This article offers an examination of the discursive significance of the “victim” in the Conservative Party of Canada through a critical discourse analysis of two key pieces of legislation (Bill C-10 and Bill C-36) tabled by the Harper Conservative government. The central argument contends that while all populist arguments may be a form of victim argument, not all conservative victim arguments are populist—particularly ones directed at issues related to women and gender equality. The article finds that, perhaps due to the reactive nature of conservative ideology, conservative politicians in Canada adopt an “ambidextrous” approach to victims—mobilizing two distinct and, at times, contrasting sets of arguments. The article concludes by proposing two possible explanations for this ambidexterity, one stemming from the literature on organizational management and the other from theorizations of the reactive nature of conservative ideology.

This article concerns the second round of consultations on the drafting of the 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations. In this context, it explores the nature of the “communication space” within which regulatory authorities and interest groups interact with each other. The authors analyse the extent to which the consultations met their main goal of remedying the lack of democratic legitimacy in the process of drafting the regulations. Both discourse analysis and analysis of the concrete results of the consultations reveal that the “communication space“ is shaped by certain pre-established rules. The authors codify and compare the arguments put forward by interest groups in their proposals for modifications as well as the justifications offered by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They conclude that issues capable of calling into question the soundness of regulatory interventions, having already been dealt with during the first round of consultations, are seldom raised during the second round. The authors also assert that the relationship between state and non-state actors is complementary and interdependent rather than antagonistic, noting that interventions by interest groups have a real impact on the regulations. Consultation is at the root of plurality of modes of production of law within the legal order of the state. The article highlights the complementary nature of the norms produced by state and other sources of normativity and draws attention to the importance of the cooperation between state and civil society actors.

The article seeks to revitalize the concept of tradition and re-claim its usefulness for contemporary sociological thought and research. Instead of ontological entity, tradition is defined here as an assigned temporal meaning, i.e., a symbolic activity in which various social groups attribute traditional qualities to certain sectors of life that are understood as binding together different times. The article analyzes two incompatible approaches with which tradition was hitherto conceptualized in sociology: (1) tradition as the anti-modern, and (2) tradition as synonymous with “culture.” The analysis introduces a few middle-ground options that support the theory of tradition as assigned meaning.

This article explores the potential of discourse analysis for understanding issues in aging and in the lives of older people. We describe discourse analysis from the perspective of discursive psychology and identify the basic features of discourse analysis: (1) talk and written texts are viewed as action; (2) talk itself is the topic of interest (not an index of internal states); (3) variability is viewed positively. Stages of discourse analysis are briefly discussed. We then consider examples of discourse-analytic research (on identity construction, phatic communion, frame stereotyping and humour). We conclude by suggesting possible uses and applications of discourse analysis in research on aging.

Cette étude pilote sur un cas se propose d'étudier les modifications de certains marqueurs linguistiques au cours d'une thérapie cognitive de la dépression, selon le modèle de Beck. Les 12 entretiens de la psychothérapie sont enregistrés sur bande magnétique, permettant une analyse systématique de toutes les distorsions cognitives. En parallèle, est menée une analyse clinique et linguistique qui porte plus sélectivement sur 4 entretiens équidistants. Ainsi seront cotés aux entretiens 1, 4, 8 et 12 les échelles de la dépression de Hamilton, de l'anxiété de Hamilton et le Beck Depresion Inventory. De plus, une analyse propositionnelle du discours centrée sur l'étude des verbes, de la déictisation de locution, de la modalisation et des joncteurs est menée. Le dépouillement de toutes les données sémantiques s'effectue grâce au logiciel d'analyse propositionnelle du discours (Groupe de recherche sur la parole, Paris-VIII). L'évolution clinique favorable sous thérapie est traduite non seulement par l'amélioration de la symptomatologie mais aussi par la diminution des scores aux échelles d'anxiété et de dépression. Parallèlement, les distorsions cognitives diminuent quantitativement dans l'ensemble et plus spécifiquement pour l'inférence arbitraire et la personnalisation. Certains témoins linguistiques (verbes factifs, joncteurs oppositifs…) varient significativement, pouvant ainsi traduire les modifications opérées par la thérapie cognitive dans la structure discursive du patient.