Language can shape our societies and our political lives.
Edison Bicudo, lecturer in the Department of Society and Politics at Aston University, discusses how.
Faculty Bio:
Dr Edison Bicudo is a Lecturer in the Department of Society and Politics, Aston University, in the UK. He is interested in the regulation, governance, digitalisation, and financialisation of health technology development. With background in sociology, political economy, and geography, he is also interested in the ideological and cognitive underpinnings of technology governance.
Transcript:
I have a question for you, the person listening to this podcast. How would you define the nation state?
If your definition is something like “the nation state is the manager of collective life” – then your reasoning is metaphoric. You are unconsciously drawing analogies and proposing that THE STATE IS A MANAGER. However, if your answer is something like “the state is the entity protecting people’s values and wellbeing – then your understanding is metonymic. You are unconsciously taking THE WHOLE FOR THE PARTS and considering the relation between national agencies and citizens.
Why does the difference matter? Because it motivates concrete projects and measures. If the metaphoric view prevails, the state will take the shape of a corporation trying to maximise gains and outcomes. If the metonymic view prevails, the state will be more like an institution safeguarding wellbeing and rights.
It is therefore key to recognise the understandings that prevail in society. This is the interpretation proposed by sociognistics. The word sociognistics combines three words: sociology, cognition, and linguistics. In this approach, social and political conflicts derive from divergent understandings made possible by language.
These divergences define whether people favour state efficiency or state morality, whether they trust or oppose science, whether they favour democratic regimes or the newest forms of fascism, and so forth.
I could finish by asking: Do you understand? But it is better to ask: How do you understand?
Read More:
[Taylor & Francis Group] - Sociology, Cognition, and Linguistics Towards a Theory of Sociognistics
[Oxford Academic] - Cognitive Foundations of Society: The Concept of Schemata in Cell, Gene, and Tissue Therapies
[Elgaronline] - Understandings of commercial and open-source 3D bioprinting: The politics of metaphors and metonymies
