Search results for: social discourse

Authors: Muhammad Harya Ramdhoni, Nidzam Sulaiman, Muhammad Ridwan

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The Helsinki Agreement between the Indonesian Government (RI) and the Aceh Liberation Movement (GAM) on 15th Aug. 2005 fails to reconcile social and political turmoil in Aceh Darussalam (NAD). The political powers that were once unified in their struggle against Indonesian Government prior to this agreement have now become divided due to differences in political and economic interests. Using descriptive analysis and intellectual discourse, this paper proposes that the Aceh Sultanate be revived as an attempt to unite these divided political powers and to curtail potential conflicts in the area. This proposal is based on three assumptions. First, the Aceh Sultanate is the only Sultanate in Sumatera that did not fall victim to the social revolution post 1945 proclamation of independence. Second, the Acehnese still acknowledge the Sultanate as a sovereign political power even though it was defeated by the Dutch in 1904. Third, there are emotional, historical and cultural ties between the Acehnese and the Sultanate as they still perceived them to be their patron. Consequently, the Sultanate is the unifying element of all political powers in the area. This, however, is not an attempt to reinstate feudalism in Aceh. It only seeks to facilitate the political reconciliation process in Aceh Darussalam founded on sociological and historical background of locals.

Keywords: Sultanate Aceh, political reconciliation, political power, patron-client

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Authors: Misbah Fatma, Anam Saiyeda

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This analysis charts the introduction and expansion of research into the filter bubble phenomena over the last 10 years using a large dataset of academic publications. This bibliometric study demonstrates how interdisciplinary filter bubble research is. The identification of key authors and organizations leading the filter bubble study sheds information on collaborative networks and knowledge transfer. Relevant papers are organized based on themes including algorithmic bias, polarisation, social media, and ethical implications through a systematic examination of the literature. In order to shed light on how these patterns have changed over time, the study plots their historical history. The study also looks at how research is distributed globally, showing geographic patterns and discrepancies in scholarly output. The results of this bibliometric analysis let us fully comprehend the development and reach of filter bubble research. This study offers insights into the ongoing discussion surrounding information personalization and its implications for societal discourse, democratic participation, and the potential risks to an informed citizenry by exposing dominant themes, interdisciplinary collaborations, and geographic patterns. In order to solve the problems caused by filter bubbles and to advance a more diverse and inclusive information environment, this analysis is essential for scholars and researchers.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, social media, social networking, algorithmic personalization, self-selection, content moderation policies and limited access to information, recommender system and polarization

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Authors: Chia-Ling Hsieh, Kankanit Potikit

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Metadiscourse refers to linguistic resources employed by writers to organize text and interact with readers. While metadiscourse has received considerable attention within the field of discourse analysis, few studies have explored the use of metadiscourse in email, one of the most popular forms of computer-mediated communication. Furthermore, the diversity of cross-linguistic research required to uncover the influence of cultural factors on metadiscourse use is lacking. The present study compares metadiscourse markers employed in Chinese and Thai-language request emails with the purpose of discovering cross-cultural similarities and differences that are meaningful and applicable to foreign language teaching. The analysis is based on a corpus of 200 request emails: 100 composed in Chinese and 100 in Thai, with half of the emails from each language data set addressed to professors and the other half addressed to classmates. Adopting Hyland’s model as an analytical framework, two primary categories of metadiscourse are identified. Textual metadiscourse helps to create text coherence, while interpersonal metadiscourse functions to convey authorial stance. Results of the study make clear that both Chinese and Thai-language emails use significantly more interpersonal markers than textual markers, indicating that email, as a unique communicative medium, is characterized by high degrees of concision and interactivity. Users of both languages further deploy similar patterns in writing emails to recipients of different social statuses. Compared with emails addressed to classmates, emails addressed to professors are notably longer and include more transition and engagement markers. Nevertheless, cultural factors do play a role. Emails composed in Thai, for example, include more textual markers than those in Chinese, as Thai favors formal expressions and detailed explanations, while in contrast, emails composed in Chinese employ more interpersonal markers than those in Thai, since Chinese tends to emphasize recipient involvement and attitudinal warmth. These findings thereby demonstrate the combined effects of email as a communicative medium, social status, and cultural values on metadiscourse usage. The study concludes by applying these findings to pedagogical suggestions for teaching email writing to Chinese and Thai language learners based on similarities and differences in metadiscourse strategy between the two languages.

