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Article published In: Young researchers in action
Edited by Angeliki Tzanne
[Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 10:1] 2022
► pp. 111–139

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Disagreements in a feminist digital safe space

The relationship between impoliteness, identity and power

 | National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Published online: 25 May 2021
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00064.kri
Abstract
Research on impoliteness has underlined the need for multidisciplinary approaches to impoliteness (. 2019a. “Conflict, Disagreement and (Im)politeness.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict, edited by Matthew Evans, Lesley Jeffries, and Jim O’Driscoll, 176–195. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). In this article, I adopt the concept of “safe space”, as discussed in works on feminist digital media (Clark-Parsons, Rosemary. 2018. “Building a Digital Girl Army: The Cultivation of Feminist Safe Spaces Online.” New Media & Society 20(6): 2125–2144. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Rentschler, Carrie A. 2014. “Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media.” Girlhood Studies 7(1):65–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), to explore how impoliteness relates to identity construction and the negotiation of power dynamics in the context of a Greek feminist website, constructed as a safe space. Both the concept of “safe space” and discursive and relational approaches to impoliteness (Angouri, Jo, and Miriam A. Locher. 2012. “Theorising Disagreement.” Journal of Pragmatics 44(12):1549–1553. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Graham, Sage Lambert. 2007. “Disagreeing to Agree: Conflict, (Im)politeness and Identity in a Computer-Mediated Community.” Journal of Pragmatics 39(4):742–759. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Locher, Miriam A., and Richard J. Watts. 2005. "Politeness Theory and Relational Work". Journal of Politeness Research 1(1):9-33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Locher, Miriam A., and Richard J. Watts. 2008. “Relational Work and Impoliteness: Negotiating Norms of Linguistic Behaviour.” In Impoliteness in Language: Studies on its Interplay with Power in Theory and Practice, edited by Derek Bousfield and Miriam A. Locher, 77–99. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) relate to norms of appropriate behaviour in particular contexts and relational issues, such as power and identity.
The data for this article comprise comments posted in discussions taking place in the Greek website of A, mpa, in which participants became involved in disagreements. . 2010. “Conventionalised Impoliteness Formulae.” Journal of Pragmatics 42(12):3232–3245. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar framework for conventionalised impoliteness formulae is the starting point of the analysis, which takes a discourse analytical approach to investigate the intersection of identity and power in the site. Results show that criticisms and challenging questions are linked to the identification of participants with particular feminist positions, and to the negotiation of the power distribution between the administrator and themselves. Furthermore, the paradoxical nature of safe spaces plays an important role in these processes, as the use of impoliteness points to the negotiation of the norms for interaction among participants and reveals the struggle between individual expression and maintenance of safety.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1(Im)politeness, conflict, and disagreement: An overview
    • 2.2Impoliteness and identity in on-line contexts
    • 2.3Feminist safe spaces online
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Discussion of findings
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (84)
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