The discourse of digital activism: a linguistic analysis of calls for action concerning the Fashion Revolution.
Additional information
Authors
De Cock B.,
Aulit L.,
Cigada S.,
Greco S.,
Modrzejewska E.,
Palmieri R.
Type
Journal Article
Year
2024
Language
English
Abstract
In this study, we analyze the calls for action in a corpus of tweets with the hashtag #FashionRevolution, related to the 2020 Fashion Revolution week. We offer a linguistic analysis of the discourse of digital activism, relying on insights from pragmatics, discourse analysis, and argumentation. Our analysis focuses on the calls for action concerning the move towards a more sustainable fashion system, issued by account owners that do not have any impositive force on their audience. This leads us to showing that a variety of actors call for action through an imperative but also through other deontic structures. However, those responsible for carrying out the actions towards a fashion revolution are often left vague, in line with overall campaigning strategies. The motive for the call for action, crucial to convince, appears sometimes in an argument and/or through a reference to social or environmental sustainability. Through this case study, we then contribute to the linguistic analysis of digital activism, and to a better understanding of the challenges of bringing about behavioral change from a non-impositive position.
Keywords
argumentation, linguistics, deontics, sustainable fashion
Journal
Applied Linguistics
Pages (or article number)
1091-1110
