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The ego-function of the rhetoric of protest
... Activist tactics serve both internal and external audiences and purposes (Cathcart, 1978;Chávez, 2011;Endres, 2011;Gregg, 1971;Windt, Jr., 1972). This is significant in its recognition that social movement rhetoric is not always directed at decision makers, including those convening a public hearing. ...
... Tactics of indecorum rhetorically question the very conditions of what counts as appropriate participation, call attention to how instrumental models (such as DAD) can stymie oppositional voices, and reveal the multidirectional nature of public participation processes. Indecorum creatively widens the scope of participation tactics and audiences; transgressing rules of decorum through acts of resistance can serve consummatory functions, including engendering shared identities of protest (Gregg, 1971) and being heard by multiple audiences. The Radical Potential of Public Participation Processes Rooted in Ciceronian (1961) concepts of moral goodness, decorum references a form of propriety to which rhetors are held accountable when speaking in various contexts. ...
... The "strong elements of confrontation" displayed by Love Canal residents during public participation processes "provided emotional catharsis" (Levine, 1982, p. 23) for them. As such, we submit, indecorous tactics created a shared identity of protest, or what Gregg (1971) refers to as the "ego-function" of social activism. Gibbs (2011) consistently articulates the struggle of "ordinary citizens [gaining] power" as "our community's fight" (emphasis added, p. 2). ...
... Haiman (1967), along with Scott and Smith's (1969) suggestion that the "rhetoric of the streets" through dissent was a necessary rhetorical corrective when normative modes of democratic engagement failed, was similarly helpful at the time but established a focus on embodied resistance in public places that does not engage with contemporary disability activism. However, Gregg's (1971) suggestion that social movements served an ego function, wherein protestors developed a sense of identity and comradery with others through "selfpersuasion" (p. 76) and identification of adversaries is helpful in theorizing current social movement scholarship, as it invites consideration of how online opportunities might similarly build identity as a "movement." ...
... Voter pride #CripTheVote was often used by participants to express their pride in voting in the 2016 federal elections, including photos or information about how disability implicated their vote. Such pride demonstration matches Gregg's (1971) characterization of the ego function of rhetoric of protest and demonstrates that one's ability to participate in #CripTheVote marked a powerful effort toward social change by encouraging disabled participants to feel networked and included. While the democratic act of voting may seem simplistic, its combination with users articulating disabling barriers to voting positioned voting as a powerfully radical act. ...
Contemporary social movement scholarship has increasingly concerned itself with forms of digital activism from outlets such as Twitter toward communication and social change. However, the implications of this new activism for defining “social movement,” including the term’s historical emphasis on embodiment, deserve further inquiry. In response, this article focuses on the Twitter campaign, #CripTheVote. The campaign is an exemplar of activism that expands upon what constitutes social movement to include new forms of digital expression in ways that uniquely address the concerns of disabled populations and challenge the compulsory able-bodiedness of “movement” necessitating embodiment. Major themes of accommodation information, candidate awareness, and voter pride demonstrate that members of the campaign simultaneously encourage participation in normative systems of democratic engagement (i.e., voting) along with efforts at broader ideological change (i.e., placing greater awareness on disability issues in society) within the #CripTheVote hashtag campaign, therefore constituting new forms of social movement.
... Activist tactics serve both internal and external audiences and purposes (Campbell, 1973;Cathcart, 1978;Gregg, 1971;Lake, 1983;Windt, Jr, 1972). This is significant in its recognition that social movement rhetoric is not always directed at decision makers, including those convening a public hearing. ...
... Indecorum performatively questions the very conditions of what counts as appropriate participation, calls attention to how instrumental models (such as DAD) of public participation can be used to stymie oppositional voices, and reveals that working within the system is not universally accepted by all participants in public participation processes. In this way, we hold that indecorum can creatively widen the scope of participation tactics and audience; transgressing rules of decorum through acts of resistance can serve consummatory functions including, engendering shared identities of protest (or what Gregg (1971) calls the 'ego function' of social activism), and "being heard" by multiple audiences. ...
Little scholarship in environmental communication has considered the intersections between public participation and social movement.We fill this gap by discussing how public participation process can become sites of radical politics when publics employ disruptive or improper tactics, known as indecorous voice. Indecorum can be used to sustain protest matters beyond official forums, engage multiple audiences, and forge new identities among publics. We demonstrate the utility of indecorum through two case studies: Love Canal, NY where residents combat exposure to toxic chemicals, and Salt Lake City, UT, where publics challenge industrial expansion in a fight for clean air.