Keywords: discourse analysis, email, metadiscourse, writing instruction

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Authors: Phillipa Denise Peart

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Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) people are more at risk of developing mental health disorders because they are more exposed to unfavorable social, economic, and environmental circumstances. These include housing, education, employment, community development, stigma, and discrimination. However, the majority of BAME mental health intervention studies focus on treatment with therapeutically effective drugs and use basic economic methods to evaluate their effectiveness; as a result, little is invested in the economic assessment of psychosocial interventions in BAME mental health. The UK government’s austerity programme and reduced funds for mental health services, has increased the need for the evaluation and assessment of initiatives to focus on value for money. The No Health without Mental Health policy (2011) provides practice guidance to practitioners, but there is little or no mention of the need to provide mental health initiatives targeted at BAME communities that are effective in terms of their impact and the cost-effectiveness. This, therefore, appears to contradict with and is at odds with the wider political discourse, which suggests there should be an increasing focus on health economic evaluation. As a consequence, it could be argued that whilst such policies provide direction to organisations to provide mental health services to the BAME community, by not requesting effective governance, assurance, and evaluation processes, they are merely paying lip service to address these problems and not helping advance knowledge and practice through evidence-based approaches. As a result, BAME communities suffer due to lack of efficient resources that can aid in the recovery process. This research study explores the mental health initiatives targeted at BAME communities, and analyses the techniques used when examining the cost effectiveness of mental health initiatives for BAME mental health communities. Using critical discourse analysis as an approach and method, mental health services will be selected as case studies, and their evaluations will be examined, alongside the political drivers that frame, shape, and direct their work. In doing so, it will analyse what the mental health policies initiatives are, how the initiatives are directed and demonstrate how economic models of evaluation are used in mental health programmes and how the value for money impacts and outcomes are articulated by mental health programme staff. It is anticipated that this study will further our understanding in order to provide adequate mental health resources and will deliver creative, supportive research to ensure evaluation is effective for the government to provide and maintain high quality and efficient mental health initiatives targeted at BAME communities.

Keywords: black, Asian and ethnic minority, economic models, mental health, health policy

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Authors: Peaceman Sopazi, Mabila Mathebula, John Smallwood

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Recent health and safety (H&S) concerns and their resultant impact on railway operations, namely, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or collectively known as SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) pandemic and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which have dominated public discourse, brought into question as to whether, or not, some aspects of how we have so far managed safety oversight as railway regulatory bodies and operators will remain relevant in a changing railway environment. Railway practitioners have generally found themselves between a proverbial rock and a hard place by being confronted by emerging challenges which have brought along great opportunities for sustainability. As witnesses and participants to the progressively introduced railway safety management, and transformation regimes, this paper attempts to share gathered field experience on adaptable regulatory oversight and safety awareness. The discourse is approached from a South African context but also with an informed perspective of what seems to work and what usually does not. The authors share their own multi and transdisciplinary experience coupled with insights they have gained as researchers of global trends in general safety management and specific aspects of railway safety management, for sustainability. In addition to sharing a largely experience-based methodology for survival, suggestions are offered for consideration as a way of keeping the railway safety management discourse alive as practitioners navigate a new path which is shrouded in a cloud of untold uncertainty. The authors further believe that the right timing for the implementation of the proposed suggestions in this paper will produce beneficial outcomes. Finally, the paper will identify areas that are still open for further investigation for and by researchers and practitioners alike.

Keywords: health & safety management, safety awareness, railway safety management, railway systems sustainability

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Authors: Weixiao Wei, Chris Shei

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This paper describes Mandate of Heaven as a source of justification for the ruling regime from ancient China approximately three thousand years ago. Initially, the kings of Shang dynasty simply nominated themselves as the sons of Heaven sent to Earth to rule the common people. As the last generation of the kings became corrupted and ruled withbrutal force and crueltywhich directly caused their destruction, the successive kings of Zhou dynasty realised the importance of virtue and the provision of goods to the people. Legitimacy of the ruling regimes became rested not entirely on random allocation of the throne by an unknown supernatural force but on a foundation comprising morality and the ability to provide goods. The latter composite was picked up by the current ruling regime, the Chinese Communist Party, and became the cornerstone of its political legitimacy, also known as ‘performance legitimacy’ where economic development accounts for the satisfaction of the people in place of election and other democratic means of providing legal-rational legitimacy. Under this circumstance, it becomes important as well for the ruling party to use political rhetoric to convince people of the good performance of the government in the economy, morality, and foreign policy. Thus, we see a lot of propaganda materials in both government policy statements and international press conference announcements. The former consists mainly of important speeches made by prominent figures in Party conferences which are not only made publicly available on the government websites but also become obligatory reading materials for university entrance examinations. The later consists of announcements about foreign policies and strategies and actions taken by the government regarding foreign affairsmade in international conferences and offered in Chinese-English bilingual versions on official websites. This documentation strategy creates an impressive image of the Chinese Communist Party that is domestically competent and international strong, taking care of the people it governs in terms of economic needs and defending the country against any foreign interference and global adversities. This political discourse system comprising reading materials fully extractable from government websites also becomes excellent repertoire for teaching and researching in contemporary Chinese language, discourse and rhetoric, Chinese culture and tradition, Chinese political ideology, and Chinese-English translation. This paper aims to provide a detailed and comprehensive description of the current Chinese political discourse system, arguing about its lineage from the rhetorical convention of Mandate of Heaven in ancient China and its current concentration on serving the people in place of election, human rights, and freedom of speech. The paper will also provide guidelines as to how this discourse system and the manifestation of official documents created under this system can become excellent research and teaching materials in applied linguistics.

