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To balance representation between congealed social relations

Examining Pavee Point's position paper on Traveller men's health

Author

  • Maria Norman

Summary, in English

This thesis examines how the Irish Traveller organisation Pavee Point balances representing Irish Travellers, while simultaneously working closely with Irish authorities, and calling for funding from the EU and the Irish state. This is realised through critical discourse analysis of a position paper from Pavee Point, on Traveller men’s health. Power is a complex issue, especially in this case; Irish Travellers are the most discriminated ethnic group in Ireland, with the Irish state being on the top of the hierarchy and Pavee Point a link between both. As such, they represent both. The findings from the analysis concludes that the text examined has a pattern of avoiding agency when presenting claims of discrimination, inequality, and exclusion, while structuring the grammar differently when describing previous work by Pavee Point. Linguistically, there also exist traceable othering , which could possibly be argued as showing signs of internalised othering. The analysis further confirms that the social relations of power traceable in the text, shows a wide gap in status between Irish Travellers and any kind of officials from the Irish state, including healthcare workers. The conclusion is that there is a gap in status between Irish Travellers and the organisation Pavee Point, and that these positions may be the reason behind the linguistic avoidance of agency in the text.

Department/s

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Social Sciences

Keywords

  • Irish Travellers
  • Critical discourse analysis
  • Ireland
  • ethnocide
  • othering
  • European studies

Supervisor

  • Niklas Bernsand (Researcher)