Cultural Studies, Critical Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis: Histories, Remembering and Futures

In this paper I have explored some of the histories which inevitably connect, but also differentiate, critical discourse analysis and cultural studies. I have argued that both are strongly influenced by the versions of critical theory which have been characterised as 'postmodernism' and 'poststructuralism' and that both could benefit not only from some serious engagement with the several disciplines from which their interdisciplinarity is derived but also from some further in depth exploration of the critical theory which informs them and which they have often 'translated' or 'co-opted' in reductionist ways. I have also argued that the claims sometimes made for critical discourse analysis are inflated and that without serious ethnographies and attention to the theorisation as well as research of contexts those claims cannot really be sustained. On the other hand 'resignification' or the cultural politics of CDA are important agendas and we need to do much more work on establishing exactly how social change can be effected through the kinds of work CDA could do. My conclusion is that we need to reframe and recontextualise the ways in which we define and perform CDA and that that will involve bringing cultural studies and critical discourse analysis together in productive new ways with other disciplinary and theoretical formations and with proper attention to the new and different global and local contexts in which we work

Towards the professionalisation of public relations in Malaysia: perception management & strategy development.

The aim of this study is to explore how the status and standards of public relations as a profession are perceived by the three main groups involved in public relations: academics, practitioners, and business leaders. It is concluded that public relations can be a ‘true’ profession if all parties involved are united and committed to developing standardised, universal forms of public relations practise

SEMIOTICS-IDEOLOGY -LANGUAGE

... "For ideology operates, not so much as a coherent system of statements imposed on a population from above, but rather through a complex series of mechanisms whereby meaning is mobilised in the discursive practices of everyday life for the maintenance of relations of domination. It is of the utmost importance, therefore, to search for ways in which the theory of ideology can be linked with methods for the analysis of the discursive forms in which ideology is expressed." (Thompson 1984:64). Some introductions exceed their generic purpose. This will be such an introduction. In it I want to range beyond the specific papers contained in this collection and to explore work done since the conference. This work which is related to issues raised in the conference papers, suggests directions in which a semiotic theory of language and ideology might lie

SUBJECTIVITY, IDEOLOGY AND THE FEMININE IN JOHN DONNE'S POETRY

This paper will explore some of the directions that a semiotically based theory of ideology might need to pursue. The theory in the paper comes from many sources, but is based primarily on the notion of language as social semiotic (Halliday 1978), seeing language as actively symbolising the social system, its pattern of variation representing metaphorically the variation that characterises human cultures. A systemic-functional analysis of the lexica-grammar of a group of poems on apparently diverse themes from John Donne's poetry reveals that a remarkably narrow set of choices in meaning is actually made. There are certain regularities in the situation types (the semiotic construct of context) which the poems enact/encore and these seem to impose limitations on the register or kinds of choices in meaning that can be made. Intertextually, the choices tend to be recurrent, both in grammar, and across the semantic fields spanned by the lexis

Legal Witchcraft and the Craft of Fiction: Wik and its Literary Precedents

The article considers the institutions of literature, law, politics, and economics are all forms of representation forming a sociocutlural network, and examines the law and literature about Aboriginal/white relations and their part in the Wik legal debate

Immigration and inclusion in South Wales

This research explores the impact of new migration on receiving communities, in particular on community, integration and cohesion. Based on research carried out in Cardiff and Merthyr Tydfil, it explores the perspectives of both new and settled residents. Key points For new migrants, economic integration seemed a necessary precursor for inclusion and cohesion; those who were able to work were viewed more favourably by settled populations. But economic integration was no guarantee. Discrimination and negative media portrayals were cited as particular barriers by new migrants, while in some apparently integrated and cohesive settled contexts, particular vulnerable groups (e.g. older people and women) remained excluded. These amounts are after income tax, and do not include housing or childcare costs. There was no evidence that community tensions are an inevitable consequence of new immigration. White immigration, whether middle-class professional, student or migrant worker, appeared to be invisible to local populations in Cardiff. Educated migrants with good English, whatever their ethnic or national background or migrant status, and whether living in deprived or affluent areas, integrated more easily than others. Age-based and generational tensions of different kinds existed across all the groups and geographical areas studied. Among young people, some expressed hostility toward migrants; others shared education, sport and social outings together. Older people in all groups expressed anxieties about the behaviours of young people. Poverty and deprivation had a direct and negative impact on inclusion and cohesion in the case study areas. People who were poor or living in deprived areas, from both migrant and settled communities, felt they were treated poorly by those in positions of power and described similar discrimination and attitudes among service providers. Visibly different migrant interviewees related this to issues of race, but the research suggests that it is also class-based. Social class differences were a complex but important factor in shaping people's experiences of inclusion and cohesion and in shaping community responses to new migration

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Critical and Feminist Legacies: Unmaking law to make better futures. An Introduction to a Celebration of Penny Pether’s Life and Work

When I first delivered this paper at the symposium to honour Penny’s life and work, I began by declaring my intention to quote her often, to ensure that she would be heard at the event, as she had been heard at so many others previously. As I said at the time, I did this because I knew Penny would have been very cross if she was not allowed to speak. In this, the written version of that paper, I still intend to quote her often and for the same reasons but I also intend to do so because I believe that what she had to say matters. It intervened, it changed things, it challenged the taken for granted – and it still does. I spent a lot of time re-reading Penny’s words in preparation for the symposium, and like the good structuralist that I always was, I found a whole series of patterns, strategies and theoretical narratives in what I read. I had always known they were there but the process of re-membering, re-working and re-writing, made them much more explicit than they had been in the reality and practice of working with her. I also began to see patterns and strategies I had not recognised at the time and to re-cover the sheer fun and excitement, as well as the absolute seriousness, of what working with her had been like