Discourse, Politics, Identity

Wittgenstein Award Z 18 Discourse, Politics, Identity Ruth WODAK 28.06.1996 The research initiative currently incorporates three projects and an international network, all of which are concerned with the discursive construction of national and transnational identities and build on two earlier studies that were led by the award-holder and completed by interdisciplinary teams: "The Discursive Construction of National Identity" (v. Wodak et al., 1989, 1999), "Language and Diplomacy" (Titscher et al., 1998, 2000; Wodak et al. 1997). The two research bases - the study of political communicative behaviour in differing arenas, and the interdisciplinary ethnographic (qualitative and quantitative) analysis of discourse in organisations - have been divided, since the outset of the research in 1996, into 7 projects. These all relate to one another and are in varying stages of completion: "Racism at the Top", an investigation of parliamentary discourse on immigration laws in 7 EU states (complete, supported by the Austrian Ministry of Education; Wodak & van Dijk (eds) 2000, Reisigl & Wodak 2000a, b); "The Attitude of Austrians to the Eastern Expansion of the EU" (starting, supported by the National Bank); "CICCOM" (starting, supported by the EU and centred in the CNRS in Paris); "Discourse of Neutrality" (complete; Benke 2000; Kovacs & Wodak (eds) 2000; Pelinka & Wodak (eds) 2000); "Discourses of Unemployment and Employment Policy in the EU" (phase 1 complete; Wodak & Iedema1999; Muntigl, Weiss & Wodak 2000); "Confrontation with a Taboo - History in the Making" (starting), (Only monographs quoted). All of these are concerned with integrating the Vienna School of Discourse Analysis with sociology, political science and history in an interdisciplinary manner, and with understanding and explaining social change at the national and supra-national levels. This involves the development of a theoretical model of discourse together with new procedures and methods. At the same time practical relevance is pursued, be it in the development of educational materials, or in the production of communication training programmes for public servants and politicians who are required to operate in multilingual and multicultural contexts. Since 1996 six workshops have been conducted (v. Wodak & Ludwig (eds) 1999). In addition the research has been presented by all the participants at many important international conferences, and many guests from abroad have given lectures or taken part in discussions. The research is monitored by an advisory board that is made up of very distinguished international and national scholars in political science, history, sociology and discourse analysis. The present members of the research team are: Dr. Gilbert Weiss, Sociologist and Political Scientist; Mag. Peter Muntigl, Linguist; Prof. Andras Kovacs, Elte Budapest, Sociologist; Prof. Theo van Leeuwen, University of Cardiff, Linguist; Dr. Walter Manoschek, University of Vienna, Political Scientist and Historian; Mag. Sabine Loitfellner, Political Scientist; mag. Verea Krausneker, Linguist; Dr. Christoph Reinprecht.

Six years of research in the areas of "Discourse, Politics, Identity" have in many ways resulted in significant progress and innovation in the study of discourse. Our initial hypothesis was that different developments within the EU are causing large tensions between local, regional, national, and supra-national interests and identities, and that these are manifest both in the structural macro and micro-levels of EU organizations, and also in the realm of national and regional institutions. Instances of these complex and tension-ridden changes were systematically collected using an interdisciplinary and triangulatory approach which examined analytically a number of different publics, genres, and topics. We developed a new methodology that enabled us to combine concepts from argumentation theory, rhetoric and systemic-functional linguistics in a productive way. The empirical frame of our investigations included ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, discussions in EU bodies, parliamentary debates, reporting in the mass media, political speeches, focus groups, policy papers, websites, internet forums, visual emblems, and films. These data-samples were analyzed with regard to a number of dimensions of social inclusion and exclusion in the "New Europe", and here our seven interdisciplinary sub- projects were concerned with discourses on employment policy, (im)migration, neutrality and NATO, right-wing populism, the (National Socialist) past, EU-enlargement, and the political construction of European identities at the highest levels of political representation. On the basis of detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses of written, oral, and visual data, we present new differentiated explanations of current processes of political and social change in Europe and, above all, of qualitative changes in the interplay of participation and representation in modern democracies. In particular, the debates on the European community of values demonstrated that the negotiation of political and cultural values is historically dependent on differing national traditions, narratives, ideologies, and world-views. External factors such as migration, "globalization", and questions of security also have a bearing on such developments. Moreover, we illustrate in detail how contradicting, multiple social identities in various social domains are discursively constructed. In addition to economic developments and processes of globalization, and the associated globalization-rhetoric, the following factors have a decisive and systematic influence on social change: multi-lingualism, gender problems (keyword: gender mainstreaming), legal frameworks, the media landscapes, the specific historical and political heritage, together with the related concepts of democracy, as well as the formation of individual and collective memories. On the basis of the results of our studies, we developed consultancy and training programs for lawyers, diplomats, journalists, teachers, doctors, and politicians, and also offered successful seminars for these target groups. Our publications include 40 books and special issues and about 200 book chapters and articles in scholarly journals.