Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Victimhood in Swedish political discourse
Jönköping University, School of Health and Welfare, HHJ. SALVE (Social challenges, Actors, Living conditions, reseach VEnue).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-4104-4598
2021 (English)In: Discourse & Society, ISSN 0957-9265, E-ISSN 1460-3624, Vol. 32, no 3, p. 292-306Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In contemporary politics, the category of victimhood confers rights and recognition. An inclusive discussion about the construction and conferral of victimhood, which includes individuals from different social backgrounds, need be informed by the possible uses of victimhood in political discourse. The present study investigates how individuals and groups are positioned as victims by mainstream Swedish politicians. A constructionist discourse analysis inspired by positioning theory was performed of eight longer political speeches and fifty-six addresses to the Swedish parliament, held over the course of a year. The results suggest that individuals in the ‘normal’ majority, comprising the most numerous and normatively dominant group of society, were positioned as victims. Heterodox minorities, which had fundamentally different morals and political ambitions compared to the ‘normal’ majority, were positioned as offenders. The study argues that a more inclusive construction of victimhood could be accomplished by engaging with heterodox minorities through dialogue.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Sage Publications, 2021. Vol. 32, no 3, p. 292-306
Keywords [en]
Constructionism, discourse analysis, majority, minority, normal, normality, parliamentary debates, politics, positioning theory, poststructuralism, social liberalism, speeches, Sweden, victim, victimhood
National Category
Other Social Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-51360DOI: 10.1177/0957926520977216ISI: 000599591200001Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85097307327Local ID: HOA;;1514033OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hj-51360DiVA, id: diva2:1514033
Available from: 2021-01-04 Created: 2021-01-04 Last updated: 2021-12-13Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopus

Authority records

Aronson, Olov

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Aronson, Olov
By organisation
HHJ. SALVE (Social challenges, Actors, Living conditions, reseach VEnue)
In the same journal
Discourse & Society
Other Social Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 144 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf