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- Title
From the "War on Poverty" to the "War on the Poor": Knowledge, Power, and Subject Positions in Anti-Poverty Discourses.
- Authors
Jeppesen, Sandra
- Abstract
Anti-poverty discourses are interrogated through a case study of articles on the websites of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and The Toronto Star covering a tenant activism campaign. An autonomous media article by OCAP on direct actions to "stop the war on the poor" is compared with an article in The Toronto Star depicting tenant-activists lobbying government in the "war on poverty." Subjectivity and power relations are analyzed by deconstructing binaries, including deserving/undeserving poor, pride/shame, and dignity/stigmatization. I find productive interdiscursive relations emerging, whereby the two discourses are mutually implicated in creating possibilities for social transformation. I also argue that critical discourse analysis needs to become a more participatory engaged methodology, taking direction from and providing accountability to its research subjects.
- Subjects
TORONTO (Ont.); ONTARIO; POVERTY; POOR people; ONTARIO Coalition Against Poverty (Organization); WEBSITES
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Communication, 2009, Vol 34, Issue 3, p487
- ISSN
0705-3657
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.22230/cjc.2009v34n3a2054