Political discourse and the re-branding of NZ national identity

aut.conference.typePaper Published in Proceedings
aut.researcherSmith, Philippa Karen
dc.contributor.authorSmith, P
dc.date.accessioned2014-10-24T01:02:55Z
dc.date.available2014-10-24T01:02:55Z
dc.date.copyright2014-09-06
dc.date.issued2014-09-06
dc.description.abstractThe New Zealand Government’s construction of an all-inclusive national identity in the early 2000s was imagined in terms of “the New Zealand Way” – a term used by politicians that clearly echoed Britain’s Third Way politics that emerged in the mid-1990s. Key to this concept was a promoted focus on a new shared national identity for all New Zealanders, regardless of their ethnicity, that would provide the foundation for the building of a socially cohesive society in an increasingly diverse country. In applying the “discourse-historical” approach of Critical Discourse Analysis (Wodak, 2001) I examine the political rhetoric between 2005 and 2008 whereby New Zealand’s Labour-led government pursued a nation-building strategy to communicate in both domestic and global contexts a positive image of a stable country capable of competing economically on the world stage. In analysing the official discourse in a number of political texts I highlight the use of a range of discursive strategies by which people both within and outside the nation could be assisted, if not persuaded or cajoled, to imagine or think of New Zealand society in a certain way. This can be interpreted as “official legitimating discourse…[that] contributes to the management and the reproduction of power” (Martin-Rojo and van Dijk, 1997, p. 562). I argue that the Government’s promotion of an inclusive society was not only an essential part of its rebranding of the nation (Dinnie, 2008), but it was also a way to position New Zealanders as global citizens as well as national citizens. Dinnie, K. (2008). Nation branding: Concepts, issues, practice. Oxford, England: Butterworth Heinemman. Martin-Rojo, L., & van Dijk, T. (1997). 'There was a problem, and it was solved!' Legitimating the expulsion of 'illegal' immigrants in Spanish parliamentary discourse. Discourse & Society, 8(4), 523–567. Wodak, R. (2001). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (pp. 63–94). London, England: Sage.
dc.identifier.citationBritish Association of Applied Linguistics held at University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom, 2014-09-04 to 2014-10-06
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10292/7797
dc.publisherThe Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, Coventry
dc.relation.urihttp://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/al/research/conferences/baal_2014/programme/programme_baal_02092014_1530.pdf
dc.rightsNOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in (see Citation). The original publication is available at (see Publisher's Version).
dc.rights.accessrightsOpenAccess
dc.titlePolitical discourse and the re-branding of NZ national identity
dc.typeConference Contribution
pubs.elements-id174225
pubs.organisational-data/AUT
pubs.organisational-data/AUT/Culture and Society
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
P Smith - Why rebrand NZ FINAL.pptx
Size:
504.24 KB
Format:
Microsoft Powerpoint 2007+
Description:
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
P Smith - Why rebrand NZ FINAL.pdf
Size:
456.56 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
licence.htm
Size:
30.34 KB
Format:
Unknown data format
Description: