Viviane de Melo Resende

Between the European legacy and critical daring: epistemological reflections for critical discourse analysis

Abstract The colonialism of knowledge in Latin America has led as a consequence to the forming of a body of researchers competent in understanding and applying theories and methods but who are petrified at their own ideas as they always need to be legitimated by foreign thinkers. The problem is that creativity plays a fundamental role in scientific progress and in creating theory. Our low scientific self-esteem has made us hostage to imported progress given that we do not see ourselves in many instances as being able to contribute effectively in developing the theories we use. In this essay, I seek to deconstruct this logic by establishing a dialogue between the European legacy in critical discourse analysis in its interdisciplinary relation with critical realism and epistemological reflection that identifies contradictions in the manner in which this relation has been concretised in research studies. What I propose is not a discussion in the sense of a debate that seeks to establish truth but rather a dialogue that aims at mutual comprehension, construction through the word.

Critical discourse analysis and ethnography: the crisis in the national street children’s movement in Brazil

In this article, I explore the epistemological and methodological dimensions of my research regarding representation and identification in the context of the National Street Children Movement in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. The research, carried out between 2005 and 2008, is theoretically informed by Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Realism. My aim is to show the relations between research dimensions, research questions, methods and ontological components, in accordance to this theoretical background. In order to do so, I also describe the methods used in the field and discuss some of the research outcomes.In this article, I explore the epistemological and methodological dimensions of my research regarding representation and identification in the context of the National Street Children Movement in Brasilia, the capital of Brazil. The research, carried out between 2005 and 2008, is theoretically informed by Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Realism. My aim is to show the relations between research dimensions, research questions, methods and ontological components, in accordance to this theoretical background. In order to do so, I also describe the methods used in the field and discuss some of the research outcomes.

Media, sexual exploitation of children and the National Street Children's Movement in Brasília: an analysis of texts' social effects

In this paper, my purpose is to discuss the inner relation between language and society, based on a series of reports on sexual exploitation of children in Brasília, published in Correio Braziliense, and on interviews with an educator of the National Street Childrens Movement (‘Movimento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas de Rua’ – MNMMR/DF). I will discuss the social effects of the texts published in the newspaper, in terms of its implication for the MNMMR/DF and for the formulation of public policies for children living on the street.

DIREITOS HUMANOS PARA QUEM? POLÍTICAS PÚBLICAS E REPRESENTAÇÃO DA GESTÃO ESPACIAL DA POBREZA URBANA EM O GLOBO

O objetivo geral do projeto “Representacao midiatica da violacao de direitos e da violencia contra pessoas em situacao de rua no jornalismo on-line” (CNPq 304075/2014-0) e mapear e analisar representacoes da situacao de rua na producao discursiva dos portais de noticias online de tres jornais de circulacao nacional – Folha de S. Paulo, O Globo e Correio Braziliense. Para tanto, foi realizado um mapeamento abrangente dessas publicacoes, com coleta de todos os textos publicados no periodo considerado para a pesquisa – de 2011 a 2013 – que resultaram das buscas por palavras-chave, levando a cerca de 750 textos. Este artigo toma um foco parcial dos dados do projeto, situando formas como o jornal O Globo representa a populacao em situacao de rua em noticias que tematizam politicas publicas. Os textos foram analisados em seus aspectos verbais e visuais, com ferramentas da analise de discurso critica e da gramatica do design visual. Os resultados analiticos apontam a enfase das noticias na ocupacao do espaco publico, tanto nas imagens como nos textos verbais. A naturalizacao da distribuicao desigual de recursos, da separacao entre classes e da escassez ao lado do privilegio da o tom das noticias, pelas relacoes locativas que se desenham. Ha espacos de privilegio que sao impenetraveis para segmentos populacionais que nao disponham dos recursos condizentes. A desigualdade e normalizada, inclusive pelo recurso da ironia, no caso dos textos verbais.

REPRESENTAÇÃO DA SITUAÇÃO DE RUA NO JORNALISMO ELETRÔNICO EM TEXTOS VERBO-VISUAIS – A VIOLÊNCIA EM DISCURSO NO CORREIO BRAZILIENSE (2011-2013)

This paper discusses part of a research project aiming to investigate texts about homelessness published between 2011 and 2013 in the newspapers Correio Braziliense, O Globo and Folha de S. Paulo. In this paper, we analyze only the 95 texts published in Correio Braziliense crossing the themes homelessness and violence, and the 19 images that compose these texts. To organize data, we have used software for qualitative analysis, and textual analyses were driven by critical discourse analysis and the grammar of visual design. Taken together, the results suggest the naturalization of violence against the homeless population, in a rhetorical effect of distancing, which does not provoke empathy between those who read the newspaper and the victims of the represented violence.

