S. Reicher et N. Hopkins, SELF-CATEGORY CONSTRUCTIONS IN POLITICAL RHETORIC - AN ANALYSIS OF THATCHER AND KINNOCK SPEECHES CONCERNING THE BRITISH-MINERS-STRIKE (1984-5), European journal of social psychology, 26(3), 1996, pp. 353-371
This paper examines the way in which different speakers may construe b
oth the context and the categories involved in a single event. This is
achieved through an analysis of Margaret Thatcher's and Neil Kinnock'
s leadership speeches to their respective party conferences during the
British miners' strike of 1984-5. The analysis shows that both speake
rs construe the nature of the event such that their party is represent
ative of an ingroup which encompasses almost the entire population and
such that their policies are consonant with the definition of the ing
roup identity. Thus their category constructions mirror the ways in wh
ich the respective leaders seek to mobilize the electorate during the
strike. This analysis is used for two purposes: firstly, to argue for
an integration of self-categorization theory with rhetorical/discursiv
e psychologies and hence for further research into the ways in which s
elf-categories may be contested in argument rather than determined by
cognitive computations; secondly, to argue for further research into h
ow political rhetoric may affect mass action through the ways in which
collectivities are defined.