... Participation in the process of change offered protesters identity. To Gregg (1971), -For many students, political protest can become the covering activity that conveys a sense of importance, power, exhilaration, and danger, all feeling related to self-affirmation and expression.‖ Seeing the news on television or hearing it on the radio had a far reaching impact. ...
... As King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Peter, Paul, and Mary sang two of Dylan's songs: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Blowin' In the Wind." 24 The lyrics of these two songs framed the fundamental issues of the civil rights movement. How many roads must a man walk down Before you call him a man How many seas must a white dove sail Before she sleeps in the sand Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly Before they're forever banned Dylan does not claim to know the future; instead, he tells his listeners: The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind; The answer is blowin' in the wind. ...
p>In 1968 social movements sparked rhetorical discourses which occurred in many nations and on hundreds of colleges and in communities across the United States. These rhetorical discourses ultimately changed the direction of human events. Sometimes these points of ideological protests shared views on specific issues, especially demonstrations against the Vietnam War, but each conflict was also its own local conflict. There is no evidence that any specific group organized the protests, or that speakers motivated demonstrations, or that the rhetoric of one protest caused other protests. Yet, the protests were not just spontaneous fires that happened to occur in the same year. So, how is it that so many protesters shared the desire for change and shared rhetoric, but each protest was sparked by local issues? Answering that question provides insight into how the rhetoric of social movements occurred in 1968.
Many scholars call for the study of the social movements of the 1960s. Jensen (1996) argues, “The events of the 1960s dramatically increased the interest in studying social movements and forced rhetorical scholars to reconsider their methods for studying public discourse” (p. 28). To Lucas (2006), “Words became weapons in the cultural conflict that divided America” (x). Schippa (2001) wrote, “Many accounts identify the 1960s as a turning point. For better or for worse, there was a confluence of changing rhetorical practices, expanding rhetorical theories, and opportunities for rhetorical criticism. The cultural clashes of the 1960s were felt perhaps most acutely on college campuses. The sufficiency of deliberative argument and public address can be said to have been called into question, whether one was an antiwar activist who hated LBJ's war in Vietnam or a pro-establishment stalwart trying to make sense of the rhetoric of protest and demonstration. Years later, scholars would characterize war itself as rhetorical. What counted as rhetorical practice was up for grabs”(p. 261).
First, this paper will frame the protest movement of 1968. Then, we will search for the common factors that shaped the protests of 1968, focusing on the role of music. This analysis will provide insight into how music became a rhetorical force in a significant social movement of the 20th Century.
... Activist tactics serve both internal and external audiences and purposes (Campbell, 1973;Cathcart, 1978;Gregg, 1971;Lake, 1983;Windt, Jr, 1972). This is significant in its recognition that social movement rhetoric is not always directed at decision makers, including those convening a public hearing. ...
... Indecorum performatively questions the very conditions of what counts as appropriate participation, calls attention to how instrumental models (such as DAD) of public participation can be used to stymie oppositional voices, and reveals that working within the system is not universally accepted by all participants in public participation processes. In this way, we hold that indecorum can creatively widen the scope of participation tactics and audience; transgressing rules of decorum through acts of resistance can serve consummatory functions including, engendering shared identities of protest (or what Gregg (1971) calls the 'ego function' of social activism), and "being heard" by multiple audiences. ...
Little scholarship in environmental communication has considered the intersections between public participation and social movement. We fill this gap by discussing how public participation process can become sites of radical politics when publics employ disruptive or improper tactics, known as indecorous voice. Indecorum can be used to sustain protest matters beyond official forums, engage multiple audiences, and forge new identities among publics. We demonstrate the utility of indecorum through two case studies: Love Canal, NY where residents combat exposure to toxic chemicals, and Salt Lake City, UT, where publics challenge industrial expansion in a fight for clean air.
... 14 Protesters exerted their impact on individuals through the use of specific protest rhetoric. 15 In addition, McGee defined social movement as a set of meanings instead of an objective phenomenon. 16 These insights highlight the centrality of communication in shaping the trajectory and impact of social movements, making their study essential for understanding collective action. ...
