Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - "Global" discourses of democracy and an English city
AU - Farrelly, Michael
N1 - The publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - In many contemporary polities, democracy is portrayed as a universal good, a democratic ideal appears to be spreading globally, its practice burgeoning; it seems to be appearing for the first time in some places and deepening in established democracies. Yet, when one looks for the concrete touch of democracy in one’s own activities, groups, communities and nation it becomes elusive. I discuss this apparent contradiction in relation to discourse and a new “Area Forum” in the English city of Preston. The categories of ‘global’ and ‘local’, ‘identity’ and ‘branding’ prove useful in discussing the contradiction as situated in the English context. I suggest that this problem of democracy may be understood in terms of the ideological concept of ‘democratism’: the assumption that the status quo in England is unproblematically democratic whilst discursively closing off the possibility of genuine democratic progress.
AB - In many contemporary polities, democracy is portrayed as a universal good, a democratic ideal appears to be spreading globally, its practice burgeoning; it seems to be appearing for the first time in some places and deepening in established democracies. Yet, when one looks for the concrete touch of democracy in one’s own activities, groups, communities and nation it becomes elusive. I discuss this apparent contradiction in relation to discourse and a new “Area Forum” in the English city of Preston. The categories of ‘global’ and ‘local’, ‘identity’ and ‘branding’ prove useful in discussing the contradiction as situated in the English context. I suggest that this problem of democracy may be understood in terms of the ideological concept of ‘democratism’: the assumption that the status quo in England is unproblematically democratic whilst discursively closing off the possibility of genuine democratic progress.
KW - Critical Discourse Analysis
KW - democracy
KW - democratism
KW - Area Forums
KW - UK local government
U2 - 10.1075/jlp.7.3.04far
DO - 10.1075/jlp.7.3.04far
M3 - Journal article
VL - 7
SP - 413
EP - 430
JO - Journal of Language and Politics
JF - Journal of Language and Politics
SN - 1569-2159
IS - 3
ER -