Decolonizing critical discourse studies: for a Latin American perspective

ABSTRACT Regarding an already consolidated tradition in discourse studies in Latin America, with featured importance in graduate programs in the field of Linguistics and a busy calendar of annual events in the field, it is possible to say that there is considerable amount of imported knowledge being applied and very little creativity in local theoretical or methodological production. Discourse studies are generally divided into two main schools of thought: French discourse analysis and English discourse analysis. The denomination that represents these lines of discourse sheds light on the colonized nature of the field. This colonization of discourse knowledge, in more immediate terms, indicates considerable effort applied to theories viewed as universally valid and scarcely modified for the situated context, but it also shows the implications of being a discourse analyst in a subordinate space within the academic field – a place where we, Latin American discourse researchers, occupy compared to our colleagues in the global North – and about contemplating theoretical alternatives. The decolonizing effort of this field should thus be directed to three converging paths: decolonizing knowledge, in the sense of criticizing theories and methods while understanding that there is no universal knowledge; decolonizing the power of the creative act of overcoming this universalizing knowledge, which means accepting the force of local methodological and theoretical production, especially by constantly questioning disciplinary separation and its impositions; and decolonizing the being, making strategic use of this paradoxical space, which contains the possibilities of knowledge communion, also including common knowledge. All this should have an impact on graduate-level education in discursive studies, in a virtuous cycle between consciousness, criticism and creativity.ABSTRACTRegarding an already consolidated tradition in discourse studies in Latin America, with featured importance in graduate programs in the field of Linguistics and a busy calendar of annual events in the field, it is possible to say that there is considerable amount of imported knowledge being applied and very little creativity in local theoretical or methodological production. Discourse studies are generally divided into two main schools of thought: French discourse analysis and English discourse analysis. The denomination that represents these lines of discourse sheds light on the colonized nature of the field. This colonization of discourse knowledge, in more immediate terms, indicates considerable effort applied to theories viewed as universally valid and scarcely modified for the situated context, but it also shows the implications of being a discourse analyst in a subordinate space within the academic field – a place where we, Latin American discourse researchers, occupy compared to our colleag...

Discurso e protagonismo : população em situação de rua na produção discursiva de O Trecheiro

In this paper, which aims to discuss protagonism and language, we focus on interviews with the editor of the newspaper O Trecheiro and a text published in the same newspaper. These data illustrate issues of discursive access central to the debate of protagonism in language. The authorial position of texts with access to discursive spaces is a crucial aspect when linking protagonism and language. For this reason, analyzing how the objective position of author is subjectively occupied is relevant to understanding the role of an alternative media vehicle in promoting change in society.

Representação de pessoas em situação de rua no jornalismo on-line: quais são as vozes