... Teach-in-demonstrationen er ikke alene praeget af, hvad der skrives om den, og hvilke ord, forskerne citeres for, men er også et "image event" i tråd med en laengere tradition for miljøbevaegelsers retorik (DeLuca, 1999b;Brunner & DeLuca, 2016). Hvor retorisk kritik i 1960'erne og -70'erne begyndte at se "konfronterende" retorik som retoriske begivenheder, der ikke bare var en begraedelig afvigelse fra den civiliserede talekultur, men også konstitutiv for den protesterendes selvforståelse (Gregg, 1971), ser DeLuca et endnu bredere konstitutivt potentiale i radikalt konfronterende image events: "[S]uch unorthodox rhetoric […] reconstitutes the identity of the dominant culture by challenging and transforming mainstream society's key discourses and ideographs" (1999b, s. 16). Sted spiller således en saerdeles vigtig rolle for aktivistisk retorik i et moderne medielandskab (Pietrucci, 2015). ...
Videnskabsfolk griber i stigende grad til aktivisme for at råbe beslutningstagerne op på klimadagsordenen. Denne artikel undersøger et sådant tilfælde: den første nordiske civile ulydighedsaktion udført af forskerbevægelsen Scientist Rebellion foran Klimaministeriet i København i 2021. I min retoriske kritik fokuserer jeg på mediedækningen af demonstrationen for at undersøge, hvordan videnskabelig etos bliver forhandlet i mødet med aktivistisk praksis i det offentlige rum. Gennem en læsning af forskeraktivisternes brug af stedslig- og bevægelsesretorik argumenterer jeg for, at vi med fordel kan nuancere vores blik på videnskabelig etos i klimakrisen. Krydsfeltet mellem videnskab og sociale bevægelser blotlægger behovet for at forstå etos som urolig, snarere end en slags gradvis og stabil opbygningsproces. Afslutningsvis argumenterer jeg for, at en retorisk-humanistisk tilgang til sociale bevægelsers mulighed for at forandre samfundet kan nuancere og supplere de mere deterministiske forandringsteorier, som dem Scientist Rebellion tager udgangspunkt i
... Alternative media may motivate some activists to stage protests or develop an identity, but those results make little signifi cant contribution to social issues or political discourse. Indeed, many scholars have argued that social protest serves more of an ego function to build up the self-esteem of individuals and that many people primarily engage in activism because of their self-pity and sense of victimhood (Gregg 1971;Stewart 1999). ...
... Exercices de rhétorique, 7 | 2016 "nous" ») dans le discours de l'action collective 17 . Néanmoins, bien qu'on examine la construction rhétorique de l'identité en explorant, par exemple, les modalités rhétoriques selon lesquelles les groupes marginaux apprennent à prendre conscience de leurs droits et de leur force politique 18 , on se penche moins sur le rôle de ce « nous » dans la formulation des revendications sociales ou politiques. Autrement dit, c'est l'identité per se qui intéresse les chercheurs plutôt que l'image de soi en tant que moyen de persuasion donnant à un mouvement la légitimité et la crédibilité de faire entendre la voix du peuple. ...
... Ray notes that "some women [attempting to vote] reported despondence and a motivating anger, whereas others expressed joy or renewed self-respect" (Ray 2007, p. 16). This reflexive effect of arguing on the arguer is what Gregg (1971) once called the "ego-function of rhetoric." What is involved, Gregg explains, is not so much "selfpersuasion" about the particular "claims or the sense and probity of appeals and arguments," but instead self-constitution: "establishing, defining, and affirming one's self-hood as one engages in a rhetorical act" (p. ...
Making arguments makes reasons apparent. Sometimes those reasons may affect audiences’ relationships to claims (e.g., accept, adhere). But an over-emphasis on audience effects encouraged by functionalist theories of argumentation distracts attention from other things that making arguments can accomplish. We advance the normative pragmatic program on argumentation through two case studies of how early advocates for women’s suffrage in the U.S. made reasons apparent in order to show that what they were doing wasn’t ridiculous. While it might be possible to identify this as a new function of argumentation, we encourage instead attention to a more important question: explaining how all the diverse uses of argument have pragmatic force.
... 6 "For many students, political protest can become the covering activity that conveys a sense of importance, power, exhilaration, and danger, all feeling related to self-affirmation and expression," explains Gregg. 7 The student movement in the U.S. began by wanting to "transform American society inside-out," said Sale. 8 To Windt, protesters in the early 60s accepted "the legitimacy of existing institutions and ask mainly that leaders change particular policies regarding issues dissidents are agitated about." 9 But by 1968, argues Sale, the radicals no longer believed that changing the processes was enough because many of them came to believe that only revolution would change the world. ...
