Articulations of Self and Politics in Activist Discourse / Postdisciplinary Studies in Discourse (PDF)

Jan Zienkowski is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS) at the University of Navarra (UNAV) in Pamplona, Spain. His research focuses on subjectivity, reflexivity and critique as articulated in large-scale political debates on migration, integration and neoliberalism. He seeks to understand how human beings deal with hegemony with varying degrees of critical and political awareness.

“This is an important and ambitious work: … it encompasses a wide theoretical and empirical spectrum. As somebody with a predominant research interest in geographic issues, I benefited most from Zienkowski’s theoretical explorations. … the reader is free to concentrate either on the conceptual or the empirical part of this highly recommended book.” (Markus Leibenath, Communications, Vol. 44 (1), 2019)

“Without doubt this is an important and ambitious work: Large in scale, it encompasses a wide theoretical and empirical spectrum. … he has managed to bridge the often separate spheres of discourse theory and governmentality research, on the one hand, and linguistic pragmatics, on the other, much more successfully than any previous attempt. I also found the empirical discussion highly stimulating. Zienkowski certainly provides valuable insights into the ambivalent and conflict-ridden subjectivation processes of intellectual-activists with a Moroccan background in Flanders.” (Markus Leibenath, Communications, October 17, 2018)

“This volume is an investigation of the logics and abstract categories that motivate the interplay between integration, racism, migration, and discrimination in the political engagements of Flemish, Belgian, and/or Moroccan activists and intellectuals in Flanders. … This volume highlights the possibility of further nuancing discourse studies when approached from an interdisciplinary orientation.” (Christian Go, Language in Society, Vol. 47 (04), June, 2018)​