Environmental Activism- a Threatening Outside? A Discourse Analysis of a Non-violent Civil Disobedience Protest in Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
This study examines the identity construction of environmental activists in discourse following
a political protest in Stockholm, Sweden. More specifically it aims to understand how
environmental activists have been subjected to securitisation, and what underlying ideology
supports this perception. It follows the poststructuralist assumption that language is not
objective nor fixed and is instead vital in producing and reproducing political and social reality.
Hence, through qualitative research of political statements, newspaper articles, and debates this
study finds that environmental activists have been depicted as operating ‘outside’ of formal
politics in dominant discourse. The portrayal of environmental activists as a ‘constitutive
outside’ has also worked as a prerequisite for them to be subjected to securitisation – viewed
as posing fundamental threats to hegemonic ideas of what constitutes legitimate protest. Often
this notion is guided by deliberative democracy as the rational way of politics. These findings
were emphasised using signifying chains to comprehend how environmental activists are seen
as ‘deviant’ in dominant discourse. Along with this, neoliberal ideology seems a vital
component in the creation of what constitute legitimate political activity.
Degree
Student essay
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Date
2023-11-08Author
Wahlgren Eales, Kandra
Keywords
securitisation
discourse analysis
non-violent civil disobedience
poststructuralism
hegemony
deliberative democracy
neoliberalism
Language
eng