The 1960s was a period of social change in countries around the world and in hundreds of cities in the United States. We argue that music played a rhetorical role in bringing a vast array of people together behind a wide range of issues. The music of Bob Dylan unified people together, making Dylan a kind of prophet that put into music the voice of the people involved in the social movements of the 1960s. By considering his music rhetorically, we provide insight into how music played a key role in the social movements of the 1960s.
... Prophetic disputations function rhetorically by giving the speaker a chance not only to speak about the evils perpetrated by her opponents, but also to do so in a way that creates a sense of empowerment; not only for the speaker, but also for the community the speaker represents (Johnson, 2012, p. 10). In this way, prophetic disputations are similar to Gregg's (1971) ego-function of protest rhetoric because the prophet aims the rhetoric at the "protestors themselves," the ones who are in need of affirmation of their personhood (74). While the prophet aims his rhetoric towards his opponents, the main thrust of his message appeals to his supporters. ...
In this essay, I briefly examine the prophetic rhetoric of W.E.B. Du Bois. By examining his editorials while editor of The Crisis and other writings, I argue that DuBois employed different types of prophetic discourse grounded primarily within the African American Prophetic Tradition (AAPT). For purposes of this essay, I specifically highlight Du Bois’ use of mission-oriented prophecy as a way to call African Americans to a divine mission of social uplift. In so doing, my aim is three-fold. First, I seek to build upon the fledgling rhetorical scholarship on Du Bois. Second, following Zuckerman and Blum, I seek to (re)introduce to readers and (re)claim Du Bois as a religious rhetor. Finally, I seek to add to the scholarship on prophetic rhetoric
... As indicated in Model 1, the two environmental variables had little to do whether or not the party changed its name. Further, the coefficients associated with Average Challenger Success and Party System Fractionalization suggests that the greater the challengers' electoral success the more likely the party would change its name, a finding that contradicts some of the literature (e.g., Gregg 1971) which holds that external challenges would make the party less likely to change its name. However, these results do not necessarily support the arguments made by Janda and others that challenges make it more likely the party will change its identity, given that these relationships are not statistically significant. ...
span style="font-size: 100%; font-family: Arial; color: #000000;" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the transformation of the formerly dominant communist parties has provided an opportunity to test some of the major propositions regarding party change. This article focuses on the relationship between external and internal factors, and evolution of the communist successor parties in seventy-nine countries across the world. The most important factor explaining the electoral success of the communist successor parties is the degree of organization, a finding that provides broader support for the literature arguing that communist successor party electoral performance is primarily a result of the organizational features these parties inherited from the past."}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":2111744,"11":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":0},"15":"arial,sans,sans-serif","16":10,"24":{"1":0,"2":3,"3":0,"4":3}}">The collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the transformation of the formerly dominant communist parties has provided an opportunity to test some of the major propositions regarding party change. This article focuses on the relationship between external and internal factors, and evolution of the communist successor parties in seventy-nine countries across the world. The most important factor explaining the electoral success of the communist successor parties is the degree of organization, a finding that provides broader support for the literature arguing that communist successor party electoral performance is primarily a result of the organizational features these parties inherited from the past.</span
... As speaker (instructor) along with my students (audience), we work each week to interpret and make sense of BLM by thinking about what historical movements influenced or are reflected in current activism, what contemporary context fostered BLM, what social movement theory is related to this rhetorical strategy, and what rhetorical principles help unpack the function and effects of #BlackLivesMatter. As example, given #BLM constitutes a collective identity for the movement, one week of the course is devoted to discussing the ego-function of rhetoric (Gregg, 1971), and the history of Black Power rhetoric from the Civil Rights Movement as we (in class discussion) think through why we have/need #BLM now. By structuring course readings this way, students experience and are also constituted as critics themselves, and start to approach current movement events with a new perspective. ...
... Les chercheurs y examinent, par exemple, les caractéristiques et les fonctions de la rhétorique en fonction des étapes successives de l'évolution de l'action collective (Bowers et Ochs 1971), ou les modalités à travers lesquelles la rhétorique permet aux dirigeants sociaux d'affronter différents auditoires et de résoudre les dilemmes qui surgissent dans le feu de l'action (Simons 1971). Également étudiée dans cette approche est la manière dont la rhétorique renforce l'esprit militant des membres des mouvements et consolide leur identité (Gregg 1971), et la façon dont les différentes formes linguistiques et stylistiques typiquement associées à la parole protestataire, comme par exemple les slogans (Denton 1980) ou l'usage de mots obscènes (Rothwell 1971), permettent de véhiculer des messages et de constituer des espaces pour la mise en place d'arguments. ...
