- I have used my Toolbox to analyse the government discourse (but
I have generally tried to do this in normal rather than academic
discourse language)
- I have found that the Government discourse attempts to enlist
or recruit most other discourses, and also that it carefully balances
the economic and green discourses
- The Government discourse contains important dimensions of political
and new management discourses, and it operates at the international,
administrative and media levels.
- I have also carried out a Context Analysis, and this can be
seen as a summary of the discourses of all the main business and
agency players. This is a diachronic cross-section of the main
strands, though inevitably it is incomplete. I also provide an
outline of a synchronic summary of the recent history of food
production techniques.
- From examining the Context, there are major processes of industrialisation
and globalisation in the food sector, which is perhaps only to
be expected form the history of all other sectors
- There is little if any discourse about the industrialisation
of food - it is difficult to tell if this discourse is avoided
or hidden for commercial, political or psychological reasons.
There are risks of falling into 'conspiracy discourses' here in
any attempt to explain this.
- The Context has an 'air of reality', compared to the relative
variability of any particular discourse - the Government could
change its direction, discourse, or rhetoric tomorrow, but the
context would change more slowly, as it is wider and deeper.
- What is real ? The food on our plate, the plants in my garden
? The outbreak of BSE ? When does this become discourse ? For
example, I have stated
§ "There is an industrialisation process" This
is observably true - you could visit a chicken factory and see
it for yourself, and examine the Government's excellent statistics
to measure the progress of the factory production of chickens.
§ However, "There is a globalisation process" is
a discourse statement, and is less 'real' or true - it describes
a paradigm shift rather than a material process.
- This is an example of the interplay of discourse and reality
- in the last analysis, it is subjective and depends on the position
and attitude taken by the commentator or analyst.
- There is an authorial discourse - it is difficult for me to
analyse this, or to define the context in which I live, and my
perspective for describing things. However one may view the authorial
discourse, I have done my best to be independent and impartial
in my study of this area.
About the Author. I have a biography
site (which will give you an idea of my personal context), and
this has links to all my other writings on the internet. My personal
diet is "wholefood", and excludes meat, but includes fish
and some dairy products. I feel I have chosen this diet because
of information which is freely available to everyone, and I have
no wish to interfere in anyone else's responsibility to choose a
diet that they are happy with.
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