Keywords: mandate of heaven, Chinese communist party, performance legitimacy, serving the people, political discourse

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Authors: Mehdi Heydari Sanglaji

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The dramatic events of the 11 September, and their tragic repercussions, catapulted issues of the political violence in and from the ‘Muslim world’ onto the political discourse, be it in patriotic speeches of campaigning politicians or the TV and news punditry. Depending on what end of the political spectrum the politician/pundit pledges fealty to, the overall analyses of political violence in the West Asia and North Africa (WANA) tends towards two overarching categories: on the Right, the diagnosis has unanimously been, ‘they must hate our freedom.’ On the Left, however, there is the contention that the West has to be counted as the primary cause of such rage, for the years of plundering of lives and resources, through colonialism, the Cold War, coups, etc. All these analyses are premised on at least two presuppositions: the violence in and from the WANA region a) is always reactionary, in the sense that it happens only in response to something the West is or does; and b) must always already be condemned, as it is essentially immoral and wrong. It is the aim of this paper to challenge such viewpoints. Through a rigorous study of the historical discourses on political violence in the Leftist organizations active in Algeria and Lebanon, we claim there is a myriad of diverse reasons and justifications presented for advocating political violence in these countries that defy facile categorization. Inspecting such rhetoric for inciting political violence in Leftist discourses, and how some of these reasonings have percolated into other movements in the region (e.g., Islamist ones), will reveal a wealth of indigenous discourses on the subject that has been largely neglected by the Western Media punditry and even by the academia. The indigenous discourses on political violence, much of which overlaps with emancipatory projects in the region, partly follow grammar and logic, which may be different from those developed in the West, even by its more critical theories. Understanding so different epistemology of violence, and the diverse contexts in which political violence might be justifiable in the mind of ‘the other,’ necessitates a historical, materialist, and genealogical study of the discourse already in practice in the WANA region. In that regard, both critical terrorism studies and critical discourse analysis provide exemplary tools of analysis. Capitalizing on such tools, this project will focus on unearthing a history of thought that renders moot the reduction of all instances of violence in the region to an Islamic culture or imperialism/colonialism. The main argument in our research is that by studying the indigenous discourses on political violence, we will be far more equipped in understanding the reasons and the possible solutions for acts of terrorism in and from the region.

Keywords: political violence, terrorism, leftist organizations, West Asia/North Africa

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Authors: J. A. Ageeva, Z. S. Zavyalova

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The article considers social media as a tool for business promotion. We analyze and compare the SMM experience in the western countries and Russia. A short review of Russian social networks are given including their peculiar features, and the main problems and perspectives of Russian SMM are described.

Keywords: social media, social networks, marketing, SMM

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Authors: Ming Qian, Davis Qian

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This study compares the different organization structures of Chinese and English writing discourses in the engineering and scientific fields, and recommends approaches for translators to convert the organization structures properly. Based on existing intercultural communication literature, English authors tend to deductively give their main points at the beginning, following with detailed explanations or arguments afterwards while the Chinese authors tend to place their main points inductively towards the end. In this study, this hypothesis has been verified by the authors’ Chinese-to-English translation experiences in the fields of science and engineering (e.g. journal papers, conference papers and monographs). The basic methodology used is the comparison of writings by Chinese authors with writings of the same or similar topic written by English authors in terms of organization structures. Translators should be aware of this nuance, so that instead of limiting themselves to translating the contents of an article in its original structure, they can convert the structures to fill the cross-culture gap. This approach can be controversial because if a translator changes the structure organization of a paragraph (e.g. from a 'because-therefore' inductive structure by a Chinese author to a deductive structure in English), this change of sentence order could be questioned by the original authors. For this reason, translators need to properly inform the original authors on the intercultural differences of English and Chinese writing (e.g. inductive structure versus deductive structure), and work with the original authors to maintain accuracy while converting from one structure used in a source language to another structure in the target language. The authors have incorporated these methodologies into their translation practices and work closely with the authors on the inter-cultural organization structure mapping. Translating discourse organization structure should become a standard practice in the translation process.

Keywords: discourse structure, information structure, intercultural communication, translation practice

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Authors: Priya Sepaha

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Social media has loomed as the most effective tool in recent times to flag the causes, contents, opinions and direction of any social movement and has demonstrated that it will have a far-reaching effect on government as well. This study focuses on India which has emerged as the fastest growing community on social media. Social movement activists, in particular, have extensively utilized the power of digital social media to streamline the effectiveness of social protest on a particular issue through extensive successful mass mobilizations. This research analyses the role and impact of social media as a power to catalyze the social movements in India and further seeks to describe how certain social movements are resisted, subverted, co-opted and/or deployed by social media. The impact assessment study has been made with the help of cases, policies and some social movement which India has witnessed the assertion of numerous social issues perturbing the public which eventually paved the way for remarkable judicial decisions. The paper concludes with the observations that despite its pros and cons, the impacts of social media on the functioning of the Indian Government have demonstrated that it has already become an indispensable tool in the hands of social media-suave Indians who are committed to bring about a desired change.