Since the 1960s, there has been an active and distinct research field within rhetorical studies in the United States, which explores the “rhetoric of social movements”. Researchers affiliated with this stream have staged from the outset a rich and structured debate dealing with meta-theoretical issues related to the scientific responsibility of the researcher and the social role of the research in the context of protest and collective action. This article explores the evolution of this debate, in which the participants have initially questioned the relevance of the scientific ethos of contemporary rhetorical theory, and aspired to redefine the responsibility of the researcher with regard to the social dynamics in the public sphere. Subsequently, researchers in the rhetoric of social movements discussed the dialectical relations between rhetorical analysis and social movements, i.e. between theory and practice, and therefore aspired to define the social commitment of specialists in the rhetoric of social movements both as researchers and teachers. The article describes this debate and discusses its contribution to the evolution of rhetorical theory on the one hand, and to the ongoing thinking about the scientific and social commitment of the researcher vis-a-vis processes and practice of social change on the other.
A central theme that emerged in the analysis of this study was the use of humanizing rhetoric, and the fundamental rhetorical concept underlying humanizing rhetoric was identification. Identification is a concept theorized by the influential rhetorician Kenneth Burke. In this chapter, I explicate Burke’s theory of identification and review the literature on humanizing and dehumanizing rhetoric. This chapter lays the conceptual groundwork for understanding the analyses in Chaps. 5 and 6.
This chapter is the first of two analysis chapters. In this chapter, I answer this question: What rhetorical practices do Buddhists in Thailand use to humanize (dignify) or dehumanize (degrade) subjects of their discourse in their efforts to resist or promote social change?
Research in rhetoric and social protest strives to discover how organized, uninstitutional forces use symbols and symbolic actions to promote or resist change in societal norms and values. Its focus ranges from interpersonal to mass communication, from the colonial period to the present, from moderate to radical elements, and from formal discourses to the rhetoric of the streets.
This essay analyzes the rhetorics of social and economic protest surrounding the 2021 short squeeze where swarms of gamers-made-investors used the popular trading app Robinhood to create artificial demands for shorted stocks such as GameStop and AMC. Fueled by populist rhetoric on subreddit forum, r/WallStreetBets, the movement created a short-lived bubble that cost hedge funds billions. I argue that investors were subjectivized by market-based agencies through anger and nostalgia during a COVID-19 period when many were feeling powerless. Through market jamming, investors temporarily used the market, and its neoliberal rationalities, against itself and created new spaces for agency. While market jamming comes with real financial risks, such as a rhetorical panic, it also shows how investors can use détournement in the marketplace.
The last decade witnessed a drastic reconfiguration of American conservatism by way of a newly emergent and energized dissident right. Beyond the question of ideology, this article argues that an essential aspect of this realignment occurs at the level of strategy, specifically with the adoption of agitational tactics pioneered by the progressive left. It attempts to make sense of this sea change, first, by tracing in broad strokes the history of American conservatism's opposition to much of what passes for agitational politics. It then examines the right's seemingly abrupt adoption of three species of agitational practice: Alinsky-styled radicalism, identity politics, and accelerationism. It concludes by discussing the implications of this shift, in terms of what it means both for the future of conservative discourse and for leftist groups who must now take into account the possibility of having to outmaneuver their own set of tactics.
This article examines the discourse of the Israeli Left in the years preceding the succession of general elections in 2019–21, with a focus on claims of the purported threats to democracy presented by the right-wing government. Rhetorical analysis of opinion pieces and political commentary in the press on issues relating to education, science, and culture shows recurrent use of appeals to fear – such as comparisons with totalitarian regimes and invocation of other dystopian spectres resulting from nationalist indoctrination and processes of ‘religionization’. This article defines the appeal to fear and other forms of the Left’s identity claims making during this period as moral panic discourse, around which the Left sought to revive its relevance in the public debate at a time when it was viewed as a marginal political force in ideological decline. The article’s main argument is that while the labelling of the Right as a ‘danger to democracy’ has been entrenched in leftist discourse since the 1977 ‘Upheaval’, during the period in discussion it became the principal – almost sole – theme in leftist publicist discourse, serving as a flag issue around which the Left reorganised its identity as the ‘democratic camp’.
