Constructing the secular imagined community : a critical intercultural analysis of discourses of laïcité from Le Monde
Published in
Jyväskylä studies in humanitiesAuthors
Date
2016Discipline
Kulttuurienvälinen viestintäThe concept of secularism encompasses numerous aspects beyond the
regulation of relations between the State and Churches. Using a critical
intercultural communication framework, this research project explores the
interplay between secularism, culture, religion, identity, and collective
representations. Specifically, this study focuses on laïcité, the concept of
secularism used in France. Previous studies have criticized laïcité for being
biased and contributing to inequalities between communities in France. The
pervasive (and false) representation of laïcité as originally and exclusively
French has also been criticized. In the light of the concerns raised by previous
studies, this study sets out to investigate (1) how knowledge about laïcité was
constructed in a selection of articles from the newspaper Le Monde and (2) with
which implications regarding power relations in France. This research project is
informed by social constructionism and draws on concepts from critical
intercultural communication, cultural and feminist studies, and a Foucaultian
approach to discourse. This study includes four articles, one theoretical and
three empirical. The first one explores how culture has been tackled in recent
media studies and reflects on the use of critical intercultural communication to
examine the construction of cultural realities in media texts. All three other
articles use data from the newspaper Le Monde to respectively look at (i)
strategic uses of the concept of culture as opposed to religion, (ii) collective memories
evoked to associate laïcité with specific representations of the imagined
community, and (iv) identity categories made relevant in discourses of laïcité.
Results draw attention to the complexity, variety, and agency of using culture
as a discursive resource. Findings reveal ways in which culture can be
strategically evoked to normalize representations and emphasize differences
between practices and individuals. This research project offers insights into
post-racial expressions of racism and their practical implications as regards
categorizations of individuals.
...
Publisher
University of JyväskyläISBN
978-951-39-6822-9ISSN Search the Publication Forum
1459-4331Keywords
Le Monde kuvitellut yhteisöt imagined communities social contructionism cultural studies feminist studies Foucault critical intercultural communication culture laïcité France identity imagined community media representations power maallistuminen yhteisöt yhteisöllisyys kulttuurienvälinen vuorovaikutus kulttuurienvälisyys monikulttuurisuus kulttuurienvälinen tutkimus diskurssintutkimus media joukkoviestimet mediatutkimus representaatio valta identiteetti uskonto Ranska
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