The Pragmatics of Peremptory Assertion: An Ideological Analysis of the Use of the Word ‘Just’ in Local Politicians’ Denials of Politics

Abstract

New Labour’s Third Way philosophy, with its fervent critique of ideological politics, claims to be able to revitalize interest and participation in politics amongst the lay public. This article critically considers such claims by means of a detailed ideological analysis of interviews with English local politicians. Focusing on speakers’ tendency to deny or downgrade the political nature of their involvement in local politics, the recurrent occurrence of an assertion prefaced by the word ‘just’ is examined. On the one hand, this move performs local interpersonal work, implying that the preferred version is a reflection of the facts about self and, as such, has a rational/empirical basis. On the other hand, the operation of broader ideological constraints can at times be visualized, as if there is some underlying basis for the account which is beyond argument and consciousness. It is concluded that anti-ideological advocates of the Third Way are helping to constitute an era in which even official political representatives are unthinkingly negating their role.

State institutions and social identity: National representation in soldiers' and civilians' interview talk concerning military service

“…It's a sense of letting down your mates. 9 Mark's use of just contains several parallels with the way in which Weltman's (2003) sample of local politicians used just. Specifically, both use just to avoid predicating category membership on ideological commitment -in the politicians' case to their party and its underlying philosophies, and in Mark's case to pre-existing 'patriotic' loyalty to the country.…”

The ideal of non-coherence in the World Bank’s social capital reforms

“…Emerging partly in response to greater political and ideological polarization, it proffers an optimistic message of democratic bi-lateral involvement in policy formulation and implementation, fueled largely by good will on both sides. It can be likened to the recent Third Way version of the 'end-of-ideology' ideology in certain national political realms (Giddens, 1997;Weltman, 2003) which trumpets a new era of more pragmatic political action free from partisan ideological fetters. While inhabiting the wider sphere of international relations of economic governance, the Social Capital perspective can be similarly viewed as a historical product which plays a conservative utopian role of clouding over the realities of societal division.…”

“…To this end it draws on the type of approach to ideological analysis emerging out of critical social-psychology and involving close focus on the ambivalent aspects of often inconspicuous discursive detail (Billig, 1995(Billig, , 1999Weltman, 2003;Wetherell, 2001). This approach is strongly influenced by Wittgenstein's later philosophy of ordinary language, which explores how the meaning content of speech is the product of form, in the sense of how we use words.…”

Women Training to Coach a Men’s Sport

“…Initially Carly deploys minimization (line 3-4) to explain that women-only courses "just" provide that "bit more confidence" for participants to downgrade the significance of the difference between courses (Weltman, 2003). Women's motivations to participate in separatist provision that has been explained as lacking confidence to be around men and their category centrality is evidenced in the self-inclusive active voicing (line 4-5) "because you think 'ah: it's men they know loads about football, I know nothing'".…”