Oppressive expression and the Czech and Slovak communities of Northern Ireland

Bibliographic Data

ID6431330
AuthorsSuzanne Whitten (0000-0001-9467-0838, Queen's University Belfast, corresponding author), Jana Papcunová (0000-0002-9358-1419, Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences)
Year2024
Volume33
Issue3
Pages187-209
Publication date2024-10-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIrish Journal of Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0791-6035 • E-ISSN: 2050-5280
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/07916035241291628
OpenAlexW4403869245
LanguageEN
References cited51

Feminist philosophers of language have, in the last several decades, demonstrated the usefulness of employing a speech-act theoretical lens to understand how expression works to enact and reinforce oppression. Despite the growing influence of these approaches in the philosophy and political theory literature, however, their use in other disciplines remains severely limited. This is surprising, especially given the real potential of the speech-act approach to illuminate the mechanisms by which everyday acts contribute to large-scale oppressions. This paper takes up this call for interdisciplinarity, utilising a speech-act theory of oppression to better understand the real-life experiences of the under-researched Czech and Slovak communities of Northern Ireland. Using semi-structured interviews followed by thematic analysis, our study expands our understanding of oppressive speech by revealing a complex relationship between victims’ experiences and their understanding of wider societal oppression, exposing a channel via which victims can exercise agency by contesting attempts to reinforce their oppression. In so doing, the study also draws attention to a novel theoretical lens with which to understand experiences of harmful speech, one which is currently under-utilised by those outside of the philosophy/political theory disciplines

Czech · Ethnology · Expression (computer science · Geography · Media studies · Northern ireland · Political science · Slovak · Sociology · Family Support in Illness · Gender Studies · Migration, Health and Trauma · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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