Collectivisation
Carlos Cunha, Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal
cunhacdowling@yahoo.com
Artur Lipiński, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań, Poland
artur.lipinski@amu.edu.pl
Collectivisation is one of the types of representation of social actors proposed by van Leeuwen. It occurs when social actors are represented as part of the collective, a group with homogenous characteristic. Through de-emphasising heterogeneity of individuals, it helps to create a sense of solidarity, unity, or common cause through collective nouns (for example: ‘our nation’, ‘our workers’, ‘our members’). It might contribute, however, to the discursive discrimination and exclusion by focusing on general, stereotypically represented features of individual aggregated as part of the larger group. Widely employed in the migration discourse (‘bogus immigrants’, ‘illegal immigrants’), such representation might serve as a part of military or disaster metaphors emphasising external danger and eliciting fear.
From a Linguistics perspective, collectivisation refers to the process where languages and/or dialects fuse into a standardised form. This phenomenon usually occurs for socio-political reasons, such as part of nation-building efforts or language planning initiatives. The procedure may involve standardisation via a promotion of a certain linguistic/dialect variety through language policy that can result in language shift and a loss of linguistic diversity.
Note: The term collectivisation also has a different applied meaning frequently used by many as the process of organising individuals or resources into a collective or cooperative system. Russian collectivisation of its agricultural system under Stalin is often used as an example.
Keywords: collective, representation, homogeneity
Related Entries: Belief, Identity, Worldview
References:
Baker, P. & Ellece, S. (2011). Key terms in discourse analysis. Continuum International Publishing Group.
Holme, R. (2009) Language, culture and linguistic relativity. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230233676_5
Machin, D., & Mayr, A. (2023). How to do critical discourse analysis: A multimodal introduction (2nd ed.). SAGE.
Statham, S. (2022). Critical discourse analysis: A practical introduction to power in language. Routledge.
Van Leeuwen, T. (2008). Discourse and practice: New tools for critical discourse analysis. Oxford University Press.