Keywords: social media, social movements, impact, law, government

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Authors: Vojtěch Svěrák

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Climate change ethics have recently shifted away from individualistic paradigms towards concepts of shared or collective responsibility. Despite this evolving trend, a noticeable gap remains: a lack of research exclusively addressing the moral responsibility of specific unorganized social groups. The primary objective of the article is to fill this gap. The article employs the structuralist methodological approach proposed by some feminist philosophers, utilizing structural analysis to explain the existence of social groups. The argument is made for the integration of this framework with the so-called forward-looking Social Connection Model (SCM) of responsibility, which ascribes responsibilities to individuals based on their participation in social structures. The article offers an extension of this model to justify the responsibility of unorganized social groups. The major finding of the study is that although members of unorganized groups are loosely connected, collectively they instantiate specific external social structures, share social positioning, and the notion of responsibility could be based on that. Specifically, if the structure produces harm or perpetuates injustices, and the group both benefits from and possesses the capacity to significantly influence the structure, a greater degree of responsibility should be attributed to the group as a whole. This thesis is applied and justified within the context of climate change, based on the asymmetrical positioning of different social groups. Climate change creates a triple inequality: in contribution, vulnerability, and mitigation. The study posits that different degrees of group responsibility could be drawn from these inequalities. Two social groups serve as a case study for the article: first, the Pakistan lower class, consisting of people living below the national poverty line, with a low greenhouse gas emissions rate, severe climate change-related vulnerability due to the lack of adaptation measures, and with very limited options to participate in the mitigation of climate change. Second, the so-called polluter elite, defined by members' investments in polluting companies and high-carbon lifestyles, thus with an interest in the continuation of structures leading to climate change. The first identified group cannot be held responsible for climate change, but their group interest lies in structural change and should be collectively maintained. On the other hand, the responsibility of the second identified group is significant and can be fulfilled by a justified demand for some political changes. The proposed approach of group responsibility is suggested to help navigate climate justice discourse and environmental policies, thus helping with the sustainability transition.

Keywords: collective responsibility, climate justice, climate change ethics, group responsibility, social ontology, structural analysis

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Authors: Prapin Nuchpiam

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The importance of social innovation has become increasingly significant as the process of developing effective solutions to social problems and being a force of change for people’s better quality of life. In order to promote social innovation, active collaboration between government, business organizations, and the civil society sector is needed. A proper legal framework also plays an important role in building the social innovation ecosystem. Currently, there is no specific law designed for social innovation or a so-called “social innovation law”. One of the legal frameworks for social innovation is the development of hybrid legal forms for social enterprises such as the UK’s Community Interest Company (CIC), the US’s Low-Profit Limited Liability Company (L3C) and the US’s Benefit Corporation (B-Corp), among others. This is because social enterprise is recognized as an organizational form of social innovation with its aim for social benefit goals and the achievement of financial sustainability. Nonetheless, there has been a debate over the differences and similarities between social innovation and social enterprise. Thus, social enterprise law might not fit well with social innovation, resulting in a search for a legal framework specially designed for social innovation. This paper aims to study the interrelationship between social innovation, social enterprise, and the role of law to see whether we need a specific law for social innovation. If so, what should such a legal framework look like? The paper will provide a critical analysis of innovative legal forms for social enterprise as a type of social innovation law. A proper legal framework for social innovation could help promote the sector, which could result in finding new solutions to social problems. It will also bring about a greater common understanding of the exciting development of legal scholarship in this way, which will, in turn, serve as a productive basis or direction for further research on this increasingly important topic.

Keywords: social innovation, social enterprise, legal framework, regulation

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Authors: Mohammed Hussein Ahmed, Bahar Mohammed Kareem

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This study is concerned with the pragmatic discoursal study of hedging constructions in English language. Hedging is a mitigated word used to lessen the impact of the utterance uttered by the speakers. Hedging could be either adverbs, adjectives, verbs and sometimes it may consist of clauses. It aims at finding out the extent to which speakers and participants of the discourse use hedging constructions during their conversations. The study also aims at finding out whether or not there are any significant differences in the types and functions of the frequency of hedging constructions employed by male and female. It is hypothesized that hedging constructions are frequent in English discourse more than any other languages due to its formality and that the frequency of the types and functions are influenced by the gender of the participants. To achieve the aims of the study, two types of procedures have been followed: theoretical and practical. The theoretical procedure consists of presenting a theoretical background of hedging topic which includes its definitions, etymology and theories. The practical procedure consists of selecting a sample of texts and analyzing them according to an adopted model. A number of conclusions will be drawn based on the findings of the study.

