“We” in the EU: (De) legitimizing power relations and status
The case of the 2019 European elections in Romania
The article analyzes how the leaders and the candidates of the main parties in Romania built a European field of
power and subject positions in the context of the 2019 European elections. We adopt the premise that the (re) positioning of these
politicians towards the EU is part of their ongoing strategies of (de) legitimization. In this respect, the study focuses on how
they assign themselves a “European authority” in relation to audiences through their positioning as actors in the field. On the
basis of a mainly critically discursive methodological framework, we analyze a corpus consisting of electoral messages on
Facebook. The research reveals the ways in which the political actors build claims, representations and positionings about the EU
through naturalizing (a) symmetric relations, statuses, and symbolic power hierarchies.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Discourse on Europe. Contexts of research
- 3.Methodological design
- 4.Findings
- 5.Conclusions
-
References
References (51)
Aalberg, Toril, Frank Esser, Carsten Reinemann, Jesper Stromback, and Claes De Vreese
(eds) 2016 Populist
Political Communication in Europe. New York: Routledge.
Angermuller, Johannes
2014 Poststructuralist
Discourse Analysis: Subjectivity in Enunciative
Pragmatics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Beciu, Camelia, and Mirela Lazăr
2018 “
Migration
and Country Status: The Rearticulation of Identities through Media
Counter-Discourses.” In
Debating Migration as a Public Problem.
National Publics and Transnational Fields, ed. by
Camelia Beciu,
Mălina Ciocea,
Irina Diana Mădroane, and
Alexandru I. Cârlan, 41–63. Peter Lang.
Beciu, Camelia, and Mirela Lazăr
2020 “
Entre
Facebook et Parole Télévisuelle, Quels Recadrages des Enjeux Nationaux et Européens dans l’Espace Politique
Roumain ?” In
L’Europe au Défi des Populismes Nationaux: La
Communication Politique Centrifuge des Elections de 2019, ed. by
Philippe Maarek, and
Nicolas Pélissier, 117–143. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Beciu, Camelia, Irina Diana Mădroane, Alexandru I. Cârlan, and Mălina Ciocea
2017 “
Power
Relations, Agency and Discourse in Transnational Social Fields.”
Critical Discourse
Studies 14 (3): 227–235.
Bennett, Samuel
2019a “
Values
as Tools of Legitimation in EU and UK Brexit
Discourses.” In
Discourses of Brexit, ed.
by
Veronika Koller,
Susanne Kopf, and
Marlene Miglbauer, 17–32. London: Routledge.
Bennett, Samuel
2019b “
‘Crisis’
as a Discursive Strategy in Brexit Referendum Campaigns.”
Critical Discourse
Studies 16 (4): 449–464.
Bennett, Samuel, Artur Lipiński, Agnieszka Stępińska, David Abadi, Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, et al.
2020 “
Populist
Communication on Social Media.” [Research Report] Centre for Social Sciences, Centre of Excellence of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary). ffhalshs-02735283f.
Block, Elena, and Ralph Negrine
2017 “
The
Populist Communication Style: Toward a Critical Framework.”
International Journal of
Communication 111: 178–197.
Bourdieu, Pierre
2005 “
The
Political Field, the Social Science Field, and the Journalistic
Field.” In
Bourdieu and the Journalistic
Field, ed. by
Rodney Benson, and
Erik Neveu, 29–48. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bucher, Taina
2012 “
The
Friendship Assemblage: Investigating Programmed Sociality on Facebook.”
Television & New
Media 14 (6): 479–493.
Charaudeau, Patrick
2002 “
A
Communicative Conception of Discourse”.
Discourse
Studies
4
(3): 301–318.
Charaudeau, Patrick
2011 Les
Médias et l’Information: L’Impossible Transparence du Discours. 2nd
ed. Bruxelles: De Boeck-Ina.
Ciocea, Mălina, and Alexandru I. Cârlan
2012 “
Debating
Migration as a Public Problem: Diasporic Stances in Media Discourse.”
Romanian Journal of
Communication and Public
Relations 14 (4): 181–201.
Conrad, Maximilian
2014 Europeans
and the Public Sphere Communication without
Community? Stuttgart: Ibidem Verlag.
Cramer, Jennifer
2010 “
‘Do
We Really Want to Be like Them?’: Indexing Europeanness through Pronominal Use.”
Discourse
&
Society 21 (6): 619–637.
De Vreese, H. Claes, Frank Esser, Toril Aalberg, Carsten Reinemann, and James Stanyer
2018 “
Populism
as an Expression of Political Communication Content and Style: A New
Perspective.”
International Journal of
Press/Politics 23 (4): 423–438.
Diez, Thomas
2014 “
Setting
the Limits: Discourse and EU Foreign Policy.”
Cooperation and
Conflict 49 (3): 319–333.
Fairclough, Norman
1994 “
Conversationalization
of Public Discourse and the Authority of the Consumer.” In
The
Authority of the Consumer. Lancaster University Center for the Study of Cultural Values, ed.
by
Russell Keat,
Nigel Whiteley, and
Nicholas Abercrombie, 235–49. London: Routledge.
Fairclough, Norman
2003 Analysing
Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social
Research. London: Routledge.
Fairclough, Norman, and Eve Chiapello
2002 “
Understanding
the New Management Ideology: A Transdisciplinary Contribution from Critical Discourse Analysis and New Sociology of
Capitalism.”
Discourse and
Society 13 (2): 185–208.
Fairclough, Isabela, and Norman Fairclough
2012 Political
Discourse Analysis: A Method for Advanced Students. London and New York: Routledge.
Fossum, John Erik, Philip Schlesinger, and Geir Ove Kvaerk
(eds) 2007 Public
Sphere and Civil Society? Transformations of the European Union.
