Disentangling Crisis Discourse
a one-day workshop on crisis discourse analysis at Lancaster University, sponsored by Sociology and LAEL
organisers: Amelie Kutter (Sociology) and Johnny Unger (LAEL)
Wednesday 11th July, 2012, times TBC, Lancaster University
“When Osborne launched his scorched earth policies two years ago, it was obvious to all but the most purblind that the recovery he blithely forecast could not happen,” writes Will Hutton in The Observer [Sunday 29 April 2012]. Was it all that obvious? Why then, could these policies unfold? By organizing an event on “Disentangling Crisis Discourse” we seek to further understanding of how the financial crisis and its consequences are being communicated and constructed in public, political and everyday discourse. Its aim is to uncover which concepts and tools in discourse analysis can help us to cut through the jargon-laden buzz around crisis discourse. How can we apply systematic and rigorous analysis to problematise what commentators, journalists, bloggers and even academics take for granted as fact and figure, necessity and truth, in UK and elsewhere?
In the “Disentangling Crisis Discourse” event, a panel of internationally renowned academics in the field will provide some perspectives on crisis discourse from their own work. This will be accompanied by a workshop during which participants will carry out and discuss short pieces of analysis. After revision, these may later be published on the crisis discourse watch blog, a new site for ad-hoc analysis, commentary and discussion of crisis discourse, for updates see http://crisisdiscourse.wordpress.com.
Confirmed panelists
Jason Glynos (Essex)
Andrew Sayer (Lancaster)
Ruth Wodak (Lancaster)
(further panelists tbc)
To participate, please send the following to a.kutter@lancaster.ac.uk and j.unger@lancaster.ac.uk by 30th June.
Your name and e-mail address
Your current or past department (and institution if not Lancaster) and status (e.g. staff, MA/PhD student, independent scholar)
A brief abstract (max. 100 words) outlining your chosen approach to crisis discourse, and one piece of data (text, image, video, etc.) that you wish to analyse and discuss during the workshop.
The number of participants is unfortunately limited, and we will allocate places by order of submission of abstracts/data. The data will be posted on the new crisis discourse watch blog (http://crisisdiscourse.wordpress.com) to enable other participants to see and reflect on them in advance of the workshop.
Participation is free. Tea/coffee will be provided during the workshop