Keywords: hedging, pragmatics, politeness, theoretical

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Authors: Sofia Sutera

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Despite the introduction of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Agenda in 2000, thanks to the UNSCR 1325 and subsequent resolutions, and the clear stance of the UN towards the support of increased participation of women in peace and security processes, women’s leadership in this context remains very low. Considering specifically the framework of peacekeeping operations, the aim of this paper is to analyze the way women’s leadership is constructed in the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). In the context of the WPS Agenda, Sweden has been chosen as a case study because of the relevance of its singular feminist policies (the statement in 2014 from Wallström, previous and current Minister for Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister, that Sweden is pursuing a feminist foreign policy is a clear example). Moreover, the SAF adopted in 2016 the Handbok Gender. This policy addresses explicitly the gender perspective embraced by the Swedish military institution, a sui-generis organization even in the Scandinavian reality. Indeed, the SAF has assumed a clear commitment to represent its institution as gender aware and gender equal. The theoretical perspective utilized in this research, which focuses specifically on women, is feminism and particularly a feminist constructivist approach, with an institutional focus on the military institution, has been chosen. Taking into account the specificity of the feminist research, the above-mentioned gender policy has been examined by means of a critical discourse analysis (CDA) whose main aim is to investigate the social structures of discourse and the power relationships inherent to it. Thus, CDA appears to be quite relevant in order to understand the construction of women’s leadership in the Handbok Gender. Nevertheless, even in a country which officially identifies as feminist and which is characterized by a peculiar military institution, the conclusions of this analysis revealed that women’s leadership in peacekeeping operations remains very low.

Keywords: feminism, peacekeeping operations, swedish armed forces, UNSCR 1325, women's leadership, WPS agenda

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Authors: Virginia Chika Okafor

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The pastoral letter, an open letter addressed by a bishop to members of his diocese for the purpose of promoting faith and good Christian living, constitutes a persuasive religious discourse characterized by numerous rhetorical devices. Previous studies on Christian religious language have concentrated mainly on sermons, liturgy, prayers, theology, scriptures, hymns, and songs to the exclusion of the persuasive power of pastoral letters. This study, therefore, examined major rhetorical devices in selected Roman Catholic bishops’ Lenten pastoral letters in the Ecclesiastical Province of Onitsha, with a view to determining their persuasive discourse functions. Aristotelian Rhetoric was adopted as the framework because of its emphasis on persuasion through three main rhetorical appeals: logos, pathos, and ethos. Data were drawn from 10 pastoral letters of five Roman Catholic bishops in five dioceses (two letters from each) out of the seven in the Ecclesiastical of Onitsha. The five dioceses (Onitsha arch-diocese, Nnewi, Awka, Enugu, and Awgu dioceses) were chosen because pastoral letters are regularly published there. The 10 pastoral letters were published between 2000 and 2010 and range between 20 and 104 pages. They were selected, through purposive sampling, based on consistency in the publication and rhetorical content. Data were subjected to discourse analysis. Three categories of rhetorical devices were identified: those relating to logos (logical devices), those relating to pathos (pathetical devices), and those relating to ethos (ethical devices). Major logical devices deployed were: testimonial reference functioning as authority to validate messages; logical arguments appealing to the rationality of the audience; nominalization and passivation objectifying the validity of ideas; and modals of obligation/necessity appealing to the audience’s sense of responsibility and moral duty. Prominent among the pathetical devices deployed were: use of Igbo language to express solidarity with the audience; inclusive pronoun (we) to create a feeling of belonging, collectivism and oneness with them; prayers to inspire them; and positive emotion-laden words to refer to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) to keep the audience emotionally attached to it. Finally, major ethical devices deployed were: use of first-person singular pronoun (I) and imperatives to invoke the authority of the bishops’ office; Latinisms to show learnedness; greetings and appreciation to express goodwill; and exemplary Biblical characters as models of faith, repentance, and love. The rhetorical devices were used in relation to the bishops’ messages of faith, repentance, love and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. Roman Catholic bishops’ pastoral letters in the Ecclesiastical Province of Onitsha are thus characterized by logos-, pathos-, and ethos-related rhetorical devices designed to persuade the audience to live according to the bishops’ messages of faith, love, repentance, and loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. The rhetorical devices, therefore, establish the pastoral letters as a significant form of persuasive religious discourse.

Keywords: ecclesiastical province of Onitsha, pastoral letters, persuasive discourse functions, rhetorical devices, Roman Catholic bishops

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Authors: Emad A. S. Abu-Ayyash

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Cohesive devices, the linguistic tools that are usually employed to hold the different parts of the text together, have been the focus of a significant number of discourse analysis studies. These linguistic tools have grabbed the attention of researchers since the inception of the first and most comprehensive model of cohesion in 1976. However, it was noticed that some cohesive devices (e.g., endophoric reference, conjunctions, ellipsis, substitution, and lexical ties) – being thought of as more popular than others (e.g., exophoric reference) – were over-researched. The present paper explores the usage of two cohesive devices that have been evidently almost absent from discourse analysis studies. These cohesive devices are exophoric and homophoric references, the linguistic items that can be interpreted in terms of the physical and cultural contexts of discourse. The significance of the current paper, therefore, stems from the fact that it attempts to fill a gap in the research conducted so far on cohesive devices. This study provides an explanation of the concepts of the cohesive devices that have been employed in a plethora of research on cohesion and elucidates the relevant context-related concepts. The paper also identifies the gap in cohesive devices research. Exophora and homophora, the least visited cohesive devices in previous studies, were qualitatively and quantitatively explored in six opinion articles, four produced by eight postgraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in a university in the United Arab Emirates and two by professional NS writers in the Independent and the Guardian. The six pieces were about the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) leader’s call to ban the burqa in the UK and were analysed vis-a-vis the employment and function of homophora and exophora. The study found that both EFL students and native speakers employed exophora and homophora considerably in their writing to serve a variety of functions, including building assumptions, supporting main ideas, and involving the readers among others.

