Critical Approaches to Polycrisis

This book critically examines how polycrisis is recontextualised and (ab)used in contemporary discourse from across Europe. The book brings together established and emerging researchers in the field of discourse studies from around the world to explore the accelerating interconnected challenges of climate change, conflict, risk, Brexit, democracy, COVID-19, the rising cost of living, and migration. Recognising that polycrisis is socially produced, constructed and dismantled through discourse, the authors contemplate the discursive manifestations of crisis. Falling under the banner of critical discourse studies (CDS), the methodological approaches are heterogeneous, including, but not limited to, corpus-assisted CDS and multimodal CDS. The data are equally varied, ranging from focus groups to no-war letters, media representations to environmental protection commercials. The volume provides a comprehensive consideration of how critical approaches to discourse can help to make sense of, resist, and respond to (poly)crisis, and it will be of interest to students and scholars working in the remit of discourse studies, with a particular interest in crisis communication.