The Discursive Construction of Global Economic Strategies in Turbulent Times

Abstract

The trajectory of global economy in the first quarter of the twenty-first century was intercepted by the financial meltdown. State leaders advanced their arguments on the issue. Consequently, discourse as a particular moment of economic practices plays a salient role in the social processes of reconstructing a new global economy. The crisis has given rise to a scientific inquiry concerning the interface between the discursive process and social material process in manifesting the global economy. By referring to critical discourse analysis as a transdisciplinary research approach, this paper attempts to identify the global economic strategies and how these strategies are discursively constituted in economic texts during the global financial market crises of 2008-2011. One newspaper Opinion-Editorial article and four political economic speeches by state leaders provide resources of data for the study. The paper identifies three crucial global economic strategies discursively constructed in the social material processes of global economy in turbulent times. These economic strategies are embedded within practical arguments on the current global economic situation, value assumptions, and lexical choices.