Resumo : Parte do projeto de pesquisa “Representacao midiatica da violacao de direitos e da violencia contra pessoas em situacao de rua no jornalismo on-line” (CNPq 304075/2014-0), este trabalho focaliza formas como a midia jornalistica eletronica brasileira representa a populacao em situacao de rua em noticias. Com base nos estudos discursivos criticos, e tirando proveito dos ambientes de investigacao constituidos na Rede Latino-Americana de Analise de Discurso Critica sobre a Pobreza (REDLAD/ALED), no Nucleo de Estudos de Linguagem e Sociedade (NELiS/UnB) e no Laboratorio de Estudos Criticos do Discurso (LabEC/ UnB), a investigacao focaliza a extrema pobreza como problema social que inclui facetas discursivas, ja que os modos como se representa a situacao de rua em textos tem influencia sobre os modos como a sociedade compreende o problema e reage a ele, o que tambem impacta sobre os modos como pessoas que enfrentam a situacao de rua se identificam e se relacionam no tecido social. Assim, abordam-se facetas semioticas dessa problematica, tendo como foco especifico a pesquisa documental de textos noticiosos publicados na midia eletronica, no Brasil, acerca desse grupo populacional. Os objetos da investigacao sao textos coletados nos portais dos jornais O Globo , Correio Braziliense e Folha de S. Paulo , considerado o recorte temporal de 2011 a 2013. Os dados coletados nos tres portais de noticias, resultando mais de 750 textos, foram organizados com auxilio do software NVivo, e analisados com base em categorias discursivas propostas em ADC. As analises mostram quais vozes sao convocadas para falar da situacao de rua nesses corpora , deixando ver que vozes em situacao de rua aparecem apenas em contextos bastante especificos. Nos dados analisados, pessoas em situacao de rua sao avaliadas principalmente na articulacao de vozes de moradores/as locais, com predominância de avaliacoes como ‘incomodas’ e ‘perigosas’. Palavras-chave : Analise de Discurso Critica; NVivo; representacao; situacao de rua; jornalismo eletronico. Abstract : Part of the research project “Media representation of violation of rights and violence against homeless people in online journalism” (CNPq 304075/2014-0), this paper focuses on the ways the Brazilian electronic news media represents homeless people in the news. Based upon Critical Discourse Analysis, and taking advantage of research environments of the Latin American Network of Critical Discourse Analysis of Poverty (REDLAD), the Center for Studies in Language and Society (NELiS/UnB) and the Critical Discourse Studies Laboratory (LabEC/UnB), the research focuses on extreme poverty as a social problem with discursive facets. The project approaches semiotic aspects of this problem, with the specific focus on documentary research of news articles published in the electronic media, in Brazil, about this population group. The objects of research are texts collected in the portals of the newspapers O Globo , Correio Braziliense and Folha de S. Paulo , considered the time frame of 2011 to 2013. Data collected in these three news portals, resulting in more than 750 texts, were organized with the software NVivo, and analyzed under discursive categories proposed in Critical Discourse Analysis. Analyses show what voices are invited to talk about the homeless in these corpora . Keywords : Critical Discourse Analysis; NVivo; Representation; Homelessness; Electronic Journalism.

Discursive representation and violation of homeless people’s rights: Symbolic violence in Brazilian online journalism

This article is part of the research project ‘Representação midiática da violação de direitos e da violência contra pessoas em situação de rua no jornalismo on-line’, associated with Red Latinoamericana de Análisis Crítico del Discurso de la Extrema Pobreza (REDLAD), and focuses upon the ways in which electronic news media represent homeless people in Brazil. The focus is a pair of texts, related through internal hyperlinks, about the controversy concerning the installation of a social center in a middle-class neighborhood in central Sao Paulo. The texts are analyzed on the theoretical basis of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and considering the following analytical categories: metaphor, representation of social actors and intertextuality. Analyses show a scenario of ‘invasion by unwelcome people’, who are not perceived as rights holders, but as a threat to the rights of others.This article is part of the research project ‘Representacao midiatica da violacao de direitos e da violencia contra pessoas em situacao de rua no jornalismo on-line’, associated with Red Latinoamer...

Critical discourse analysis: voice, silence and memory – one case about public sphere

ABSTRACT Created under the government of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2009, the National Policy for the Inclusion of Homeless People in Brazil was implemented at a time of unprecedented federal political concern on the public debate of homelessness. In 2012, Federal District (Brasilia) was the first unit in the federation to formally join this National Policy. In this paper, with theoretical basis in the version of critical discourse analysis initially formulated by Fairclough, we focus on the uses of language in an inter-sectorial and paritary committee (in terms of, respectively, the participation of (a) different sectors of government and (b) government and civil society) created in this context. The committee was formed in order to track and monitor the Policy for the Inclusion of Homeless People in the Federal District. Articulating the concept of public sphere by Habermas, we discuss the 2013 implementation of the Inter-Sectorial Committee for Monitoring the Policy for the Inclusion of Homeless People in the Federal District. In the Brazilian case, one can say we are facing a favorable occasion for the consolidation of public sphere in the debate over homelessness, and for establishing public policies confronting it. The problem here is the difficulty to maintain, given the peculiarities of people who have dealt with homelessness and their previous relationships with government institutions, an effective dialogue, without which the public sphere is put at risk. This problem has discursive facets: even though parity committees are formed, how does one ensure the effective participation of people in homelessness in these discussions? What discursive barriers could there be to an effective public sphere in this case? Discussing this conjuncture and the particular practice it promotes in the Federal District, we reflect on the implications of power relations, discursively performed, on the effectiveness of the public sphere in this arena. Since we participate in the committee as representatives of the Permanent Forum of the Homeless Population in the Federal District, we take three committee meetings , held in 2013, to analyze discursive strategies, reflecting upon how they restrict the dialogic potential of the committee through instantiated genres, discourses and styles.