Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Discourse analysis

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 10 of 16
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Living with(out) maids : a Foucauldian discourse analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Geyer, Kayleigh
    Domestic work in the South African context is a socially normalised employment option for predominantly women of colour, that when taken outside of ‘common knowledge,’ becomes questioned. The political transformations of South Africa from the Apartheid social order to the ‘Rainbow Nation’ of today, has seen a dramatic increase in immigration of South Africans since the late 1980’s to countries such as New Zealand. This raises questions as to how South Africans construct and constitute their ideas and beliefs around domestic work, in a country where the slavery and servitude of the Indigenous population is not rooted in similar historical contexts. Using Foucault’s genealogical method of discourse analysis, the knowledge and truth claims of eight South Africans living in New Zealand are deconstructed and explored, to address the research question of; how do South Africans now living in New Zealand construct Domestic Work? The analysis of these eight interviews is centred around the integral issues of race, gender, social class and political structures, to direct attention to the social, moral, political and economic institutions that sustain or contradict assumptions and claims. The dominant discourses of Race and Hierarchy, The Domestic Worker Employment Paradox, and Tension are identified from the analysis and explored, decentring South African race and gender relations in the New Zealand sphere. Power and knowledge as a circular concept promotes an “ethics” of the self for all who have immigrated, to engage in practical consciousness, critical self-awareness and reflexivity into the legitimacy of social knowledge.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    (De)constructing 'refugeeness' : exploring mediated discourses of solidarity, welcome and refugee (self)representation in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Slade, Natalie Frances
    The tragic photo of Alan Kurdi ignited protests of solidarity and compassion across the Western world in support of refugees. In New Zealand, refugee advocates and media commentators urged the government to increase the refugee quota and welcome in more refugees. Although discourses of solidarity and welcome stem from humanitarian concern, they also risk encouraging a regime of compassion and charity that speaks more about ourselves and how we feel. Refugees are framed as objects of ‘our’ moral responsibility, stereotyped as helpless vulnerable victims without agency. These discourses consequently produce a generic type of refugee – an imagining of ‘refugeeness’ – that consigns individuals to an anonymous presence, silenced and marginalised by the very act of solidarity and protest that is performed on their behalf. Situated within a post-development and post-humanitarianism paradigm, and an actor-oriented approach to discourse and agency, this research aims to explore refugee representation and discourses of solidarity and welcome in the New Zealand mainstream media, and how people from refugee backgrounds experience and contest dominant discourses of ‘refugeeness’. Using critical discourse analysis, this research critically examines the discursive constructions of refugees and solidarity in the New Zealand mainstream news media, and the power dynamics involved in the production of discourse. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with refugee advocates and former refugees are employed to create spaces for participants to share their stories and experiences, enabling voices to be heard, misconceptions to be challenged, and new meanings to be constructed. The emergence of themes in this research highlight the relationship between discourses of solidarity, humanitarianism, and imaginings of New Zealand national identity. Within these discourses, refugees are stereotyped in a particular way that calls on the New Zealand public to respond. However, as the title of this thesis suggest, meaning is not infinitely fixed. Refugees may be labelled by discursive structures, but they will also use their agency to deconstruct and redefine the refugee label for their own ends, creating space for the construction of their own identities in the process.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Stance, same-sex marriage and space : an analysis of self-referencing on YouTube : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2019) Kerry, Victoria Jane (née Faris)
    By mid-2018, YouTube engagement reached 1.8 billion users per month, making it almost as big a platform as Facebook. Despite its popularity, little is understood about the user-generated comments written below the videos as a form of engagement on the site, with most linguistic research focusing on language found in the videos themselves. This study is a Mediated Discourse Analysis which explores what YouTubers say about themselves in textual responses posted under videos showing the passing of the same-sex marriage law in New Zealand. Using Du Bois’ (2007) Stance Triangle as its fork, it analyses the function of self-referencing stances and the sharing of personal information to a potentially large and unknown audience. In order to understand YouTube as a context for self-referencing, I propose a new framework called Participatory Spaces. The Participatory Spaces framework identifies three salient areas of YouTube interaction: the shared interest that brings a diverse group of participants together (the Membership Layer), the different members of the audience that are addressed (the Audience Layer), and the technical affordances and constraints of the Space (the Spatio-Temporal Layer). The three Layers of a Participatory Space outline the interactional practices within and provide key perspectives on the mechanics of stance. The Membership Layer focuses particularly on the centrality, weighting and interpretability of the discourses, Discourses and particular locations shared by a geographically dispersed, diverse, audience. Self-referencing is used to increase credibility of an argument, to warrant participation and to express the right to belong. The Audience Layer reveals how commenters design their contribution for specific audiences. Here, examples of self-referencing can function as a means of (dis)aligning with other members on YouTube, and creating the Space itself. Finally, the Spatio-Temporal Layer uncovers the influences of time and space on participatory norms, including how participants’ histories and imagined futures are embedded in the Discourses they present. The participants’ self-referencing creates context and meaning for both their own, and the other participants’, interpretation of their comments. The Participatory Spaces framework also highlights the need for revisions to Du Bois’ Stance Triangle. Specifically, I argue that adapting the Triangle to include multiple objects of stance, segmenting the audience, and including participants’ histories, provides a tool for understanding YouTube interaction and the role self-referencing plays in these practices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Performing weight change : a performative reading of reality-making through a relationship of meaning and doing : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in English at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2009) Caseley, Allyson June
