This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Ietcu, I. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Argumentation, dialogue and conflicting moral economies in post-1989 Romania: an argument against the trade union movement

Isabela Iecu

University of Bucharest

This article analyzes a representative newspaper article on transition to a market economy in Romania, in particular on the role of the trade union movement, by H.-R. Patapievici, a prominent public intellectual. The analytical framework combines critical discourse analysis (CDA), theories of argumentation, in particular pragma-dialectics, and a theory of modality in terms of distinct types of ‘conversational backgrounds’ of premises that arguers draw on in reasoning. I propose this integrated framework as an original contribution to the development of CDA as a method of textual analysis. I discuss a variety of argumentative fallacies and the way in which they prevent substantive dialogue with a range of relevant views. I relate the protagonist’s ‘strategic maneuvering’ to the pursuit of political strategies and to particular forms of recontextualization of liberal discourses in post-communism. I analyze the normative backgrounds that underlie argumentation in terms of conflicting moral economies and the way in which ‘strategic maneuvering’ functions to obscure ethical perspectives grounded in social justice and individual rights, and universalize and naturalize a particular ideological and moral perspective.

Key Words: argumentation • critical discourse analysis • dialogue • fallacies • H.-R. Patapievici • liberalism • modality • moral economy • post-communism • pragma-dialectics • social justice • strategic maneuvering • trade unions • transition in East-Central Europe

Discourse & Society, Vol. 17, No. 5, 627-650 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0957926506066348


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?