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Empowering the discourse of globalization in international organizations: The International Maritime Organization as a case in point

July 2017

In book: Power, persuasion and manipulation in specialised genres: Providing keys to the rhetoric of professional communities (pp.51-70)
Publisher: Peter Lang
Editors: Maria Angeles Orts, Ruth Breeze, Maurizio Gotti

Authors:

Ana Bocanegra-Valle

Universidad de Cádiz

This chapter examines language in public discourse and, more precisely, the way in which the discourse of globalization is constructed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), an international organization of utmost relevance to the shipping industry. First I review the literature on institutional discourse and, particularly, on globalization as a key process that nurtures the discourse of power (Fairclough 2001, 2006) and reproduces stances of institutional dominance (Mayr 2008; Simpson/Mayr 2010). Then, I outline the functions and work of the organization under study, IMO. After this, I explain the research procedure and the data set (i.e. fifteen speeches delivered by the IMO’s Secretary-General on the occasion of the World Maritime Day). Next, findings are presented and discussed according to four main themes that have emerged from the qualitative analysis of the data set: globalization, leadership, hegemony and legitimation. Finally, some concluding remarks are presented.

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