Diskursiv diskriminering: en typologi

Abstract

Discursive Discrimination: A Typology. This article presents a typology of discursive discrimination, discrimination carried out through the use of language. It is argued that there is a need for a typology that focuses more clearly on an understanding of what discrimination is than what is the case in existing research and that such a typology should fulfil certain criteria in order to be useful for empirical research. The typology proposed consists of four main concepts: exclusion from discourse, negative otherpresentation, objectification, and proposals pointing towards unfavourable non-linguistic treatment. The related concept of othering - the creation of a psychological distance to people understood to belong to groups others than ";us"; — is also presented. The manner in which the different forms of discursive discrimination and othering can be operationalised is demonstrated with the help of examples from empirical studies of discourses of people categorised as mentally deficient, as deaf, and as immigrants in Swedish public debate during the last 75 years. The importance of categorisation of people is also discussed.