ARENA Report
2. Oslo: ARENA.
Hubé, Nicolas
2018 “
Communiquer
l’Europe, Légitimer l’Europe. Les Enjeux Historiques de l’Opinion Publique pour les Institutions
Européennes.” In
Annuaire Français de Relations
Internationales, vol. XIX1, 947–964. Paris: La Documentation française.
Kedves, Ana
2016 “
Discursive
Legitimation in Online Crowdfunding: A Study of Kickstarter Projects Promoting Human
Rights.”
Globe: A Journal of Language, Culture and
Communication 31: 46–63.
Koerber, Amy, and Lonie McMichael
2008 “
Qualitative
Sampling Methods: A Primer for Technical Communicators
.”
Journal of Business and
Technical
Communication
22
(4): 454–473.
Krzyżanowski, Michal
2010 The
Discursive Construction of European Identities: A Multilevel Approach to Discourse and Identity in the Transforming European
Union. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Larsen, Henrik
2014 “
Discourses
of State Identity and Post-Lisbon National Foreign Policy: The Case of Denmark.”
Cooperation
and
Conflict 49 (3): 368–385.
Lochard, Guy
(ed) 2006 Les
Débats Publics dans les Télévisions
Européennes. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Mădroane, Irina Diana
2018 “
Migrant Identities and
Practices in Media Advocacy Campaigns. The Construction of Claims and
Audiences.” In
Debating Migration as a Public Problem. National
Publics and Transnational Fields, ed. by
Camelia Beciu,
Mălina Ciocea,
Irina Diana Mădroane, and
Alexandru I. Cârlan, 175–198. Peter Lang.
Mégie, Antoine, and Frédéric Mérand
2013 “
L’Union
Européenne et le Nouvel Equilibre des Puissances.”
Politique
européenne 391: 9–21.
Moffitt, Benjamin
2016 The
Global Rise of Populism: Performance, Political Style, and Representation. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Nanz, Patrizia
2007 “
Multiple
Voices: An Interdiscursive Concept of the European Public
Sphere.” In
Public Sphere and Civil Society? Tranformations of the
European Union, ed. by
John Erik Fossum,
Philip Schlesinger, and
Geir Ove Kvaerk, 11–29.
ARENA
Report
2. Oslo: ARENA.
Nel, Noël
1990 Le
Débat Télévisé. Paris: Armand Colin.
Pandelea, Nicoleta
2020 “
Vers
un Populisme Digital? La Construction du Discours Politique dans le Contexte des Elections Européennes de
2019.” In
L’Europe au Défi des Populismes Nationaux: La Communication
Politique Centrifuge des Elections de 2019, ed. by
Philippe Maarek, and
Nicolas Pélissier. Paris: L’Harmattan.
Reyes, Antonio
2011 “
Strategies
of Legitimization in Political Discourse: From Words to
Actions
.”
Discourse &
Society 22 (6): 781–807.
Rojo Martín, Luisa, and Teun A. Van Dijk
1997 “
‘There
Was a Problem, and It Was Solved!’: Legitimating the Expulsion of ‘Illegal’ Migrants in Spanish
Parliamentary Discourse
.”
Discourse &
Society
8
(4): 523–66.
Saward, Michael
2006 „
The
Representative Claim.”
Contemporary Political
Theory 5 (3), 297–318.
Vaara, Eero
2014 “
Struggles
over Legitimacy in the Eurozone Crisis: Discursive Legitimation Strategies and Their Ideological
Underpinnings.”
Discourse &
Society 25 (4): 500–518.
Vaara, Eero, and Philippe Monin
2010 “
Recursive
Perspective on Discursive Legitimation and Organizational Action in Mergers and
Acquisitions
.”
Organization
Science 21 (1): 3–22.
Van Dijk, A. Teun
1998 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary
Approach. London: Sage.
Van Leeuwen, Theo
2008 Discourse
and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Van Leeuwen, Theo, and Ruth Wodak
1999 “
Legitimizing
Immigration – a Discourse-Historical Analysis.”
Discourse
Studies 1 (1): 83–119.
Ward, Tom
2010 “
The
European Union: A Crisis of Legitimacy?”
European
View 91:115–127.
Witschge, Tamara, C W. Anderson, David Domingo, and Albert Hermida
2018 “
Dealing
with the Mess (We Made): Unraveling Hybridity, Normativity, and Complexity in Journalism
Studies.”
Journalism 20 (5): 651–659.
Wodak, Ruth
2010 “
‘Us’
and ‘Them’: Inclusion and Exclusion – Discrimination via
Discourse.” In
Identity, Belonging and
Migration, ed. by
Gerard Delanty,
Ruth Wodak, and
Paul R. Jones, 54–77. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Wodak, Ruth
2018 “
Discourse
and European Integration”.
KFG Working Paper Series, 86, KollegForschergruppe (KFG) “The
Transformative Power of Europe“. Freie Universität Berlin.
Zappettini, Franco
2019a “
The
Official Vision for ‘Global Britain’: Brexit as Rupture and Continuity between Free Trade, Liberal Internationalism and
‘Values’.” In
Discourses of Brexit, ed.
by
Veronika Koller,
Susanne Kopf, and
Marlene Miglbauer, 140–154. London: Routledge.
Zappettini, Franco
2019b “
The
Brexit Referendum: How Trade and Immigration in the Discourses of the Official Campaigns Have Legitimised a Toxic (Inter)
National Logic.”
Critical Discourse
Studies 16 (4): 403–419.
Cited by (3)
Cited by 3 other publications
Szabó, Lilla Petronella & Gabriella Szabó
Zappettini, Franco & Samuel Bennett
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.