Although the Israeli right holds an equal – if not superior – position of power within the Israeli bi-polar political cleavage, its leaders and spokespersons continue to nurture a group identity of an excluded, marginalized and oppressed ideological movement. This study examines the discursive practice of ‘self-othering’ in Israeli right-wing discourse. Focusing on a particular case study – op-ed articles and commentaries published by right-wing opinion makers during the military crisis of summer 2006 – the study analyzes the Israeli right’s rhetoric of polarization in terms of movement-countermovement competitive framing process. Drawing on frame theory and historical discourse approach, the analysis shows how victimage discourse is employed by the Israeli right to delegitimize the left as being an oppressive elite, and to frame right-wing affiliation as a social identity of a popular movement whose members are mobilized to a continuous struggle against the ‘hegemonic control’ of the left.
Adding to work on environmental decision making, decoloniality, and rhetorics of social protest, this paper analyzes a troubling case of resource colonialism at Oak Flat, AZ where mining corporations Rio Tinto and BHP seek to execute decade-old plans to turn land sacred to many Western Apache into one of the largest copper mines in the US (Resolution Mine). This paper studies how members and supporters of the group Apache Stronghold “talk back” in ways that consummate decolonial identities. Taking up the process-oriented nature of this exigency, I study indecorous protest rhetorics at six public hearings about the mine’s Environmental Impact Statement (Draft) in 2019. I argue Apache Stronghold uses place, time, and memory as topoi of decolonial dissensus. While the Resolution Mine may be foregone conclusion, Apache Stronghold shows how (de)coloniality can delink environmental public participation processes from regimes of colonial capitalism.
This study examines ancient Roman ideas about humor’s boundaries in public culture. In particular, I analyze book 6, chapter 3 of the Institutio Oratoria, which covers Quintilian’s reflections on the subject. Following Cicero, Quintilian engages the tensions between humor and decorum in his political context, using urbanitas to refine the former and to loosen the latter’s strictures. In this process, the use of urbanitas implicitly points readers toward factors that can make humor rhetorical. Quintilian thus answers Cicero’s question about the degree to which humor should be used and furthers inquiry into how much rhetorical humor can or should be taught.
In 2010, thousands of Thai citizens from the Red Shirt Movement splashed seventy-nine gallons of their blood in Bangkok to revolt for democracy. I argue that their conduct exemplified kaya karma in the Thai culture: the intentional use of the body and physical actions to achieve an end. Drawing upon my interviews with protesters in Thailand, I show how the demonstration represented the Red Shirts’ intentions to construct a patriotic identity; build solidarity and consubstantiation; defame the prime minister; and invoke fear, intimidation, and discomfort in the government. Altogether, the protest aimed to bolster the movement’s authority and disparage the government. Examining the Red Shirts’ kaya karma, I contend, enables us to further engage “the facts of nonusage” to broaden the trajectory of comparative rhetorical studies beyond the focus on canonical texts of elite exemplars and complicate our ability to see the available means of persuasion in non-Western contexts.
This essay was delivered as the presidential address at the annual convention of the Media Ecology Association on June 24, 2017, in Moraga, CA. This address draws on the work of Neil Postman to consider the connections between language, civility, and media ecology.
In 2010, thousands of Thai citizens from the Red Shirt Movement splashed seventy-nine gallons of their blood in Bangkok to revolt for democracy. I argue that their conduct exemplified kaya karma in the Thai culture: the intentional use of the body and physical actions to achieve an end. Drawing upon my interviews with protesters in Thailand, I show how the demonstration represented the Red Shirts’ intentions to construct a patriotic identity; build solidarity and consubstantiation; defame the prime minister; and invoke fear, intimidation, and discomfort in the government. Altogether, the protest aimed to bolster the movement’s authority and disparage the government. Examining the Red Shirts’ kaya karma, I contend, enables us to further engage “the facts of nonusage” to broaden the trajectory of comparative rhetorical studies beyond the focus on canonical texts of elite exemplars and complicate our ability to see the available means of persuasion in non-Western contexts.
Storytelling has been central within the movement against military sexual violence. Among communication scholarship on narrative, there are both studies demonstrating that narrative begins to assuage sexual violence trauma and studies demonstrating that narrative reinforces gendered social norms that exacerbate sexual violence. I integrate this research with scholarship on rape culture to develop a typology of the characteristics of sexual violence stories that empower survivors and apply that typology to military sexual violence narratives. These characteristics include: 1) linking sexual violence to systemic/cultural norms through narrative’s ability to establish causality, 2) representing survivors as empowered experts by positioning storytelling as healing, and 3) modeling paths toward overcoming adversity. When used together, these strategies counter the harmful effects of stories that emphasize gendered norms of vulnerability.
