<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3199" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Apologies for cross posting</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Please distribute far and wide!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>best wishes</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>John</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>
<H1 style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Arial Narrow" size=3>Class and
Discourse</FONT></H1>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">A Call for Papers for a special issue of <I>Critical
Discourse Studies</I></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT face="Arial Narrow"
size=3>Edited by David Machin and John E Richardson</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Arial Narrow"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">Class and class divisions remain central forces in shaping
the ways we live now. Indeed, arguably, in neo-liberal capitalist societies,
class remains the primary division of structured social inequality. Massive
sections of our populations experience inadequate access to employment, housing,
education and health. These inequalities cut across ethnic, ‘racial’ and gender
groups and seem, on one level, to create a shared set of life experiences and
responses. Importantly, the working classes also have few opportunities to
represent such collective experiences and take an active role in disseminating
their own discourses. <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Arial Narrow" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">However, little academic ink has been spilt attempting to
theorise, analyse and account for discourse as a site of class inequality
(though see Luke & Graham, 2005). There has been some sociological analysis
of working class cultures, for instance by the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Chicago</st1:place></st1:City> school in the 1930s and later by Basil
Bernstein and <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Paul Willis. Their
work revealed something of the different models of the world held by working
class people that create tendencies for them to be discriminated against and
fail in middle class controlled institutions. In Cultural Studies, in the 1980s,
there was also important work by the likes of Hall and Morley, who accounted for
the ways the working classes interacted with dominant ideology in the media,
although much of the work that this inspired ended up comfortable with the idea
of working class resistance to these ideologies. To make matter worse, academics
seemed to lose interest in the working classes in the 1980s. Zygmunt Bauman
(1987) has discussed the way that academics have sought out new agents for their
projects after the proletariat and poor seemed to divide into something less
tangible and the possibility of change became more complex (Gorz 1985).
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Arial Narrow" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">In terms of Discourse
Analysis, there has been valuable work published on the way that governments
have attempted to recontextualise class, and particularly socio-economic
inequalities, through discourses of social exclusion (Fairclough 2002, Levitas
1989). Included in this are ideas of the ‘stakeholder society’ and ‘governance
from below’, which attempt to convince the dispossessed working classes
</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-bidi-font-family: Tahoma">that their ‘only hope of
repossession lies in [their] allegiance to the structure that dispossessed them’
(Lentricchia, 1983: 77).</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"> However, such discursive
interest in ‘exclusion’ is often characterised by a recognisably idealistic
philosophical approach to discourse, wherein discourse ‘creates’ social
positions and social realities. Such an approach – which often results, in
Marx’s terms, in analysis directed at ‘combating the phrases of this world’ –
needs to be balanced by an awareness of the structuring power of social and
material contexts, and specifically of the ‘institutionalised rules accepted and
used by the dominant class to control the discursive actions of the dominated’
(McKerrow, 1989: 443). <o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Arial Narrow" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">This special edition seeks papers that theorise, analyse and
account for discourse as a site of class inequality. Of course, this means being
able to consider what we <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">mean</I> by
class, since many of the poorer socioeconomic groups are now part of communities
that have never known work.<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">We welcome articles examining discourse in relation to class
structure, class formation, class culture, class consciousness and class action.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p><FONT
face="Arial Narrow" size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<UL style="MARGIN-TOP: 0cm" type=disc>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">What can the concept of discourse offer to class analysis?
Do discourse analysts merely combat the phrases of the
world?<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">What role does discourse play in the formation,
perpetuation and transformation of class?<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><FONT
size=3><FONT face="Arial Narrow"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt">In what ways does class
inequality relate to discourses of state, </SPAN>governance, and control?
<SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">How are inequalities based on social class
recontextualised through official discourse? Does elite discourse define the
parameters for debate in ways that tend to serve elite interests and sideline
those of the poor?<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">How does class cut across ethnic and ‘racial’ group
identity? In what ways does class relate to racial projects and formations?
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">How do the middle and upper classes conceptualise and
represent their position and role within a class structure?
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">In what ways do the mass media relate to class relations
and class conflict? As purveyors of palliative ideological messages, sites of
contradiction and conflict, or both? <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">How do cinema films and fictional television genres
represent class? <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">What outlets and opportunities do the working classes have
to represent themselves and their collective experiences?
<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">What are the potentials for ‘alternative’, citizen and
user-generated media? <o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI>
<LI class=MsoNormal
style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">What role, if any, can discourse (and discourse analysis)
play in social, political or economic
transformation?<o:p></o:p></FONT></FONT></SPAN></LI></UL>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Arial Narrow"
size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT
face="Arial Narrow">Applicants may submit abstracts of no more than 250 words to
John Richardson at j.e.richardson@lboro.ac.uk. The deadline for the submission
of abstracts is <B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">14<SUP>th</SUP> January
2008</B>, and accepted authors will be informed no later than two weeks from
this date. For accepted articles the deadline for submission is <B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">end of May 2008. </B><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><FONT size=3><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Arial Narrow'; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Critical
Discourse Studies</SPAN></EM><FONT face="Arial Narrow"> is an interdisciplinary
journal for the social sciences. Its primary aim is to publish critical research
that advances our understanding of how discourse figures in social processes,
social structures and social change. For further details of the journal’s aims,
scope and instructions for authors, see here: </FONT></FONT><A
href="http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17405904.asp"><FONT
face="Arial Narrow"
size=3>http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/17405904.asp</FONT></A><FONT
face="Arial Narrow" size=3> </FONT></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>------------------------------------<BR>John E
Richardson<BR>Dept of Social Sciences<BR>Loughborough University<BR>Epinal Way
<BR>Loughborough <BR>Leicestershire LE11 3TU<BR>UK<BR><A
href="http://www.languageandcapitalism.info/">http://www.languageandcapitalism.info/</A><BR><A
href="http://www.freewebs.com/johnrichardson/index.htm">www.freewebs.com/johnrichardson/index.htm</A><BR>Tel
+44 01509 228874</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>