    Reading the reality-making processes that create bodies in weight change performances challenges us to understand the relationships between meanings and actions, or between discourses and materiality. This study uses a performative model to elaborate how discourses and materiality can be read in texts in such a way to bring transparency to the process of materiality-making, agency and causality. The texts used in this study are transcribed interviews of participants who identified themselves as undergoing weight change. Reading weight and body-making as a discursive-material relationship enriches a shared understanding in the interdisciplinary space of psychology and English. The performative model chosen for this study offers sufficient structure to read both the generic features of reality-making and individually-nuanced reality-making practices, presenting psychologists with a sophisticated understanding of change processes. To read reality-making with detailed transparency, we require tools of analysis that can directly read discourses and actions as shared spaces of relationship, through which material entities can emerge. For such tools of analysis, this study utilizes and extends the model of performativity offered by Dr Karen Barad (2007). In using this model to read text performatively, the unique features that are creating performances of weight change are accessed through a reading of boundary-making practices, through the relationship between meaning and doing that establishes what matters in accessing possibilities for meaning and possibilities for doing, and through the elaboration of subject-object relationships into a sequenced performance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    A Foucaultian discourse analysis of educational 'underachievement' : psychology's run away concept : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Eggleton, Tamsin
    Underachievement is a dominant feature in educational discourse; it is often framed as a ‘crisis’ affecting different social groups, or even whole countries. A particularly common depiction of underachievement is that of a ‘gap’ affecting ethnic minority and working class groups. Nearly 60 years of research, reform and policy attempts to address this ‘gap’ have made little progress in lifting achievement levels. This paper uses a Foucaultian discourse analysis method to encourage a reformulation of underachievement discourse, particularly as it relates to minority ethnic students. A genealogy of the conditions of possibility which gave rise to underachievement reveals this concept and its related assumptions and processes (such as testing) to be part of a broader system of power relations which structure education in favour of dominant cultural and economic needs. The discipline of psychology has been instrumental in providing a supposed scientific basis to the dominant educational values of scientific management, efficiency and neoliberalism. This thesis posits that underachievement is a socially located concept which is able to exist and shape social realities due to its convenience to dominant educational and cultural practices. In revealing the social nature of psychological knowledge on underachievement, psychology’s claims of the possibility of objective social knowledge under post-positivistic, empirical methods are also brought into question. Keywords: Underachievement, Foucault, Discourse Analysis, Genealogy, Psychology, Education
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Judicial experiences : a discourse analysis of Family Courts judges' talk about domestic violence : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MAster of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2005) Thompson, Juliet Louise
    Domestic violence toward women and children is a serious and prevalent issue in New Zealand society. It has both serious physical and psychological effects on all victims, including children who only witness the violence. This research focuses on Family Court Judges' responses to domestic violence and asks how these Judges make sense of domestic violence and work within the Domestic Violence Act 1995 to provide effective protection for victims. The framework of this research is feminist post-structuralism. This framework argues that there is no one singular objective truth but that all objects are dynamic and are constructed by talk. The meaning of objects and the position of subjects depend on discourses that are culturally and historically specific rather than individual attitudes or independent facts To examine the response of the Family Court Judges two Judges were interviewed and two published papers taken from speeches made by Judges were chosen for analysis. The results of the discursive analysis indicate that within the legal discourse there is a move away from valuing the role of women's groups and feminist theory in regard to the construction of domestic violence. The current construction of domestic violence within the Judges' talk tended to value the role of father's rights groups and the patriarchal familial construction of the father/child relationship. Domestic violence is being constructed more in terms of provocation rather than in terms of power and control, which is the feminist construction of domestic violence that current legislation is based upon. These differences between the legal discourse and feminist discourse constructions of domestic violence raise important questions as to how the aims of the Domestic Violence Act are being constructed by the Judges and whether these constructions are impacting on the effective protection of domestic violence victims.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Contaminated democracy : a discourse analysis of the submissions to the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Sociology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2003) Tucker, Corrina Adele