Cet article se propose d’analyser le discours de réparation d’image de la droite israélienne durant la crise militaire de l’été 2006, qui se déroule peu après une campagne électorale où la droite idéologique subit une défaite importante. Utilisant le modèle analytique de la rhétorique de réparation d’image, l’analyse s’effectue à l’intersection de deux courants théoriques : l’analyse du discours polémique, telle que développée dans l’école française de l’argumentation et de l’analyse du discours, et les approches discursive et rhétorique dans l’étude des mouvements sociaux. À partir d’un corpus d’articles d’opinion, nous explorons ici un aspect peu étudié de la pratique de réparation d’image : les rôles de la polarisation et du retravail d’ ethos d’un locuteur collectif, et la façon dont cette pratique fonctionne comme instrument de renforcement de la perception de soi qu’a un groupe social.
This essay contributes to participatory critical rhetoric (PCR) by offering a Rancièrian aesthetic approach to the rhetoric of social protest at the 2014 People’s Climate March (PCM). Although the PCM has been praised for its democratic commitments to social change, I argue that police reinforced a consensual aesthetic order that acquiesced with the status quo by partitioning sensibilities of space and mobility. Demarcating acceptable spaces for protest and requiring marchers to keep moving at all times enforced a hierarchical aesthetic order that limited possibilities of dissensus. However, there was one ephemeral moment of dissensus when all of the protesters stopped and observed a moment of silence. This rhetorical performance temporarily ruptured dominant intelligibilities of police order and consummated new subjectivities, demonstrating the radical possibilities of dissensus through silence for climate change advocacy.
Demanding is a fundamental rhetorical strategy for marginalized groups, but recent rhetorical theories of demanding have not explained how speakers can design demands that influence addressees to accede. Although psychoanalytic and decolonial theories have identified constitutive functions, they have not explained how speakers can design demands that pressure addressees to accede, and while speech act theories have explained specific kinds of demands, they have not synthesized insights into a model of demanding generally. We draw on normative pragmatic theory to argue that speakers design demands that generate persuasive force by openly making visible their intent to influence addressees to accede and bringing to bear a reciprocal obligation for themselves and addressees to live up to the norm of “right makes might.”
This essay examines argument and the creation and maintenance of social identity. The relationship between argument and current research on the construction of identities is discussed and two illustrations presented. The first focuses on nationalism as given expression in the divided city of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovena; the second, focuses on environmentalism as given expression in the dispute over the Brent Spar North Sea oil rig.
Marching has been a popular and effective form of protest throughout the history of American social change. The Black protest march historically has taken place in response to injustices, such as inequitable wages, killing of a Black person without provocation or recourse, or some violation of social, civil or legal rights. To consider whether or not marching remains an effective impetus for change, the authors examined the rhetoric of the Million Man March and the 50th Anniversary Commemoration March from Selma to Montgomery and looked at these marches as enactments of both the Harriet Tubman and Stagolee mythoforms. The authors relied on Stewart, Smith, and Denton's (2001 Stewart, C. J., Smith, C. A., Denton, R. E., Jr. (2001). Persuasion and social movement (4rd ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press., Inc. ) functional approach to the study of social movement that views rhetoric not as an art, but as agency that allows social movement persuaders to carry out various roles. The examination focused on two of the functions Stewart and colleagues delineated to study social movement rhetoric: (a) transforming perceptions of history and (b) transforming perceptions of society. The implications and relevance of these protest marches, how they differ from those of the past, and their efficacy in the future are discussed.
I call communication that attempts to stop further communication “rhetorical closure.” This essay focuses on a form of rhetorical closure that implies character judgments of the interlocutor or audience in order to force assent and delegitimize dissent. Using Ayn Rand’s rhetoric as an exemplar, the essay demonstrates what rhetorical closure by character judgment looks like in practice, examines its dynamics, and assesses its enduring appeal.
This essay examines the strategic use of empathic communication that fosters a loving struggle for Existenz in “Straight Man in a Gay World” (2005), an episode of Morgan Spurlock’s documentary-styled television program 30 Days. The show functions as a persuasive discourse designed to influence the heterosexual participant and, by extension, the implied audience. This essay offers an overview of key terms in the study of empathy and analyzes key moments of empathic communication in the episode.
