transmasculine people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are undergoing their first year of hormon... more transmasculine people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are undergoing their first year of hormone replacement therapy. The use of variations in the acoustics of [s] pinpoints how sex, gender identity, gender assignment, gender presentation and sexuality have a role to play in the phonetic expression of transmasculinities; the article hence illustrates the flexibility, fluidity and multi-facedness of gender as a social system. In the final chapter, King applies a queer linguistics lens in order to bring our attention to how Mani Bruce Mitchell, an intersex individual, constructs hir (sic) intersex lived experience, by bringing social construction and biological innateness together through small stories. This volume comes at just at the right time, as the fields of queer theory and discourse studies proliferate in publications worldwide, in social sciences and humanities. Through its wide but coherent spectrum, the book successfully integrates a more complex, queer perspective in the study of language and masculinities, and advances theoretically and empirically the specific debates on the performance of hegemonic masculinities, female masculinities and heteronormativity. Nevertheless, its focus and disciplinary perspective draw more on the linguistic than the anthropological or (social) psychological side of the discursive nexus, and the lack of input from more diverse fields detracts from its interdisciplinarity vis-a-vis the study of masculinities and identities. However, the volume stands as a significant theoretical resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) activists worldwide, highlighting the importance of language in the social construction and performance of masculinities. It is a volume that, through its in-depth contributions, will form an essential part of the scholarly study of language, gender and sexuality in the 21st century.
Annual budgets are key to constituting and governing imagined futures. This paper examines how th... more Annual budgets are key to constituting and governing imagined futures. This paper examines how the signifier ‘future’ is constructed within the Irish budget speeches delivered by finance ministers ...
Chapter Seventeen argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has... more Chapter Seventeen argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has happened in policy analysis in Ireland. The concept of hyper-specialization is introduced as an important feature of the context in which policy discourse takes place, and shows the complexities discourses face as they travel across societies. Policy relevant discourses of media, and actors within the media, are examined, along with what recent developments mean for Irish public policy discourse. An important factor is how such policy discourses are internationalised in Ireland and the impact of that complication on participation in policy debates is examined. Further complexities include the effects of technocratization and economization on how we discuss policy. The chapter concludes that the discursive power of economists remains an important feature of our policy discourses.
Histories of the development of professions show a profession's relationship with the state a... more Histories of the development of professions show a profession's relationship with the state as key to its authority. Yet professions, to gain technocratic authority, also strive to depoliticise their discourses to gain technocratic authority. This dilemmatic tension is particularly true for the economics profession. The historical development of the Irish economics provides an interesting case, where a complicated relationship with the state ultimately strengthened the profession within a society. An initial formalisation trajectory of Irish economics was thrown off course by the formation of an independent Irish state in the 1920s. This marked a period of isolation for the profession and saw it ostracised from government policy. Subsequent developments also saw the Irish economists’ position as critics of government policy rather than a core part of the state.
This paper argues that the state’s capacity to tax corporations in order to fund itself is reachi... more This paper argues that the state’s capacity to tax corporations in order to fund itself is reaching crisis proportions. Following decades of trade liberalization, deregulation, and globalization, large multinational companies have been able to take advantage of tax competition between states in order to avoid taxation and offset their obligations. This crisis, arguably, has been facilitated by state actors and exacerbated by non-state actors: we explore the ways in which multi-national corporations (MNCs) manipulate their capital, assets, and supply chains to minimize their tax burdens; and we further consider the ways in which media narratives construct this issue and whether they challenge the practice or intensify it. Discourse surrounding taxation plays a huge part in what is considered acceptable. While the old adage that “death and taxes” cannot be avoided, it has become clear that large companies, helped by a tax avoidance industry do indeed manage to do just that. Discourse ...
What accounts for political elite formation in the UK? And what are the implications for democrac... more What accounts for political elite formation in the UK? And what are the implications for democracy? Here, Brendan O’Rourke, John Hogan, and Paul F. Donnelly use a new ‘Institutional Influence Index’ to demonstrate the validity of the widely-held view that elite formation takes place early in life, and in specific fee-paying private schools such as Eton and Harrow.
