Stephen Pihlaja
Biographic Data
| ID | 222589 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stephen Pihlaja |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stephen |
| FAMILY NAME | Pihlaja |
| SIGNATURE | PIHLAJA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newman University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7506-2906 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Positioning in discourse about religious belief and practice in superdiverse contexts
Religious beliefs and practices can and do shift depending on the context of the religious believer, and how they talk about those beliefs and practices may change depending on that context. This article focuses on how religious people position their religious beliefs and practices, and how the use and understanding of those religious positions can shift depending on contextual factors. It aims to present a method for analysing these shifts, usin…
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Religion
International audience
Abstraction in storytelling
Discussions of storytelling and narrative have encompassed abstraction in different ways including master narratives ( Bamberg, 1997 ) and storylines ( Harré & van Lagenhove, 1998 ). These discussions, however, have often viewed storytelling and abstraction as a binary distinction, rather than a spectrum where speakers move between different levels of abstraction when recounting experiences. This article argues for a nuanced approach to abstracti…
Talk about Faith: How Debate and Conversation Shape Belief
How do people of faith use language to position themselves, and their beliefs and practices, in the contemporary world? This pioneering and original study looks closely at how Christians and Muslims talk to people inside and outside of their own communities about what they think are the right things to believe and do. From debates, to podcasts and YouTube videos, the book covers a range of engaging texts and contexts, showing how doctrine and bel…
Analysing Religious Discourse
Language plays a key role in religion, framing how people describe spiritual experience and giving structure to religious beliefs and practices. Bringing together work from a team of world-renowned scholars, this volume introduces contemporary research on religious discourse from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. It introduces methods for analysis of a range of different kinds of text and talk, including institutional disc…
Blasphemy and persecution: Positioning in an inter-religious discussion
In May 2017, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, the former Christian governor of Jakarta, Indonesia, was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison. Although he was released in January 2019, his trial and the various reactions it elicited continue to highlight the very sensitive and complex issues surrounding the notion and enforcement of blasphemy and how different communities talk about it. This article focuses…
Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community, and New Media, written by Tim Hutchings
Temporary liberties and uncertain futures: Young female Muslim perceptions of life in England
This article explores how young female Muslim university students in London and Birmingham experience life in England. Through focus groups and interviews, talk about three main topics was collected: how young Muslims frame their identities; how they are perceived by others; and how they perceive Muslims to be portrayed and represented in public life. Analysis shows that the participants: presented themselves as ambitious and autonomous; experien…
Special issue on metaphor in religion and spirituality
Preview this article: Special issue on metaphor in religion and spirituality, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/msw.7.1.01pih-1.gif
“When Noah built the ark…”: Metaphor and biblical stories in Facebook preaching
This article investigates the use of biblical stories and text in the preaching of Joshua Feuerstein, a popular Facebook evangelist, and focuses on how biblical stories are used to position the viewer in comparison to biblical characters and texts. Taking a discourse dynamics approach ( Cameron & Maslen, 2010 ), a corpus of 8 short videos (17 minutes 34 seconds) and their comments (2,295) taken from the Facebook are analysed first, for the presen…
More than fifty shades of grey: Copyright on social network sites
Social Network Sites (SNS) have increasingly grown as platforms for users to publish and promote content (which includes videos, written texts, and images), in addition to interacting socially. While all published material both online and offline is normally protected by copyright laws, what constitutes copyrighted material on SNS can be difficult to distinguish. Moreover, users on these sites can have differing expectations of how their content …
I love the Queen”: Positioning in young British Muslim discourse
Expressing pleasure and avoiding engagement in online adult video comment sections
Online video pornography websites have grown into a key online industry and location for pornography consumption. While much work has been done investigating reception of online video generally, discourse analysis of comments and interaction around online pornography remains rare. This article focuses on comments on adult videos, comparing and contrasting the comments on adult videos with other online video sites. The goal is to identify and expl…
Christians” and “bad Christians”: Categorization in atheist user talk on YouTube
This article presents an investigation of the use of social categories in talk about Christians in a small community of users discussing religious issues on the popular video-sharing site, YouTube. The article focuses on how self-proclaimed atheists employed and modified the category of "Christian" to describe others in a series of antagonistic debates – called "drama" by users. Three video pages, including video talk and comments, were analyzed …
Are You Religious or are You Saved?”: Defining Membership Categories in Religious Discussions on YouTube
Using membership categorization analysis, this article investigates membership categories in a YouTube video made by an Evangelical Christian in which he differentiates between “saved” and “religious” users. Analysis will take a discourse-centred, multimodal approach grounded in longitudinal observation, using analysis of video discourse to instruct analysis of video images and user comments. Findings will show that categorization is accomplished…
Temporary liberties and uncertain futures: Young female Muslim perceptions of life in England
This article explores how young female Muslim university students in London and Birmingham experience life in England. Through focus groups and interviews, talk about three main topics was collected: how young Muslims frame their identities; how they are perceived by others; and how they perceive Muslims to be portrayed and represented in public life. Analysis shows that the participants: presented themselves as ambitious and autonomous; experien…
Positioning in discourse about religious belief and practice in superdiverse contexts
