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Citizenship under COVID‐19: An analysis of UK political rhetoric during the first wave of the 2020 pandemic
Author(s) -
Andreouli Eleni,
Brice Emma
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.2526
Subject(s) - citizenship , ideology , sociology , politics , rhetoric , individualism , collectivism , britishness , rhetorical question , critical discourse analysis , discourse analysis , neoliberalism (international relations) , political science , media studies , social science , law , philosophy , linguistics
The paper presents an analysis of the UK government discourse on citizenship during the first 9 months of the COVID‐19 pandemic (March–November 2020). We adopted a socio‐cultural approach to citizenship drawing on the scholarly tradition of ideological dilemmas and rhetorical psychology as well as interdisciplinary work on neoliberalism. In our analysis of over one hundred briefings and other material by the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet, we identified five interrelated constructions of the ‘good citizen’: the confined, the heroic, the sacrificial, the unfree and the responsible citizen. The paper maps these constructions onto the ideological dilemmas of freedom/control, passive/active citizenship and individualism/collectivism. We show that, through the rhetorical use of notions of gratefulness for citizens' sacrifice and shared responsibility, the UK government's discourse appears to challenge the dominant model of the neoliberal citizen. However, it solidifies this very same model by responsibilizing individual citizens whilst abdicating itself from responsibility. Please refer to the Supplementary Material section to find this article's Community and Social Impact Statement.