Problematising Self and Politics in Activist Discourse

Abstract

This chapter problematises the relationship between self and politics with reference to interviews conducted with activists involved in Flemish (Belgian) minority politics. Zienkowski shows how his interviewees convey a more or less coherent sense of self through a multiplicity of positive, partial and negative identifications. He shows that academic notions such as identity, diversity and integration operate as political values in the wider public sphere. The author therefore argues that discourse analysts need to recognise the multiplicity of public discourse and subjectivity when analysing political debates about such signifiers. Moreover, they need to take the reflexive and metadiscursive or metapragmatic capacities of actors into account if they are to understand the development of critical political awareness and activism.