Religious beliefs and practices can and do shift depending on the context of the religious believer, and how they talk about those beliefs and practices may change depending on that context. This article focuses on how religious people position their religious beliefs and practices, and how the use and understanding of those religious positions can shift depending on contextual factors. It aims to present a method for analysing these shifts, usin…
Expressing pleasure and avoiding engagement in online adult video comment sections
Online video pornography websites have grown into a key online industry and location for pornography consumption. While much work has been done investigating reception of online video generally, discourse analysis of comments and interaction around online pornography remains rare. This article focuses on comments on adult videos, comparing and contrasting the comments on adult videos with other online video sites. The goal is to identify and expl…
Are You Religious or are You Saved?”: Defining Membership Categories in Religious Discussions on YouTube
Using membership categorization analysis, this article investigates membership categories in a YouTube video made by an Evangelical Christian in which he differentiates between “saved” and “religious” users. Analysis will take a discourse-centred, multimodal approach grounded in longitudinal observation, using analysis of video discourse to instruct analysis of video images and user comments. Findings will show that categorization is accomplished…
Christians” and “bad Christians”: Categorization in atheist user talk on YouTube
This article presents an investigation of the use of social categories in talk about Christians in a small community of users discussing religious issues on the popular video-sharing site, YouTube. The article focuses on how self-proclaimed atheists employed and modified the category of "Christian" to describe others in a series of antagonistic debates – called "drama" by users. Three video pages, including video talk and comments, were analyzed …
Expressing pleasure and avoiding engagement in online adult video comment sections
Online video pornography websites have grown into a key online industry and location for pornography consumption. While much work has been done investigating reception of online video generally, discourse analysis of comments and interaction around online pornography remains rare. This article focuses on comments on adult videos, comparing and contrasting the comments on adult videos with other online video sites. The goal is to identify and expl…
Special issue on metaphor in religion and spirituality
Preview this article: Special issue on metaphor in religion and spirituality, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/msw.7.1.01pih-1.gif
“When Noah built the ark…”: Metaphor and biblical stories in Facebook preaching
This article investigates the use of biblical stories and text in the preaching of Joshua Feuerstein, a popular Facebook evangelist, and focuses on how biblical stories are used to position the viewer in comparison to biblical characters and texts. Taking a discourse dynamics approach ( Cameron & Maslen, 2010 ), a corpus of 8 short videos (17 minutes 34 seconds) and their comments (2,295) taken from the Facebook are analysed first, for the presen…
More than fifty shades of grey: Copyright on social network sites
Social Network Sites (SNS) have increasingly grown as platforms for users to publish and promote content (which includes videos, written texts, and images), in addition to interacting socially. While all published material both online and offline is normally protected by copyright laws, what constitutes copyrighted material on SNS can be difficult to distinguish. Moreover, users on these sites can have differing expectations of how their content …
I love the Queen”: Positioning in young British Muslim discourse
Creating Church Online: Ritual, Community, and New Media, written by Tim Hutchings
Temporary liberties and uncertain futures: Young female Muslim perceptions of life in England
This article explores how young female Muslim university students in London and Birmingham experience life in England. Through focus groups and interviews, talk about three main topics was collected: how young Muslims frame their identities; how they are perceived by others; and how they perceive Muslims to be portrayed and represented in public life. Analysis shows that the participants: presented themselves as ambitious and autonomous; experien…
Blasphemy and persecution: Positioning in an inter-religious discussion
In May 2017, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, popularly known as Ahok, the former Christian governor of Jakarta, Indonesia, was found guilty of blasphemy and sentenced to two years in prison. Although he was released in January 2019, his trial and the various reactions it elicited continue to highlight the very sensitive and complex issues surrounding the notion and enforcement of blasphemy and how different communities talk about it. This article focuses…
Talk about Faith: How Debate and Conversation Shape Belief
How do people of faith use language to position themselves, and their beliefs and practices, in the contemporary world? This pioneering and original study looks closely at how Christians and Muslims talk to people inside and outside of their own communities about what they think are the right things to believe and do. From debates, to podcasts and YouTube videos, the book covers a range of engaging texts and contexts, showing how doctrine and bel…
Analysing Religious Discourse
Language plays a key role in religion, framing how people describe spiritual experience and giving structure to religious beliefs and practices. Bringing together work from a team of world-renowned scholars, this volume introduces contemporary research on religious discourse from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. It introduces methods for analysis of a range of different kinds of text and talk, including institutional disc…
The Routledge Handbook of Language and Religion
International audience
Abstraction in storytelling
Discussions of storytelling and narrative have encompassed abstraction in different ways including master narratives ( Bamberg, 1997 ) and storylines ( Harré & van Lagenhove, 1998 ). These discussions, however, have often viewed storytelling and abstraction as a binary distinction, rather than a spectrum where speakers move between different levels of abstraction when recounting experiences. This article argues for a nuanced approach to abstracti…
Positioning in discourse about religious belief and practice in superdiverse contexts
Religious beliefs and practices can and do shift depending on the context of the religious believer, and how they talk about those beliefs and practices may change depending on that context. This article focuses on how religious people position their religious beliefs and practices, and how the use and understanding of those religious positions can shift depending on contextual factors. It aims to present a method for analysing these shifts, usin…
Sociology (14 works) · Linguistics (9 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Political science (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Media, Religion, Digital Communication (5 works) · Social Psychology (5 works)