Keywords: cohesive devices, context, culture, exophoric reference, homophoric reference

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Authors: Syafinatul Fitri

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Cakrawala Baca is one of social organization in Indonesia that realize to transform its organization into social enterprise to create more sustainable organization that result more sustainable social impact. Cakrawala Baca implements voluntary system for its organization and it has passive social target. It funds its program by several fund rising activities that depend on donors or sponsor. Therefore social activity that held does not create sustainable social impact. It is different with social enterprise that usually more independent in funding its activity through social business and implement active social target and professional work for organization member. Therefore social enterprise can sustain its organization and then able to create sustainable social impact. Developing transformation model from social movement into social enterprise is the focus of this study. To achieve the aim of study, benchmark approach from successful social enterprise in Indonesia that has previously formed as social movement is employed. The benchmark is conducted through internal and external scanning that result the understanding of how they transformed into social enterprise. After understanding SAM and Agritektur transformation, transformation pattern is formulated based on their transformation similarities. This transformation pattern will be implemented to formulate the transformation plan for Cakrawala Baca to be a social enterprise.

Keywords: social movement/social organization, non-profit organization (NPO), social enterprise, transformation, Benchmarks approach

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Authors: Alfonso Unceta, Javier Castro-Spila

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This paper offers a conceptual and empirical exploration between the organizational performance and the impact of social innovation. The paper contributes on the social innovation field in three domains: a) It provides analytical and empirical evidence linking organizational performance to the impact of social innovation; b) it provides a first outline of impact assessment of social innovation when it is developed by a diversity of heterogeneous actors (systemic social innovation); c) it provides a first outline for the development of innovation policies to support social innovations according to a typology of organizations and a typology of impact.

Keywords: absorptive capacity, social innovation impact, organizational performance, RESINDEX, Basque Country

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Authors: Prescott C. Ensign

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Social enterprises play a vital role in Canada’s rural and northern communities. Most operate as non-profit organizations, use market approaches, and generate revenue from services or goods to support goals that address social, cultural, and environmental issues. As provincial and federal governments make reductions to programs providing social services to local communities, rural and northern residents who already have fewer resources from which to draw will be especially affected. Social enterprises will be called on to take up the slack. The aim of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive picture of the social enterprise as an organization and to understand the impact that context/ecosystem has on a social enterprise as it develops.

Keywords: social enterprises, structuration, embeddedness, ecosystem

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Authors: Kateryna Pilyarchuk

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A dress has, since times immemorial, been used to communicate the wearer’s identity. When a new trend is born, fashionistas buy it not only with the purpose to beautify themselves, but also to acquire the collective identity. Fashion has become a means of narrating one’s stance and status. Thus, when one spends money on a brand, one pays for some unmaterial components associated with it. This paper will present some ways in which fashion magazines promote consumerism by drawing on women’s craving for collective identity and need to fill in their identity gap by means of a purchase. By applying the method of critical discursive psychology, it will present layers of ideology and positions that become visible in framing of the message in U.S. Harper’s Bazaar. In this context, fashion decisions that are presented to its readers will be critically evaluated from the gender perspective. It will be demonstrated that what is presented as a postfeminist choice in the neoliberal society is still, to a considerable extent, oppressive and driven by the male gaze. As the findings show, the contemporary female identities in fashion are still built on the principles of traditional femininity. Magazines and fashion discourse train women that they should fear being left out of fashion and, by extension, out of the category of the sexually appealing (from the male perspective).

Keywords: collective identity, critical discursive psychology, fashion discourse, identity gap

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Authors: Abdulmalik Adamu

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This study is premised on the assumption that language, particularly, English plays a significant role in the acquisition of power in Nigeria. This is against the backdrop of the fact that for the first time in the political history of Nigeria, an opposition party succeeded in dethroning an incumbent President and ruling political party in an election. Therefore the main objective was to investigate the role of language, particularly English in the acquisition of political power in Nigeria. The corpus generated for this study consisted of excerpts from the media exchange between the spokespersons of the two dominant political parties at the time of the elections in 2015; Olisa Metuh of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Lai Mohammed of the All Progressive Party (APC). The excerpts were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a research tool. The findings revealed the acceptance of the first proposition that English facilitates the acquisition of political power in Nigeria and the rejection of the second proposition that English is an instrument for the exclusion of the populist from political events in Nigeria. The study, therefore, concluded that language, particularly English played a significant role in the acquisition of political power in Nigeria.

Keywords: language, power, politics, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

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Authors: Dimitrios Akrivos, Alexandros K. Antoniou

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This paper looks at the crucial role of the British news media in the construction of extreme pornography as a social problem, suggesting that this paved the way for the subsequent criminalization of such material through the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. Focusing on the high-profile case of Graham Coutts, it examines the British national press’ reaction to Jane Longhurst’s murder through a qualitative content analysis of 251 relevant news articles. Specifically, the paper documents the key arguments expressed in the corresponding claims-making process. It considers the different ways in which the consequent ‘trial by media’ presented this exceptional case as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and eventually translated into policy. The analysis sheds light on the attempts to ‘piggyback’ the issue of extreme pornography on child sexual abuse images as well as the textual and visual mechanisms used to establish an ‘us versus them’ dichotomy in the pertinent media discourse. Finally, the paper assesses the severity of the actual risk posed by extreme pornography, concluding that its criminalization should not merely be dismissed as the outcome of an institutionalized media panic.

