Titre du document / Document title

'Just an ordinary Australian' : Self-categorization and the discursive construction of facticity in 'new racist' political rhetoric

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

RAPLEY M. ⁽¹⁾ ;

Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)

⁽¹⁾ Division of Social Sciences, Humanities and Education, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, 6150, Western Australia, AUSTRALIE

Résumé / Abstract

Australia has recently witnessed the resurgence of what has been termed the 'race debate'. The apparently high levels of popular support from 'ordinary' Australians for MP Pauline Hanson's contentious views on immigration, Australia's indigenous peoples and her foreign relations have been a major theme of this debate. This paper employs the framework of discursive psychology to examine, in her maiden speech to Parliament, the way in which Pauline Hanson's political rhetoric is precisely constructed in order to emphasize the ordinariness, reasonableness and common-sensical mass appeal of her views. Particular attention is paid to the discursive deployment of self-categorization to construct a version of herself as exemplifying 'ordinary Australian-ness'. The potential for recent work in discursive psychology both to complement and to challenge aspects of social identity theory inspired studies of political rhetoric is discussed. The analysis presented suggests that not only is it unnecessarily reductionistic to construe identity in talk in terms of dichotomous mental states, but also that the discursive construction of self- and social categories, and the establishing of the facticity of a position, need not be construed as separate aspects of the task of racist political rhetoric, but may be understood as mutually supporting components of successful mobilization discourse.

Revue / Journal Title

British journal of social psychology   ISSN 0144-6665   CODEN BJSPDA 

Source / Source

1998, vol. 37 (3), pp. 325-344 (1 p.1/4)

Langue / Language

Anglais

Editeur / Publisher

British Psychological Society, Leicester, ROYAUME-UNI  (1981) (Revue)

Mots-clés anglais / English Keywords

Rhetorics ; Policy ; Social attitude ; Categorization ; Social identity ; Racism ; Human ;

Mots-clés français / French Keywords

Rhétorique ; Politique ; Attitude sociale ; Catégorisation ; Identité sociale ; Racisme ; Homme ;

Mots-clés espagnols / Spanish Keywords

Retórica ; Política ; Actitud social ; Categorización ; Identidad social ; Racismo ; Hombre ;

Localisation / Location

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 6537 B, 35400007001234.0050