Contested discourses
My colleague from the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, Marcel Maussen has written two interesting articles. One in English:
Policy Discourses on Mosques in the Netherlands 1980�2002: Contested Constructions.
Abstract:
The establishment of mosques is an incentive for public discussions on Islam and the presence of Muslims in Western European societies. This article critically reconstructs Public Policy discourses on mosque establishment in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. It shows how urban-planning discourses, and their specific frames, which came to dominate mosque establishment as a policy issue in Rotterdam from the 1980s onwards, created their own set of meanings. The article analyses these discourses in terms of their enabling and constraining roles during a period in which local authorities became more involved in the improvement and placement of new mosques in the Rotterdam area. On the one hand, the urban renewal framework allowed for a substantial improvement in the housing of Islamic religious and cultural practice. On the other hand, urban planning policy discursive practices gave less attention to issues such as visibility and presence that are now at the heart of the heated debates about Muslim populations in Dutch society. More recent discussions on the aesthetics and location of mosques in Rotterdam illustrate how these dominant discourses are not only contestable but are also being contested from all quarters.
Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, April 2004, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 147-162(16)
And the other one in Dutch, about the Left after the murder on Van Gogh: Links en de moord.
Sinds 2 november is Nederland verwikkeld in een debat over de betekenis van de moord op Theo van Gogh. Dit artikel analyseert de discussie na de moord op Van Gogh als een proces van betekenistoedeling. Hierbij maken wij gebruik van de concepten �kader� (�frame�) en �vertoog� (�discourse�). Het toont aan dat het denken wordt bepaald door de neo-realistische taal waarin we de moord bespreken. Links moet zich uit die taal bevrijden omdat haar eigen waarden daarin niet goed tot uitdrukking kunnen worden gebracht. Er is een alternatief.
Socialisme & Democratie 12, 2004.