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Words of struggle Struggles of words: Investigating the political and discursive reflexivity of six actors of the « cause of migrants » in Belgium

par Balty, Cécile
Référence European Communication Conference - ECREA 2022 (9th: 2022-10-19 - 2022-10-22: Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark))
Publication Non publié, 2022-10-20

Communication à un colloque

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Résumé :

Migration has become a public problem (Neveu 2015) put into words by different actors who try to impose their own perception of it and, consequently, the measures they deem necessary to implement. For example, in Belgium, some association declares that migrants are “active citizens, who enrich our multicultural societies”[1], whereas some politician restricts citizenship to legal status[2]. In this political “struggle for the appropriation of power-signs” (Bonnafous & Tournier 1995: 68) where “everyone speaks to persuade” (Orkibi 2015: 15, Amossy 2012), the activist discourse supporting migrants challenges the doxa that roots migration nowadays (Jacquez 2015). This symbolic dimension of activist discourse plays a key role in “the evolution and transformation of the vocabulary and discourses that manage the system of norms and values in our society” (Orkibi 2015: 14). This can be particularly observed through traces of meta-discursive awareness (Zienkowski 2017): choice of words, definition, negotiation of meaning … in discourse are all observatories of the positionings of the actors in relation to migration and, consequently, of the way they position themselves in relation to each other (Siblot 1997). Because discursive reflexivity often goes hand in hand with political reflexivity, these meta-discursive practices inform us about how actors attempt to influence perceptions of society through language (Calabrese & Veniard 2018). Based on a methodological device combining interviews and ethnographic observations, the present research investigates the discursive reflexivity of five activist actors of the cause of migrants in Belgium. First, interviews allow to identify words, definitions and meta-discourses used by these actors to influence the perceptions of migration. Second, ethnographic observations enable to describe the way in which those discursive practices are produced, negotiated, and discussed upstream. As a result, the research goes beyond the analysis of the actors’ discourses and describes the conditions of production of these discourses. As a result, it highlights the socio-discursive issues at stake and the role of activist actors as producers of meaning.ReferencesAmossy, Ruth (2012). L’argumentation dans le discours. Paris : Armand Colin.Bonnafous, Simone & Tournier, Michel (1995). Analyse du discours, lexicométrie, communication et politique. Langages, 29, 117 : 67‑81.Calabrese, Laura & Veniard, Marie (2018). . Louvain-La-Neuve : Académia-L’Harmattan. Penser les mots, dire la migrationLise Jacquez (2015). De la difficulté de défendre les sans-papiers dans l’espace public français : typologie et analyse des contre-discours militants (2006-2010) », [Online], 39 http://journals.openedition.org/semen/10482 (20 octobre 2020). SemenNeveu, Erik (2015). Sociologie politique des problèmes publics. Paris : Armand Colin.Orkibi, Ethan (2015). Le(s) discours de l’action collective : Contextes, dynamiques et traditions de recherche. Argumentation et Analyse du Discours, 14, Article 14.Siblot, Paul (1997). Nomination et production de sens : Le praxème. Langages, 31, 127 : 38‑55.Zienkowski, Jan (2017). Reflexivity in the transdisciplinary field of critical discourse studies., Palgrave Communications 3(1): 1‑12.