ABSTRACT

Highlighting a number of perspectives from critical social theory and research as well as critical language and discourse studies, this paper explores conceptions of normalisation particularly relevant to the analysis of its dynamics and trajectories in public discourse. Starting by disentangling the complex relationship between norms, normality, normalization and discourse, the article argues that two major trends in research on normalization – of violence and deviance – have been particularly influential in designing theories and analyses of normalisation processes. They have also been pivotal in pointing to path-dependencies of normalization processes, to the centrality of classification, distinction and stigmatization or to the role of pre-/legitimation and legitimation via social imaginaries as those which characterise the introduction and communication of new norms and normativites in the public domain. Crucially, many of those features of normalization are often both sustained and nested in context-dependent formats of normalization discourse. The latter, drawing on a wide array of discursive and linguistic features explored in the article, effectively enables the orchestration of new discursive shifts in public discourse as well as the introduction and pre-/legitimation of new or recontextualised norms and perceptions of what is, and what is not, acceptable and unacceptable in politics, media, institutions and beyond.

摘要

本文着重从批判性社会理论和研究以及批判性语言和话语研究的角度出发，探索规范化的概念，特别是与规范其在公共话语中的动态和轨迹分析相关的概念。本文首先从规范，正常性，规范化和话语之间的复杂关系解开出发，认为在规范化研究的两个主要趋势（暴力和偏差）对设计理论和规范化过程的分析特别有影响。在指出归一化过程的路径依赖性，分类的中心性，区分和污名化，或者通过社会想象中的先期/合法化和合法化的作用，来表征在公共领域中新规范和新规范的引入和传播。至关重要的是，许多规范化特征通常都是持续存在并嵌套在上下文相关的规范化话语形式中。后者利用本文探讨的各种话语和语言特征，有效地安排了公共话语中新的话语转移，并引入了新的或重新语境的规范和对事物的理解和预定义，在政治，媒体，机构及其他方面不可接受，不可接受的事物。规范化的许多特征通常都是持续存在的，并且嵌套在上下文相关的规范化话语格式中。后者利用本文探讨的各种话语和语言特征，有效地安排了公共话语中新的话语转移，并引入了新的或重新语境的规范和对事物的理解和预定义，在政治，媒体，机构及其他方面不可接受，不可接受的事物。规范化的许多特征通常都是持续存在的，并且嵌套在上下文相关的规范化话语格式中。后者利用本文探讨的各种话语和语言特征，有效地安排了公共话语中新的话语转移，并引入了新的或重新语境的规范和对事物的理解和预定义，在政治，媒体，机构及其他方面不可接受，不可接受的事物。