of research is in linguistics, and she has published a number of articles on the use of language in economic discourse.

About the Series

Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy

In recent years, there has been widespread criticism of mainstream economics. This has taken many forms, from methodological critiques of its excessive formalism, to concern about its failure to connect with many of the most pressing social issues. This series provides a forum for research which is developing alternative forms of economic analysis. Reclaiming the traditional 'political economy' title, it refrains from emphasising any single school of thought, but instead attempts to foster greater diversity within economics.

Learn more…