    This thesis investigated the practice of democracy in the Royal Commission of Genetic Modification, using a constructivist discourse methodology that drew on Mannhiem's sociology of knowledge, with a critical analysis of institutional power. Conflicting worldviews materialised in the sampled Royal Commission submissions, revealing a vast majority of submissions united by a vision of a 'GE-free' New Zealand. This majority stance was however pushed aside, with views expressed in the largely pro-GM Interested Person submissions proving dominant, contaminating the ideal of democracy. The Interested Person submissions are however more complex. A century old bureaucratic legislation promoted the contamination of democracy. Section 4A of the Commission of Inquiry Act 1908 excluded individuals and various groups from being heard by the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. A consequence of such excluding was that the Royal Commission report presented a skewed analysis of the Interested Person submissions, unjustly favouring a pro-GM stance.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    "It's just such a problem, really" : a discourse analysis of young women's talk on contraception : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1998) Watson, Lucy
    A discourse analysis was undertaken of young women's discussion of their experiences and concerns with choosing and using contraception. Ten women, aged between 21 and 25, with experience of using contraception, were individually interviewed by the author using an open, loosely structured interviewing schedule. Transcripts of the interviews were made and formed the object of analysis. The focus of the analysis was influenced predominantly by Parker's conception of discourse analysis (1990, 1992). Six main discourses were identified in the participants' talk; the moral discourse, sexual desire discourse, natural health discourse, live life discourse, individual responsibility discourse, and equality discourse. Participants' use of the discourses was found to be concentrated around three particular topic areas; choosing and using contraception, non-use of contraception, and the responsibility of contraception. Women's discussion of the issues involved in contraception use involved a complex and often contradictory negotiation of the identified discourses. Participants predominantly drew on the discourses to explain their contraceptive decisions and preferences, to justify 'risky' behaviour, and to point out inadequacies in the range of contraceptives available. An examination was also made of the function of the discourses in Western society in general, and of their histories in Western culture. An understanding of women's constructions of the issues involved in contraception use is valuable for all women, as well as for health professionals and others involved in counselling and advising women in the area of contraceptive decision-making and use.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    School principals' talk about mainstreaming - a study in discourse analysis : a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Educational Administration at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1994) Thorburn, Janice Evelyn
    The interview accounts of nine urban, regular school principals are examined to identify the different positions held by these principals on the issue of the mainstreaming or inclusion of students with disabilities and special needs in regular schools. Applying the methodology discourse analysis, the different positions are investigated, and their implications explored, in terms of the ways they are justified in the context of wider beliefs and conceptions about the nature of education and the nature of disability. The literature review describes the development of special education in New Zealand, the growing practice of mainstreaming, and the significance of the emergence of the Regular Education Initiative to the mainstreaming debate. The conflict in the debate is seen to lie in the differing conceptions people hold about the nature of education and the nature of disability. These conceptions are fully explored and applied as discourses within the debate. Discourse analysis as a methodology is described in detail and the results of the analysis are reported in reference to the seven main discourses identified. Four of the discourses - the pro status quo, the medical, the lay and the charity discourses - are described as divisive discourses in that they in effect deny the equal rights of students with special needs to attend regular schools. Two other discourses - the rights and the proactive discourses - are described as inclusive, in that they argue for the rights of students with disabilities or special needs to be included in their neighbourhood schools and classes. A seventh discourse, the critical discourse, can be employed as a divisive or as an inclusive discourse. It is claimed that this study has increased the potential for critical analysis of the mainstreaming debate in two main ways: firstly, by applying Fulcher's four identified discourses of disability to accounts by school leaders in the New Zealand setting (Fulcher, 1989); and, secondly, by identifying from the literature and the data three further discourses and applying these to the debate. These three discourses provide further tools that enable educators and others to critically analyze their positions in the debate. It is hoped that critical analysis of discourses will lead to the challenging or current segregating practices in the education of students with special needs, and to more support and acceptance of their inclusion in regular classes and schools.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Client and clinician experiences of dialectical behaviour therapy : a discourse analysis : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Simons, Melanie K M
    Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) is recommended as the treatment of choice for people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) in New Zealand. This research presents four studies examining the experience of DBT. Discourse analysis was used to examine 27 clinical journal articles with the aim of identifying discourses about BPD and DBT likely to be read by practising clinicians. A second study examined interview data from five practising DBT clinicians in a New Zealand District Health Board (DHB). The third study looked at interview data from five clients, who were undertaking the DBT programme at the same DHB. A fourth study used three case studies to discuss client changes in mindfulness and quality of life, as they participated in DBT. The discourses associated with BPD were of BPD as an illness, as a stigmatising label with connotations of a difficult client group, as a means of ‘making sense’ of the clients’ experience, and as emotion dysregulation and a skills deficit. DBT was constructed as providing skills which enabled clients (and clinicians) to manage distress in their lives. Clients described themselves as changing in a fundamental way, and assuming new identities, which was a frightening (albeit positive) process. DBT was constructed as well researched and theory based, and as a coherent whole which was also divisible into functional elements. Clients and clinicians were found to utilise different discourses to position themselves and to validate their behaviour in various situations. DBT was constructed as helpful within all the studies, and was promoted as a worthwhile therapy by all participants.