Doing equality and difference: Representation and alignment in Finnish identification

Abstract

Using tools from critical discourse analytic approaches informed by systemic functional linguistics, this paper is an examination of how social values – specifically equality values in Finland – are given meaning by differently socially positioned Finnish citizens, and how those meanings are positioned in constructions of identities. The focus of my examination is on how respondents align with different meanings of equality using linguistic resources of

Analyzing ideological complexes from the perspective of modalities

“…The excerpts in this article were translated with the aim to convey my readings of the functions and meanings produced in the original Finnish texts, particularly as regards expressions of modality. Full methodological details are available in published empirical articles (Menard 2016, Menard 2017.…”

“…One such system is that which regulates proper social interaction styles. Some of the rules in this logonomic system link ordinariness and moderation to equal sociability, whereas distinctions, "standing out" and dissenting voices are seen as inegalitarian (Menard 2016, Menard 2017; see also Törrönen and Maunu 2005). Modal analyses have been beneficial in examining how this logonomic system provides the conditions for discursively excluding Others, while detracting attention away from illogic that may inhabit the logonomic system itself.…”

“…Interpreted at levels of discursive and social practices, these helpers reference a logonomic system that regulate discourses on Finnish "equality contracts". The helpers in this discourse are overall usually qualified as true, true as possible, or true when making international comparisons, and as evidenced by their status as "universal" rights and provisions of the welfare state (Menard 2016, Menard 2017. The clearest agent comes in the last sentence, positioning "global capitalism" as an anti-subject with its own trajectory to interdict ("infringe") Finnish equality and freedom.…”

“…At the level of social practices, this common feature of Excerpts (1) and (4) may be considered as ideologically invested when analyzed in relation to the entire corpus and the sociocultural context. In relation to the discourse that they draw upon and build, minorities and immigrants are recurrently qualified as "helpers" who "bring" the "difference" or "diversity" that is needed for the majority to learn tolerance (Menard 2016, Menard 2017. As helpers, their value tends to be instrumental and their agencies deflated.…”

“…Excerpts (2) and (5) are arguably produced against dominant discourses on Finnish equality, building counter discourses that are helpful for interpreting their hegemonic counterparts (Menard 2016, Menard 2017. Interpreted at the level of social practices, texts that modalize discourses on Finnish equality as illusory or false are over twice as frequently uttered with less epistemic certainty than those that modalize it as ontologically true.…”