Scalar Positioning in Political Discourse

This Element advances the Scalar Deictic Space approach as a cognitive-discursive framework for analysing how political discourse constructs, differentiates, and dynamically reorganises identity, agency, urgency, and legitimacy. Building on the primacy of spatial cognition, SDS conceptualises political meaning-making as a scalar configuration anchored in a deictic centre, organised across proximal, medial, and distal zones of positioning. These zones reflect graded relations of intentionality, dependency, and symbolic alignment rather than fixed group memberships. By moving beyond binary Us-Other models, SDS reveals how political discourse internally stratifies the in-group, redistributing power and responsibility through shifting spatial, temporal, and modal configurations. Drawing on variety of examples including US, Iranian, and Ukrainian political discourse, the Element demonstrates how scalar positioning enables actors to legitimise action and project future while maintaining ideological coherence. As a dynamic analytical tool for tracing diachronic change in political worldviews, SDS critically examines cognitive foundations of political persuasion.