By virtue of a number of linguistic and discursive investigations, this special issue of the IJLS aims to map out different forms of knowledge concerning disability with a particular focus on the issues of shame and discrimination. The purpose the guest editors had in mind was not only to explore how the phenomenon of disability is portrayed in a series of relevant contexts, but also to tease out the social, moral, cultural, and political implications of such representations and discursive construals. If, as is widely agreed, there are inextricable relations between discourse, cognition, and society (van Dijk, 1996), then discourse structures can be said to express and mirror the structures of mental models. As these models are, in turn, related to permanent social representations such as knowledge, attitudes, and ideologies, they consequently shape definitions, events, and identities. All the contributions included in this special issue explore the role that language and discourse play in the construction of disability, approaching it from a plurality of angles and perspectives. Discourse analysis, with its investigation of language in use (Fairclough, 2001), is the privileged lens adopted by contributors—in the form of Social-Semiotic Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Media Discourse Analysis, Corpus-based Discourse Analysis, Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. We hope that this Special Issue of the IJLS can serve to enhance awareness of the many existing inequalities that the more vulnerable segments of society still face on a daily basis. New ways of thinking about physical or mental impairments must emerge together with a focus shift away from the vilification of persons with disabilities, the deficiencies of a disabling society, and the fallacies of an ableist culture onto a reflection in terms of identity politics.

Disability, Shame and Discrimination

Hughes B.
;
Nisco M. C.
2022-01-01

Abstract

By virtue of a number of linguistic and discursive investigations, this special issue of the IJLS aims to map out different forms of knowledge concerning disability with a particular focus on the issues of shame and discrimination. The purpose the guest editors had in mind was not only to explore how the phenomenon of disability is portrayed in a series of relevant contexts, but also to tease out the social, moral, cultural, and political implications of such representations and discursive construals. If, as is widely agreed, there are inextricable relations between discourse, cognition, and society (van Dijk, 1996), then discourse structures can be said to express and mirror the structures of mental models. As these models are, in turn, related to permanent social representations such as knowledge, attitudes, and ideologies, they consequently shape definitions, events, and identities. All the contributions included in this special issue explore the role that language and discourse play in the construction of disability, approaching it from a plurality of angles and perspectives. Discourse analysis, with its investigation of language in use (Fairclough, 2001), is the privileged lens adopted by contributors—in the form of Social-Semiotic Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Media Discourse Analysis, Corpus-based Discourse Analysis, Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis. We hope that this Special Issue of the IJLS can serve to enhance awareness of the many existing inequalities that the more vulnerable segments of society still face on a daily basis. New ways of thinking about physical or mental impairments must emerge together with a focus shift away from the vilification of persons with disabilities, the deficiencies of a disabling society, and the fallacies of an ableist culture onto a reflection in terms of identity politics.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11367/109996
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