Peddling a semiotics of fear: a critical examination of scare tactics and commercial strategies in public health promotion

In this study, we critically examine the ways in which a nationwide health promotion campaign – the 2013 Diabetes UK/Tesco diabetes campaign, the largest of its kind in the UK – seeks to raise the general public's awareness of Type 2 diabetes. We subject a series of six campaign images (including their layout and accompanying text) to a multimodal discourse analysis, identifying the presence of a range of fear-inducing, stigmatising and commercial strategies, through which the campaign emphasises the dangers of diabetes and advocates personal responsibility for assessing both individual and others' risk of the disease. Specifically, we describe, in multi-semiotic detail, three discursive techniques deployed in the campaign to achieve these ends: (1) the depiction of grief and amplification of diabetes-related danger, (2) the promotion of diabetes risk and localisation of individuals' responsibility for their health and (3) the commercial branding and framing of the Diabetes UK/Tesco partnership – including the promotion of goods and services – as a means of diabetes prevention and management. Our findings raise concerns about the moral legitimacy of using fear-inducing and commercial strategies in order to (effectively) raise public awareness of and responses to Type 2 diabetes, strategies which do little to address the environmental factors which are associated with increasing rates of the disease.     

Migration and Healthcare Reforms in Spain: Symbolic Politics,Converging Outputs,Oppositions from the Field

ABSTRACT

Migrants’ healthcare entitlement represents a conflictive issue in the political battlefield, with research pointing towards the determinant role of party politics in determining policy outputs. Addressing the 2012 healthcare reform and 2018 counter-reform adopted in Spain by a right-wing and left-wing government respectively and drawing on qualitative analysis of parties’ discourses and policy measures, we argue that ideological differences along the healthcare-migration nexus were overemphasised to play symbolic politics. Partisan competition had less impact on actual outputs, while clashes between the central and regional governments, path-dependent practices and opposition from multiple venues played a central role in the policymaking process.     

The legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ in the Province of Quebec

ABSTRACT

This article examines the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse in the Province of Quebec, Canada. It draws upon an analysis of 31 documents (legislation, research reports and articles, training documents, professional documents and media articles) and interviews with 13 key informants, who were selected based on their knowledge of ‘parental alienation’ in research, policies or practices. The research findings reveal that the legitimization and institutionalization of ‘parental alienation’ discourse is a more recent process than in other provinces and countries, but that it has now permeated child custody as well as child protection proceedings. Academic researchers and media have been instrumental in this legitimization and institutionalization process, while the role played by changes to child protection policies is more ambiguous. The findings reveal researchers’ and experts’ tendency to distance themselves from Gardner’s controversial work on ‘parental alienation syndrome’ and to address the critiques by proposing new approaches and new concepts. However, the terms ‘parental alienation syndrome’, ‘parental alienation’ and ‘alienating behaviours’ are often used interchangeably, and assessment practices tend to rely on similar indicators.     

公民参与和民主公共行政——以话语民主为研究视角厂廖晓愿

公民参与是否必定能够实现实质的民主？传统封闭的行政系统掌握着“话语”的垄断权,即使公民参与,也至多是一种“伪民主”。“话语理论”,特别是后现代“行政话语理论”,对于构建一种实质的民主,促进公共行政民主化提供了新的研究视角。     

城乡基本公共服务均等化过程中的话语机制——基于公共选择理论视野

城乡基本公共服务均等化建设与以往的农村改革和建设一样,依然存在农民失语的现象,因此改变目前的政策制订规则成为均等化建设的关键。按照公共选择理论,完善人民代表大会制度、建立适合公共服务建设的官员考核体系以及培养代表农民利益的组织,是提高农民参与均等化政策制订的话语能力以及建立合理的话语机制的途径。     

语篇衔接之于诗歌主题的表达——对乔治·赫伯特诗作《美德》的文体学分析(英文)

George Herbert’s poem,Virtue,conveys to us a theme that all material things in this world,however shiny they are on the outside,are flashy on the inside;only the spiritual sublime virtues that human beings possess remain fresh forever.Linguistically speaking,the discourse cohesion of this poem contributes to the expression of the theme of it.Based on the stylistic analysis,this paper argues that the expression of the poetic theme is realized through the overall layout of cohesion of this poem,manifested in rhyme scheme,lexicon,structure and logic.     

费正清的两岸关系论述及其台湾效应

冷战时期,以费正清为代表的美国学术界以台湾作为研究中国的基地,而费正清也积极地介入两岸关系与台湾事务。费正清的＂大陆—台湾＂论述可以分为三个时期：早期的＂亲共＂,中期的＂反共＂,与后期的＂两岸共治＂。费正清多变的面孔反映了美国不同时期基于美国国家利益而做出的对中国两岸政策的调整,而台湾对费正清体系的反应则体现了冷战时期西方同盟内部中心与边缘地区的矛盾,以及两种不同政治体制、不同文化之间的冲突。     

The ‘White Working class’ in South Africa

In general, the analysis of classes in the literature on South Africa beginsfrom the political and ideological levels and not from the concept of the mode of production. The effect of this is to obscure the nature of the class structure and changes in it and leads to a neglect of shifts in class alliances in the class struggle. In this paper, concepts of the ‘white working class’ commonly found in the literature are critically analysed and an alternative conceptualization which begins from the mode of production is outlined. The paper ends with a brief analysis of changes in the relationship between the white working class and the state.     

The Future of British Political History: Concluding Remarks

These concluding remarks reflect, in the light of the preceding articles, on two themes that recur throughout the collection. First, how can historians maintain an effective presence in public debate about politics in Britain? Second, how should political historians position themselves within the discipline, at a time when—it is suggested—political history is losing ground among British academic historians? It is argued here that, in each case, they should reflect on what they can most distinctively contribute, either as historians or as political historians; and that they should frame their interventions accordingly.     

依托学生党建增强高校主流意识形态话语权的路径思考

本文分析了高校主流意识形态话语权面临的挑战以及高校主流意识形态建设中存在的问题,阐释了学生党建与高校主流意识形态话语权二者之间的关系,在此基础上提出应从筑牢信仰之基、提升话语说服力、增强主流话语队伍战斗力、掌握网络空间话语权等方面入手,依托学生党建牢牢掌握高校主流意识形态的话语权。