Description
Abstract: Accomplishing social goals: staging and legitimating activities across generic boundaries This presentation addresses a local climate change mitigation effort from a genre perspective. It combines perspectives on moves/ stages and interdiscursivity (Bhatia 2004, 2010), suggesting that stages in purpose-driven genres (Fairclough 2003) may transgress generic boundaries and draw on text-external generic resources (Bhatia 2010; Lassen 2006) to accomplish social goals at different scales. Over the past twenty years, genre studies have seen a change in focus from text and form to context and social practice, although differences still exist as to whether to give prominence to rhetorical action (Miller 1994), staged goal-oriented social processes (Martin and Rose 2008) or communicative purposes (Bhatia 2004). Across the three traditions, studies have focused on how genres are structured in moves or stages within specific genres. From a social constructionist position, scholars have explored how genres are embedded in discourse community members’ activities (Koester 2010). This study combines elements from these traditions to answer the following research questions: How do members of a local discourse community accomplish social goals within the framework of a ‘genre network’? a) How are activities staged inter-discursively across generic boundaries? b) What reasons are given to legitimate activities for accomplishing social goals? The data was collected in 2009 in a Danish ‘green city’, which aims at reducing CO2 emission to zero by the end of 2015. To reach the goal, the local municipality has encouraged citizens to engage in implementing the transition, thus stimulating local use of green technology. Data analyzed includes invitation letters and agenda for public meetings, citizen meetings and interviews. These genres seem to contribute interdiscursively (Bhatia 2010) towards reaching the EnergyCity’s overall goal through a ‘legitimation discourse’ (Theo van Leeuwen 2007) that transgresses generic boundaries in a network of genres (Swales 1990).| Period | 26 Jun 2012 → 29 Jun 2012 |
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| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Ottawa, CanadaShow on map |