Legitimising expertise: analysing the legitimation strategies used by economics experts in broadcast interviews

‘Piketty is a genius, but … ’: an analysis of journalistic delegitimation of Thomas Piketty’s economic policy proposals

“…This is noteworthy especially when considering the general context and time-space in which the debate is set: at least since the outburst of the financial crisis in 2007/08 we have seen a growing awareness and problematisation of the role of conventional economic thinking and economic experts in the legitimation of current economic injustices, as well as countermovements which explicitly question both these experts and economic policies (Colander et al, 2009;Dimmelmeier et al, in press). However, in contrast to these tendencies, our findings add evidence to previous researchers' observations of a strange 'non-death' of mainstream economic thinking in public discourses (Crouch, 2011;Fitzgerald & O'Rourke, 2016). The use of a variety of neoliberal arguments as well as explicit references to like-minded economists within our findings exemplifies this.…”

“…The two-way analysis of the various ways in which language-external ideas about the world and the language-internal resources used for their portrayal allowed us to see patterns in the argumentation or (de)legitimation of economic policies. In the process of organising, naming and describing these patterns we at first tested legitimation categories developed in previous similar studies (Fitzgerald & O'Rourke, 2016;Vaara, 2014;Van Leeuwen, 2007). These categories were then adapted for the specifics of our case, resulting in five major legitimation categories: authorisation, moralisation, rationalisation, portrayal of victimhood and normalisation, as well as some subdivisions, e.g.…”

“…Likewise, research on the post-financial crisis discourse shows that economists had a significant influence on the public interpretation of such crisis phenomena as extra-ordinary and abnormal events, thereby suppressing alternative discursive framings (Pühringer & Hirte, 2015). Others show thateven though economics has been subject to criticism in the aftermath of the financial crisisit remained stable in discursive terms (Dimmelmeier, Hafele, & Theine, in press;Fitzgerald & O'Rourke, 2016). 1 Along the same lines, this paper aims to uncover normalised discursive and legitimation strategies in public economic debates, with a particular focus on economic policies.…”

Adapting to the postmodern medical paradigm: how The Daily Telegraph used emotion and anecdote to legitimise vaccination

“…More recent studies have examined legitimacy construction as it exists as a discursive process (Fitzgerald and O’Rourke, 2016). This position holds that discourses compete and struggle over the legitimacy of ideas and institutions.…”

Return to the east: Tourism promotion as legitimation in Qiandongnan, China

“…Vaara et al, 2006). Analysts have taken up these frameworks in a number of different case studies, including studies of education materials (Van Leeuwen, 2007), news media (Fitzgerald and O’Rourke, 2016; Maier, 2011; Vaara et al, 2006; Vaara and Tienari, 2008), political cartoons (Mazid, 2008), political speeches (Oddo, 2011; Reyes, 2011; Rojo and Van Dijk, 1997), and visa applications (Van Leeuwen and Wodak, 1999). Here, I apply it in a study of tourism promotional literature.…”