TY - ABST
T1 - Boundaries of work-life
T2 - Critical Approaches to Discourse Across Disciplines
AU - Holmgreen, Lise-Lotte
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Global phenomena such as climate change are impacting our everyday lives in multiple ways. This is partly the result of our continuous efforts to increase productivity and ensure ever increasing growth rates. However, seeing that increasing growth rates are unsustainable for the planet and the people involved, we are reconsidering our roles as employees in contributing to production levels. Metaphorical expressions such as ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have been coined to reflect this concern and to address individual needs and self-care in response to the perceived stress and pressure of working life.In this paper, I will approach the matter from a discourse and critical metaphor perspective (Musolff & Zinken 2009) investigating how expressions as the above conceptualise immediate concerns in time and space but also reflect underlying social and cultural models (Kövecses 2015; Romano & Porto 2016). Following this, I will discuss the possible implications of these conceptualisations for our understanding of the boundaries between a working and a private self, on the one hand, and the possible promises it holds towards (re)conceptualising employee positions in the workplace, on the other.The data for the study will consist of a small corpus of media texts that were published in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in US media from 2021 onwards. The texts introduce expressions that conceptualise alternatives to established work life, framing them against current discourses in society. Thus, the study is explorative seeking to establish the origins of expressions, their conceptual meaning and potential reach outside a US context.ReferencesKövecses, Z. 2015. Where Metaphors Come from: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. OUPMusolff, A., & Zinken, J. (eds). 2009. Metaphor and Discourse. Palgrave MacMillanRomano, M., & Porto, M. D. 2016. Exploring Discourse Strategies in Social and Cognitive Interaction. John Benjamins.
AB - Global phenomena such as climate change are impacting our everyday lives in multiple ways. This is partly the result of our continuous efforts to increase productivity and ensure ever increasing growth rates. However, seeing that increasing growth rates are unsustainable for the planet and the people involved, we are reconsidering our roles as employees in contributing to production levels. Metaphorical expressions such as ‘Bare Minimum Mondays’ and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have been coined to reflect this concern and to address individual needs and self-care in response to the perceived stress and pressure of working life.In this paper, I will approach the matter from a discourse and critical metaphor perspective (Musolff & Zinken 2009) investigating how expressions as the above conceptualise immediate concerns in time and space but also reflect underlying social and cultural models (Kövecses 2015; Romano & Porto 2016). Following this, I will discuss the possible implications of these conceptualisations for our understanding of the boundaries between a working and a private self, on the one hand, and the possible promises it holds towards (re)conceptualising employee positions in the workplace, on the other.The data for the study will consist of a small corpus of media texts that were published in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in US media from 2021 onwards. The texts introduce expressions that conceptualise alternatives to established work life, framing them against current discourses in society. Thus, the study is explorative seeking to establish the origins of expressions, their conceptual meaning and potential reach outside a US context.ReferencesKövecses, Z. 2015. Where Metaphors Come from: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. OUPMusolff, A., & Zinken, J. (eds). 2009. Metaphor and Discourse. Palgrave MacMillanRomano, M., & Porto, M. D. 2016. Exploring Discourse Strategies in Social and Cognitive Interaction. John Benjamins.
M3 - Conference abstract for conference
Y2 - 10 July 2024 through 12 July 2024
ER -