In episode no. 8 of the SKEPSIS series, associate professors Cosmin Toth and Ștefania Matei, teaching staff at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work of the University of Bucharest, discuss the discursive construction of opinions regarding the acceptance, hesitation and rejection of vaccination.
Is discourse analysis an analysis of language?
The analysis of discourse is the study of language in use, a social practice in itself, and the theories regarding the way in which language is used on a daily basis are more and more popular. Associate professor Cosmin Toth, PhD, talks about discourse as being the main way of action, and language becomes the instrument which allows us not just to say things, but also to do things and to be things.
Thus, the way language is used – choosing the vocabulary, grammar, syntactic structures, figures of speech, rhetoric elements and the type of narrative construction – produces consequences, sometimes unintentionally. Language allows explanations to be given, justifications to be offered and social categories to be created. This requires an increased attention to the mechanism of language use.
What particularly do we look at when we analyze a discourse?
The main unit for analysis is represented by interpretative repertoires. These are available resources of a competitive discourse market aiming to model, sustain and justify decisions. At the same time, considering that repertoires are linguistic corpora already available, they can contain information, arguments, metaphors, and narratives that are easily used and delivered in various contexts. Using repertoires can generate shortcuts with significant consequences on actions and decisions, and their research is an important component for understanding the manner of the various subjects on the public agenda.
What does discourse analysis reveal about the society we live in?
It is no longer a novelty that the online environment is a space where people express themselves and interact with each other. For a sociologist with preoccupations in the sphere of discourse analysis, this area of social life constitutes a precious data resource. Thus, associate professor Cosmin Toth identified what types of identities are constructed and revendicated in the context of the sociologic interviews taken from parents who chose not to vaccinate at least one of their children. He also analyzed, at the same time, the manner in which discourse analysis can be applied to study the positioning or identities of people concerning vaccination. Are such repertories present in the discourse on Covid vaccination? Is covid vaccination different, at a discursive level, than vaccination for other diseases?
The 8th episode of the SKEPSIS series comes with answers to these questions and more.
Associate Professor Cosmin Toth, PhD, teaches classes on discourse analysis as an unusual, but extremely captivating research method. His research interests are focused on the dynamics of the online environment, a space which is offering more and more from the point of view of sociologic research resources. At the same time, he is interested in ethnographic and discursive approaches, which offer excellent research possibilities in a stage where communication and interactions have shifted significantly towards the virtual space.
Launched in October 2023, the SKEPSIS series is a project addressed to the large audience, through which UB researchers analyze, from a sociological viewpoint, the scientific truth and public skepticism concerning some of the most controversial topics of the moment. The series will explore the profound structures which influence our ways of perceiving and acting, when our health, identity or future are at stake.
The guests of this series, meant to explain the evolution of trust and skepticism regarding current subjects, are professors, doctoral students and researchers belonging to the academic community of the University of Bucharest.
The format of the episodes includes the presentation of the theme, followed by a dialogue between a moderator and a guest.
The video content in this section is produced by the Communication and Public Relations Department of the University of Bucharest, and research results are part of the program “SKEPSIS – Fabricating uncertainties regarding vaccination and climate change. Comparative study of legitimacy in two counter-science narratives”, implemented by the University of Bucharest and financed by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization, Romania, PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-1589.
The video on The acceptance, hesitation and rejection of vaccination was filmed at the Botanical Garden of the University of Bucharest.
