In this project, I am interrogating discourse surrounding the 2008 WHO/UNAIDS controversy, which both preceded and followed the publication of an article in the U.K. newspaper The Independent. The article reported that the head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS initiative admitted that the threat of an AIDS pandemic among heterosexuals was “officially” over. These texts are particularly important for such an endeavor because, as I will argue below, the controversy enables both “AIDS” and “heterosexuality” to operate as floating signifiers whose meanings are contested in public discourse in ways that ultimately reinforce heterosexual privilege and under-attention to the AIDS crisis. In the end, the destabilization of the meaning of HIV/AIDS does not serve emancipatory ends. Although the destabilization of meaning is the emancipatory gesture ‘par excellence’ for the poststructuralist tradition, my investigation shows that the destabilization of meaning in the WHO controversy actually results in the reification of master narratives. / text

This study examines the discursive development of the viral online phenomenon known by the hashtag #swedengate. Having originally revolved around Swedish dinner customs, the discussion and the meaning of ‘Swedengate’ soon came to encompass more serious themes, including various forms of criticism directed at Sweden. Due to the political significance such a development could imply, this study aims to map the renegotiation of meaning of the phenomenon over time and analyze it using a discourse theoretical framework. Moreover, to reflect upon the political aspect of such renegotiation, by contrasting Swedengate to literature on hashtag politics, virality and nation branding. Empirically, the study draws on Twitter hashtag data that represents concurrent hashtag usage related to the hashtag #swedengate within a time span of 39 weeks. Using social network analysis, this data is visualized and presented as a network graph offering a discursive and temporal representation of the interaction that is constitutive of Swedengate. With reference to several of Laclau and Mouffe's key concepts, the analysis shows that the graph can be understood as an articulation process, within which the hashtag #sweden functions as a floating signifier whose meaning is negotiated upon by various antagonistically positioned discourses. As a result of the floating signifier being articulated differently and through the formation of equivalence chains, the meaning of Swedengate came to include everything from vaccine skepticism to criticism of the Swedish government. Consequently, the study discusses the possibility of phenomenon such as Swedengate being exploited by actors with a specific political ambition.

Ma thèse présente une analyse du signifiant Europe dans trois corpus allemand, français, britannique. Chaque corpus contient les programmes électoraux européens des partis politiques nationaux qui ont obtenu au moins une fois un siège au Parlement Européen. La période commence aux premières élections européennes en 1979 et se termine avec les élections européennes de 2004.Une analyse lexicométrique du signifiant Europe dans les trois langues révèle de nouvelles perspectives pour la compréhension linguistique de la notion d'Europe dans ces champs politico-discursifs. Elle permet de tirer des conclusions sur les problèmes de communication au niveau européen, sur l'objectif politique de l'Union Européenne et la légitimation du pouvoir de l'UE. Selon notre hypothèse de recherche, une telle légitimation se fonde sur une conception imaginaire de l'identité européenne commune aux différents peuples. Même si le pouvoir politique peut considérer qu'il est légitimé par une telle conception, l'analyse révèle des différences importantes entre les conceptions imaginaires circulant dans les trois champs discursifs comparés.L'analyse lexicométrique est exploitée sur le plan quantitatif mais aussi au niveau qualitatif. A l'échelle quantitative, l'index, les spécificités d'Europe, ses quasi-synonymes et les cooccurrences d'Europe sont analysés et interprétés. L'approche qualitative du contexte du segment thématique répété Europe est...' conduit à des conclusions supplémentaires. L'analyse de ce segment définitoire cherche à rendre visible, dans une démarche pragmatique, le contenu impliqué des différents énoncés. Cela conduit à figurer l'horizon sémantique au sein duquel le signe Europe apparaît. Les positionnements de la notion d'Europe et les argumentations liées à l'expression linguistique dans les trois différents corpus sont comparés dans cette phase de la recherche afin de mettre en évidence l'horizon discursif dans lequel apparaît la notion d'Europe. / My PhD thesis analysis the signifier Europe in three corpora composed of German, French and British texts. Every corpus contains elections manifestos from national political parties that were represented in the European Parliament at least once with one a seat. The study starts with the first European elections 1979 and ends with the European elections of 2004.An analysis with the help of textual statistical measurements reveals new perspectives on the language comprehension of the notion Europe in the three different fields of political discourses. It allows conclusions about communication problems on a European level, about the political objectives of the European Union and about the legitimation of its political power. According to the research hypothesis the legitimation of the political power of the European Union is based on an imagined conception of a common European identity. Even if the political actors claim that they are legitimized by such an identity the study reveals something different. It shows some substantial differences between the imagined conceptions circulating within the three studied fields of political discourses.The textual corpora are explored with quantitative measurements and also with qualitative methods of text analysis. The frequency, the specific use of Europe and its quasi-synonyms, as the collocation of Europe are measured quantitatively. Additional conclusions were drawn from the qualitative analysis of the thematic word unit Europe is'. The analysis of this word unit is based on a pragmatic understanding of sense and tries to bring to evidence the implied content of the different utterances. In doing so, the semantic horizon of the sign Europe can be represented. During this research phase argumentations linked to the linguistic expression Europe are explored in order to analyse the discursive horizon in which the notion is used in the different discourses.