Space: Irrealis objects in technology policy and their role in a new political economy

Philip Graham

doi:10.1177/0957926501012006003

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Space: Irrealis objects in technology policy and their role in a new political economy

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Space: Irrealis objects in technology policy and their role in a new political economy

Philip Graham

Discourse and Society, Vol.12(6), pp.761-787

2001

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926501012006003

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Abstract

critical discourse analysis

innovation policy

knowledge economy

policy discourse

political economy

In this article, I show how new spaces are being prefigured for colonization in new economy policy discourses. Drawing on a corpus of 1.3 million words collected from legislatures throughout the world, I show the role of policy language in creating the foundations of an emergent form of political economy. The analysis is informed by principles from critical discourse analysis (CDA), classical political economy and critical media studies. It foregrounds a functional aspect of language called process metaphor to show how aspects of human activity are prefigured for mass commodification by the manipulation of realis and irrealis spaces. I also show how the fundamental element of any new political economy, the property element, is being largely ignored. Current moves to create a privately owned global space, which is as concrete as landed property - namely, the electromagnetic spectrum - has significant ramifications for the future of social relations in any global knowledge economy.

Details

Title: Space: Irrealis objects in technology policy and their role in a new political economy
Authors: Philip Graham (Author) - University of Queensland
Publication details: Discourse and Society, Vol.12(6), pp.761-787
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
Date published: 2001
DOI: 10.1177/0957926501012006003
ISSN: 0957-9265
Copyright note: Copyright © 2001 The Author. The author's accepted version is reproduced here in accordance with the publisher's copyright policy. The definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0957926501012006003
Organisation Unit: Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic); University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Creative Industries - Legacy
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451167902621
Output Type: Journal article

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