Keywords: criminalization, extreme pornography, social problem, trial by media

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Authors: Constantius Tri Handoko

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Tattoos on the body of Christian youths seemed interesting as the majority of Christian look at tattoo and tattooing activity are prohibited. This research besides to understand the motivation behind why Christian youth in Surabaya and Sidoarjo, Indonesia being tattooed also focus on the regard to what functions and meanings of the tattoos are. By using visual discourse analysis, the tattoos had relation to the informants’ social lives dimension, such as the Christian symbol tattoos expressed their spiritual life journey, a faith symbol to God, as personal symbols (identity), art expression, as well as fashion. On the other hands, tattoos also became a hatred symbol to Jesus and the Christian faith, since the tattoo wearers who were a former Christians felt disappointed to God as they thought God never help them to survive in their lives.

Keywords: tattoo, representation, identity, belief, Christian

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Authors: Faihan Alotaibi

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This study explores Saudi teachers’ perceptions of the efficacy of social stories in the development of social skills in students with autism in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in two phases. Data were collected in sequential quantitative and qualitative phases. Participants in this study were 100 teachers in the quantitative phase and 15 teachers were interviewed. In this poster, the researcher will present the data result in the qualitative second phase in which an understanding of teachers’ experiences was deepened by conducting semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of fifteen teachers of diverse experience, covering six initial themes: the social story concept, sources of social stories, the effectiveness of social stories in improving social skills in students with autism, barriers to using social stories for students with autism, cultural consideration and context of social stories, and factors which contribute to the best use of social stories to developing of social skills for students with autism.

Keywords: autism, social storyteachers’ perceptions, intervention, social skills

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Authors: Michael Vallely

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This paper uses data from waves 1 to 10 (2009-2019) of the UK Household Longitudinal Study to examine the social origin pay gap in the UK labour market. We find that regardless of how we proxy social origin, whether it be using the dominance approach, total parental occupation, parental education, total parental education, or the higher parental occupation and higher parental education, the results have one thing in common; in all cases, we observe a significant social origin pay gap for those from the lower social origins with the largest pay gap observed for those from the ‘lowest’ social origin. The results may indicate that when we consider the occupational status and education of both parents, previous estimates of social origin pay gaps and the number of individuals affected may have been underestimated. We also observe social origin pay gaps within educational attainment groups, such as degree holders, and within professional and managerial occupations. Therefore, this paper makes a valuable contribution to the social origin pay gap literature as it provides empirical evidence of a social origin pay gap using a large-scale UK dataset and challenges the argument that education is the great ‘social leveller’.

Keywords: social class, social origin, pay gaps, wage inequality

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Authors: Mohd Adib Abd Muin

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Social entrepreneurship has become a new phenomenon in a country in order to reduce social problems and eradicate poverty communities. However, the study based on Islamic social entrepreneurship from the social entrepreneurial activity is still new especially in the Islamic perspective. In addition, this research found that is lacking of model on social entrepreneurship that focus on Islamic perspective. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to identify the issues and research gap based on Islamic perspective from existing models and to develop a concept of Islamic social entrepreneurship according to Islamic perspective and Maqasid Shari’ah. The research method used in this study is literature review and comparative analysis from 11 existing models of social entrepreneurship. The research finding shows that 11 existing models on social entrepreneurship has been analyzed and it shows that the existing models on social entrepreneurship do not emphasize on Islamic perspective.