The psychological sense of community (PSOC) is a valued yet quantitatively underconfirmed construct that forms the foundation of our understanding of community. The current study aimed at and succeeded in confirming the factors, where traditional methods have failed. Using grounded theory as an alternate route to reaching this goal, the current study of 2,298 Facebook comments, surrounding anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer (LGBTQ) remarks made by the CEO of the Barilla pasta brand, revealed cogent communities of LGBTQ, allies, Christians, and opponents, which used each of McMillan and Chavis’ (1986) factors in their discourse, thus confirming PSOC. The discursive residue of PSOC indicated a new phenomenon, discursive sense of community (DSOC), which emerged from factors of expectations and empowerment. The DSOC appeared as a defensive strategy to mitigate minority stress. Testing the model against other datasets is recommended, to determine the extent to which this particular incident (i.e., a member of one group making an offensive comment to members of another group) shaped the qualitative findings.
This book is a study of a Soviet cultural phenomenon of the 1960s and 70s known as guitar poetry - songs accompanied by guitar and considered poetry in much the same way as those of, for example, Bob Dylan. Platonov's is the most comprehensive book in English to date to analyze guitar poetry, which has rarely received scholarly attention outside of Russia. Copyright
In the immediate aftermath of the Tucson, Arizona, shootings in 2011, controversy erupted over the role, if any, that Tea Party rhetoric had played in inciting Jared Lee Loughner's rampage. Especially controversial was Sarah Palin's video, "America's Enduring Strength," which denied that this rhetoric was responsible and, in fact, celebrated it as quintessential free speech. This essay makes two related arguments. First, although context encourages audiences to expect political self-defense, Palin's video is neither deliberative nor forensic but epideictic: A celebration of abstract values so severed from circumstances that Palin et al. become heroically, purely virtuous, while those who dare raise the question of responsibility that is central to deliberation ("who, or what, is to blame, and what, then, is to be done?") become vicious. However, this move is obscured because Palin's version of free speech simultaneously inhabits the prevailing, and limited, social and legal understanding of the First Amendment. Hence, we also argue that a consequentialist framework for free expression is less suited to revealing the video's troubling rhetoric of free speech than is a constitutive framework, such as has been proffered by some scholars of hate speech. To the extent that the consequentialist framework dominates constitutional jurisprudence and public understanding, however, "America's Enduring Strength" also manifests America's enduring problem in coming to grips with Tucson and other mass shootings.
This essay employs a coalitional perspective to revisit the Radicalesbians’ 197081.
———. The Woman Identified Woman. Pittsburgh: KNOW Inc., 1970. Special Collections Library. Duke University. April 1997. Web. 10 June 2013. <http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/wlm/womid/>.View all references manifesto, “The Woman Identified Woman,” and to examine the circulation of its constitutive rhetoric of woman-identification within lesbian-feminist activist communities during the 1970s. I argue that lesbian-feminists utilized a pivoting strategy, a horizontal mode of working the space between identities, to leverage coalitional relationships and the woman identified woman as resources to craft alternative identity constructions that resisted woman-identification, challenged interlocking oppressions, and increased lesbian visibility within those respective communities. This analysis centralizes dynamic movement relationships and loyalties to approach the established narrative about lesbian-feminists in women's liberation from a new perspective and reexamine the constitutive rhetoric of woman-identification. Revisiting lesbian-feminist rhetoric brings the voices from an important archive to bear on feminist and queer history while centralizing coalitional relationships, offering a fruitful perspective from which to analyze social movement rhetoric and reexamine an important artifact in the feminist rhetorical canon.
This study examines the discourses of the U.S.'s 10 top-earning comedians in 2009 and 2010 through systematic textual analyses. Building from two prior case studies and working toward a communicative worldview for comedy as a pervasive mode of public communication, the results indicate that there are several generic clusters emerging across these acts involving rhetorics of optimism, uncertainty, individualism, and others. Many distinctive characteristics in the comedians' messages are also noted. Through such practices, humorists advance a language with political significance-so this essay draws several connections and implications regarding comic discourses in public culture.
Alain Touraine's method of social movement action research holds promise as a theoretical exemplar for public argument scholarship motivated by the "activist" or "ideological" turn in rhetorical criticism. Touraine's sociological approach generates analytical insight and political traction from the synergistic coupling of academic critique with intervention into fields of public argument. Efforts to hitch Touraine's method of action research to public argument scholarship stand to enrich study of "new social movements," which exhibit a similar tendency to learn by cycling iteratively between grass roots consciousness raising and public sphere argumentation.
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