Kati Kauppinen | University of Jyväskylä (original) (raw)
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Papers by Kati Kauppinen
Accompanying the rise of the globalized new economy, the heritage tourism industry is expanding e... more Accompanying the rise of the globalized new economy, the heritage tourism industry is expanding ever further into the global peripheries. One such 'peripheral' site is Sámiland, home of the indigenous language minority Sámi people, in the north of Lapland. Here, tourism is emerging as an opportunity for the Sámi to challenge their longstanding marginalization by mobilizing the periphery and signifying their peripheralized identities in new ways. These processes may look encouraging but they call for critical interrogation. To gain a deeper insight into these processes, the present study draws on a nexus analytical approach combining discourse analysis and ethnography to examine an illuminating case: discursive construction of 'the periphery' on a website advertising guesthouses in northern Lapland run by a Sámi woman who is an artist and entrepreneur. The investigation shows how, drawing on a variety of local, global and personal sources of signification, 'the periphery' is constructed as a hybrid and polycentric space, a construction that challenges persisting conceptions of peripheral regions as homogeneous and immutable. An examination of the material factors underlying this discursive construction leads to the question of how these emerging possibilities are actually linked to socioeconomic conditions and suggests implications for future research.
Female empowerment, success and agency have become icons of contemporary postfeminist popular cul... more Female empowerment, success and agency have become icons of contemporary postfeminist popular culture and especially of women's magazines. While in previous research these notions have been seen as manifestations of a new, popular feminism, more recently they have also been connected to the growing hegemony of neoliberal governance, a mode of power that ultimately aims at an economization of the social and is fundamentally exercised in and through discourse. This article seeks to contribute to the emerging body of research on the interconnectedness of these two phenomena, postfeminism and neoliberalism, by using the example of the German edition of the women's magazine Cosmopolitan. Methodologically the study draws on linguistically oriented discourse analysis. The analysis focuses on the operation of a 'discourse of postfeminist self-management' in two key domains of the magazine: work and sex. Following a multilayered examination, the study concludes that although the discourse of postfeminist self-management evokes a feminist ethos, its logic is that of neoliberal governmentality. Thus the study suggests that rather than feminist action of any kind, what is going on here is gender-specific neoliberal governance, whereby the subversive power of feminism is systematically turned into a productive force for the (self-)production of neoliberalized, entrepreneurial subjects.
Stories and images of successful career women and support for women's advancement in working life... more Stories and images of successful career women and support for women's advancement in working life have become hallmarks of contemporary postfeminist media culture, and especially of women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan. While in previous research these features have been seen as signs for a new, popular feminism, more recently they have also been connected to the growing hegemony of neoliberal governance, a mode of power that ultimately aims at the economization of the social and is fundamentally exercised in and through discourse. The aim of this article is to investigate further the interconnectedness of these two phenomena, postfeminism and neoliberalism, in the domain of work, using the example of the German edition of Cosmopolitan. For a detailed and multilayered investigation the study draws on linguistically oriented discourse analysis, focusing on the operation of a 'discourse of postfeminist self-management'. The examination shows how this discourse, while on the one hand evoking an ethos of feminist engagement, on the other seeks to guide readers to mould themselves into a version of the entrepreneurial self required by the neoliberalized world of work.
Accompanying the rise of the globalized new economy, the heritage tourism industry is expanding e... more Accompanying the rise of the globalized new economy, the heritage tourism industry is expanding ever further into the global peripheries. One such 'peripheral' site is Sámiland, home of the indigenous language minority Sámi people, in the north of Lapland. Here, tourism is emerging as an opportunity for the Sámi to challenge their longstanding marginalization by mobilizing the periphery and signifying their peripheralized identities in new ways. These processes may look encouraging but they call for critical interrogation. To gain a deeper insight into these processes, the present study draws on a nexus analytical approach combining discourse analysis and ethnography to examine an illuminating case: discursive construction of 'the periphery' on a website advertising guesthouses in northern Lapland run by a Sámi woman who is an artist and entrepreneur. The investigation shows how, drawing on a variety of local, global and personal sources of signification, 'the periphery' is constructed as a hybrid and polycentric space, a construction that challenges persisting conceptions of peripheral regions as homogeneous and immutable. An examination of the material factors underlying this discursive construction leads to the question of how these emerging possibilities are actually linked to socioeconomic conditions and suggests implications for future research.
Female empowerment, success and agency have become icons of contemporary postfeminist popular cul... more Female empowerment, success and agency have become icons of contemporary postfeminist popular culture and especially of women's magazines. While in previous research these notions have been seen as manifestations of a new, popular feminism, more recently they have also been connected to the growing hegemony of neoliberal governance, a mode of power that ultimately aims at an economization of the social and is fundamentally exercised in and through discourse. This article seeks to contribute to the emerging body of research on the interconnectedness of these two phenomena, postfeminism and neoliberalism, by using the example of the German edition of the women's magazine Cosmopolitan. Methodologically the study draws on linguistically oriented discourse analysis. The analysis focuses on the operation of a 'discourse of postfeminist self-management' in two key domains of the magazine: work and sex. Following a multilayered examination, the study concludes that although the discourse of postfeminist self-management evokes a feminist ethos, its logic is that of neoliberal governmentality. Thus the study suggests that rather than feminist action of any kind, what is going on here is gender-specific neoliberal governance, whereby the subversive power of feminism is systematically turned into a productive force for the (self-)production of neoliberalized, entrepreneurial subjects.
Stories and images of successful career women and support for women's advancement in working life... more Stories and images of successful career women and support for women's advancement in working life have become hallmarks of contemporary postfeminist media culture, and especially of women's magazines such as Cosmopolitan. While in previous research these features have been seen as signs for a new, popular feminism, more recently they have also been connected to the growing hegemony of neoliberal governance, a mode of power that ultimately aims at the economization of the social and is fundamentally exercised in and through discourse. The aim of this article is to investigate further the interconnectedness of these two phenomena, postfeminism and neoliberalism, in the domain of work, using the example of the German edition of Cosmopolitan. For a detailed and multilayered investigation the study draws on linguistically oriented discourse analysis, focusing on the operation of a 'discourse of postfeminist self-management'. The examination shows how this discourse, while on the one hand evoking an ethos of feminist engagement, on the other seeks to guide readers to mould themselves into a version of the entrepreneurial self required by the neoliberalized world of work.