The role of higher education systems in the formation and reproduction of governing elites, and t... more The role of higher education systems in the formation and reproduction of governing elites, and their countervailing potential for the creation of a more egalitarian, or meritocratic, society has b...
transmasculine people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are undergoing their first year of hormon... more transmasculine people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are undergoing their first year of hormone replacement therapy. The use of variations in the acoustics of [s] pinpoints how sex, gender identity, gender assignment, gender presentation and sexuality have a role to play in the phonetic expression of transmasculinities; the article hence illustrates the flexibility, fluidity and multi-facedness of gender as a social system. In the final chapter, King applies a queer linguistics lens in order to bring our attention to how Mani Bruce Mitchell, an intersex individual, constructs hir (sic) intersex lived experience, by bringing social construction and biological innateness together through small stories. This volume comes at just at the right time, as the fields of queer theory and discourse studies proliferate in publications worldwide, in social sciences and humanities. Through its wide but coherent spectrum, the book successfully integrates a more complex, queer perspective in the study of language and masculinities, and advances theoretically and empirically the specific debates on the performance of hegemonic masculinities, female masculinities and heteronormativity. Nevertheless, its focus and disciplinary perspective draw more on the linguistic than the anthropological or (social) psychological side of the discursive nexus, and the lack of input from more diverse fields detracts from its interdisciplinarity vis-a-vis the study of masculinities and identities. However, the volume stands as a significant theoretical resource for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, and intersex (LGBTQI) activists worldwide, highlighting the importance of language in the social construction and performance of masculinities. It is a volume that, through its in-depth contributions, will form an essential part of the scholarly study of language, gender and sexuality in the 21st century.
Annual budgets are key to constituting and governing imagined futures. This paper examines how th... more Annual budgets are key to constituting and governing imagined futures. This paper examines how the signifier ‘future’ is constructed within the Irish budget speeches delivered by finance ministers ...
Chapter Seventeen argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has... more Chapter Seventeen argues that a discursive approach can add much to our understanding of what has happened in policy analysis in Ireland. The concept of hyper-specialization is introduced as an important feature of the context in which policy discourse takes place, and shows the complexities discourses face as they travel across societies. Policy relevant discourses of media, and actors within the media, are examined, along with what recent developments mean for Irish public policy discourse. An important factor is how such policy discourses are internationalised in Ireland and the impact of that complication on participation in policy debates is examined. Further complexities include the effects of technocratization and economization on how we discuss policy. The chapter concludes that the discursive power of economists remains an important feature of our policy discourses.
Histories of the development of professions show a profession's relationship with the state a... more Histories of the development of professions show a profession's relationship with the state as key to its authority. Yet professions, to gain technocratic authority, also strive to depoliticise their discourses to gain technocratic authority. This dilemmatic tension is particularly true for the economics profession. The historical development of the Irish economics provides an interesting case, where a complicated relationship with the state ultimately strengthened the profession within a society. An initial formalisation trajectory of Irish economics was thrown off course by the formation of an independent Irish state in the 1920s. This marked a period of isolation for the profession and saw it ostracised from government policy. Subsequent developments also saw the Irish economists’ position as critics of government policy rather than a core part of the state.
This paper argues that the state’s capacity to tax corporations in order to fund itself is reachi... more This paper argues that the state’s capacity to tax corporations in order to fund itself is reaching crisis proportions. Following decades of trade liberalization, deregulation, and globalization, large multinational companies have been able to take advantage of tax competition between states in order to avoid taxation and offset their obligations. This crisis, arguably, has been facilitated by state actors and exacerbated by non-state actors: we explore the ways in which multi-national corporations (MNCs) manipulate their capital, assets, and supply chains to minimize their tax burdens; and we further consider the ways in which media narratives construct this issue and whether they challenge the practice or intensify it. Discourse surrounding taxation plays a huge part in what is considered acceptable. While the old adage that “death and taxes” cannot be avoided, it has become clear that large companies, helped by a tax avoidance industry do indeed manage to do just that. Discourse ...
What accounts for political elite formation in the UK? And what are the implications for democrac... more What accounts for political elite formation in the UK? And what are the implications for democracy? Here, Brendan O’Rourke, John Hogan, and Paul F. Donnelly use a new ‘Institutional Influence Index’ to demonstrate the validity of the widely-held view that elite formation takes place early in life, and in specific fee-paying private schools such as Eton and Harrow.
The role of higher education systems in the formation and reproduction of governing elites, and t... more The role of higher education systems in the formation and reproduction of governing elites, and their countervailing potential for the creation of a more egalitarian, or meritocratic, society has b...
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