IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cog/poango/v8y2020i2p257-271.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Solidarity in the Public Sphere: A Discourse Network Analysis of German Newspapers (2008–2017)

Author

Listed:
  • Stefan Wallaschek

    (Institute of Social Sciences, University of Hildesheim, Germany)

  • Christopher Starke

    (Department of Social Sciences, University of Düsseldorf, Germany)

  • Carlotta Brüning

    (Department of Social Sciences, University of Düsseldorf, Germany)

Abstract

Multiple crises in the EU have sparked a renaissance of the concept of solidarity. However, discursive approaches to solidarity and the public understanding of solidarity have hardly received scholarly attention. Empirical research on solidarity is rather centered on welfare institutions as well as on individual attitudes and behavior. To shed new light on solidarity in public discourse, we investigate in which policy fields the term is most often used, which actors refer to it and how different types of solidarity are covered in the German public discourse. We investigate the coverage of solidarity in four German newspapers ( Die Welt , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Süddeutsche Zeitung , Die Tageszeitung ) from 2008 to 2017. By deploying the discourse network methodology with 306 claims in 230 news articles, we analyze the co-occurrence of actors and issues over time. Our results indicate a varying set of issues in which solidarity occurs, a rather stable actor visibility, across time and a context-dependent use of different types of solidarity. Government actors, civil society actors as well as citizens drive the solidarity discourse showing that institutional as well as non-institutional actors make use of solidarity in their public actions regarding political protest, financial issues and migration. The study provides novel insights into the interdependence of actor and issue visibility and sheds new light on solidarity in media discourses.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefan Wallaschek & Christopher Starke & Carlotta Brüning, 2020. "Solidarity in the Public Sphere: A Discourse Network Analysis of German Newspapers (2008–2017)," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(2), pages 257-271.
  • Handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v8:y:2020:i:2:p:257-271
    DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i2.2609
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandgovernance/article/view/2609
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17645/pag.v8i2.2609?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cog:poango:v8:y:2020:i:2:p:257-271. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: António Vieira or IT Department (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cogitatiopress.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.