Textual politics

'Texts record the meanings we make: in words, pictures and deeds. Politics chronicles our uses of power in shaping social relationships large and small'. In the last ten years, there has been increased interest among students, scholars and practitioners in such fields as media and communications studies, education, cultural studies and social and cultural theory in the role of language and discourse. Textual Politics examines the role of language in social controversies and in processes of social and cultural change. The chapters discuss the relationship between discourse and the notions of power and ideology, and analyse how language is used to make expert opinion seem indisputable or controversial political views seem natural. The author reviews and re-evaluates work on language and social processes including the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Michael Halliday, James Paul Gee and Gunther Kress, and offers a new theory of 'ecosocial systems'. Taking examples from discussions of educational policy, gay rights, and other controversial topics, this important book provides a post-modernist critique of traditional concepts of social class, gender, sexual orientation, and human individuality in science and social theory. Textual Politics concludes with an examination of the potential sites of future social change, including children's rights, new models for education, and post-democratic political values. This stimulating, interdisciplinary book is essential reading for students in sociology, cultural studies, political science, education, critical postmodernist studies, applied linguistics and semiotics.