Keywords: component, social entrepreneurship, Islamic perspective, research gap

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Authors: Alicia Ettlin

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Amid the rise of neoliberalism to the leading economic policy model in Western societies in the 1980s, people have started to internalise a neoliberal way of thinking, whereby the human body has become an entity that can and needs to be precisely managed through free yet rational decision-making processes. The neoliberal citizen has consequently become an entrepreneur of the self who is free, independent, rational, productive and responsible for themselves, their health and wellbeing as well as their appearance. The focus on individuals as entrepreneurs who manage their bodies through the rationally thinking mind has, however, become increasingly criticised for viewing the social actor as ‘disembodied’, as a detached, social actor whose powerful mind governs over the passive body. On the other hand, the discourse around embodiment seeks to connect rational decision-making processes to the dominant neoliberal discourse which creates an embodied understanding that the body, just as other areas of people’s lives, can and should be shaped, monitored and managed through cognitive and rational thinking. This perspective offers an understanding of the body regarding its connections with the social environment that reaches beyond the debates around mind-body binary thinking. Hence, following this argument, body management should not be thought of as either solely guided by embodied discourses nor as merely falling into a mind-body dualism, but rather, simultaneously and inseparably as both at once. The descriptive, qualitative analysis of semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with young Australian amateur athletes between the age of 18 and 24 has shown that most participants are interested in measuring and managing their body to create self-knowledge and self-improvement. The participants thereby connected self-improvement to weight loss, muscle gain or simply staying fit and healthy. Self-knowledge refers to body measurements including weight, BMI or body fat percentage. Self-management and self-knowledge that are reliant on one another to take rational and well-thought-out decisions, are both characteristic values of the neoliberal doctrine. A neoliberal way of thinking and looking after the body has also by many been connected to rewarding themselves for their discipline, hard work or achievement of specific body management goals (e.g. eating chocolate for reaching the daily step count goal). A few participants, however, have shown resistance against these neoliberal values, and in particular, against the precise monitoring and management of the body with the help of self-tracking devices. Ultimately, however, it seems that most participants have internalised the dominant discourses around self-responsibility, and by association, a sense of duty to discipline their body in normative ways. Even those who have indicated their resistance against body work and body management practices that follow neoliberal thinking and measurement systems, are aware and have internalised the concept of the rational operating mind that needs or should decide how to look after the body in terms of health but also appearance ideals. The discussion around the collected data thereby shows that embodiment and the mind/body dualism constitute two connected, rather than two separate or opposing concepts.

Keywords: dualism, embodiment, mind, neoliberalism

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Authors: Fotios Spyropoulos, Evangelia Androulaki, Vasileios Karagiannopoulos, Aristotelis Kompothrekas, Nikolaos Karagiannis

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The problem of 'fake news' and 'hoaxes' has dominated in recent years the field of news, politics, economy, safety, and security as dissemination of false information can intensively affect and mislead public discourse and public opinion. The widespread use of internet and social media platforms can substantially intensify these effects, which often include public fear and insecurity. Misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation have also been blamed for affecting election results in multiple countries, and since then, there have been efforts to tackle the phenomenon both on national and international level. The presentation will focus on methods of prevention of disseminating false information on social media and on the internet and will discuss relevant criminological views. The challenges that have arisen for criminal law will be covered, taking into account the potential need for a multi-national approach required in order to mitigate the extent and negative impact of the fake news phenomenon. Finally, the analysis will include a discussion on the potential usefulness of non-legal modalities of regulation and crime prevention, especially situational and social measures of prevention and the possibility of combining an array of methods to achieve better results on national and international level. This project has received funding from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), under grant agreement No 80529.

Keywords: cybercrime, disinformation, fake news, prevention

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Authors: Puthsodary Tat

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Democracy has been categorially accepted and used as foreign and domestic policy agendas for the hope of peace, economic growth and prosperity for more than 25 years in Cambodia. However, the country is now in the grip of dictatorship, human rights violations, and prospective economic sanctions. This paper examines different perceptions and experiences of democratic assistance. In this study, the author employs discourse theory, idealism and realism as a theory-based methodology for debating and assessing the implications of democratization. Discourse theory is used to establish a platform for understanding discursive formations, body of knowledge and the games of truth of democracy. Idealist approaches give rational arguments for adopting key tenets that work well on the ground. In contrast, realism allows for some sweeping critiques of utopian ideal and offers particular views on why Western hegemonic missions do not work well. From idealist views, the research finds that Cambodian people still believe that democracy is a prima facie universality for peace, growth and prosperity. From realism, democratization is on the brink of death in three reasons. Firstly, there are tensions between Western and local discourses about democratic values and norms. Secondly, democratic tenets have been undermined by the ruling party-controlled courts, corruption, structural oppression and political patronage-based institutions. The third pitfall is partly associated with foreign aid dependency and geopolitical power struggles in the region. Finally, the study offers a precise mosaic of democratic principles that may be used to avoid a future geopolitical and economic crisis.

Keywords: corruption, democracy, democratic principles, discourse theory, discursive formations, foreign aid dependency, games of truth, geopolitical and economic crisis, geopolitical power struggle, hegemonic mission, idealism, realism, utopian ideal

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Authors: Anna Dabrowska

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Taking Daniel Goleman’s (1994) belief that success in life depends on IQ in 20% and in 80% on emotional intelligence, and that it is worth considering emotional intelligence as an important factor in human performance and development potential, the aim of the paper is to explore the range of emotions experienced by university students who represent Society 5.0. This quantitative and qualitative study is meant to explore not only the list of the most and least experienced emotions by the students, but also the main reasons behind these feelings. The database of the study consists of 115 respondents out of 129 students of the 1st and 5th year of Applied Linguistics at Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, which constitutes 89% of those being surveyed. The data is extracted from the anonymous questionnaire, which comprises young people’s answers and discourse concerning the causes of their most experienced emotions. Following Robert Plutchik’s theory of eight primary emotions, i.e. anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy, we adopt his argument for the primacy of these emotions by showing each to be the trigger of behaviour with high survival value. In fact, all other emotions are mixed or derivative states; that is, they occur as combinations, mixtures, or compounds of the primary emotions. Accordingly, the eight primary emotions, and their mixed states, are checked in the study on the students.

Keywords: emotions, intelligence, students, discourse study, emotional intelligence

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