Affiliation:
1. Queen Mary University of London, UK
Abstract
This article argues that spokespersons who claim to speak on behalf of a social group cannot escape the structural problem of delegation whereby speaking in someone’s name entails speaking instead of someone. This form of delegated and authorised silencing through the promise of empowerment imposes symbolic violence on a group which recognises the spokesperson as a valid representative, without recognising its own potential disenfranchisement. I build on Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological writings on language and symbolic power to theorise the trajectories of authorisation of spokespersons. In doing so, I critically engage with theories in International Relations which rely on a separation between speaker and audience to analyse the legitimation of political speech. Instead, I reformulate the speaker/audience relation through the concept of symbolic power and introduce the category of the spoken-for. When spokespersons struggle over symbolic power, they seek to impose social classificatory categories on social groups and spaces. I illustrate these dynamics in the context of human rights politics in Crimea, showing how various spokespersons are engaged in a symbolic struggle over ‘authenticity’ of their speech and the ‘universal’ of human rights. I conclude by suggesting new lines of inquiry to analyse creative strategies to mitigate the spokesperson problem.
Funder
Economic and Social Research Council
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Sociology and Political Science
Reference71 articles.
1. Symbolic power in European diplomacy: the struggle between national foreign services and the EU's External Action Service
2. Towards a Practice Turn in EU Studies: The Everyday of European Integration
3. Allcrimea.net (2014) Prem’er Aksenov: teper’ vse krymchane podchinjajutsja tol’ko Verhovnomu sovetu Kryma (Prime Minister Aksyonov: Now all Crimeans obey the Supreme Council of Crimea Only). Novosti Kryma, 27 February. Available at: https://news.allcrimea.net/news/2014/2/27/premer-aksenov-teper-vse-krymchane-podchinyajutsya-tolko-verhovnomu-sovetu-kryma-6039/ (11 January 2023).
4. Making Digital Surveillance Unacceptable? Security, Democracy, and the Political Sociology of Disputes
Cited by
1 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献