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Tracing Discourses and Uncovering the ‘Performativity’ of Risk: Exploring the Role of Discourse Analysis in Studies of Risk and Inequality

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Researching Risk and Uncertainty

Part of the book series: Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty ((CRSTRU))

Abstract

This chapter discusses the contribution of discourse analysis to the study of risk. Two examples will be used to discuss the role of discourse analysis for exploring how risk and inequality are mutually constituted. First, a policy programme, illuminating how ‘risk’ is used to describe and manage welfare policy of today, shifting some risks from the state to the individual, and second, a local media debate concerning a European Union (EU) migrant settlement. There are particularly three strengths of discourse analysis that will be highlighted: its capacity to reveal the role of risk in politics, its capacity to reveal the embeddedness of risk articulations in practices that produces inequalities and its capacity to answer questions about the consequences of risk discourses as well as to illuminate mechanisms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Forum for Gender Studies, Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden

    Katarina Giritli Nygren

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  1. Katarina Giritli Nygren
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Correspondence to Katarina Giritli Nygren .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Risk and Crisis Research Centre, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden

    Anna Olofsson  & Jens O. Zinn  & 

  2. School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia

    Jens O. Zinn

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Giritli Nygren, K. (2019). Tracing Discourses and Uncovering the ‘Performativity’ of Risk: Exploring the Role of Discourse Analysis in Studies of Risk and Inequality. In: Olofsson, A., Zinn, J.O. (eds) Researching Risk and Uncertainty. Critical Studies in Risk and Uncertainty. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95852-1_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95852-1_12

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95851-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95852-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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