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Article published In: Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 24:3 (2025) ► pp.460–482

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Legitimizing the interventions recommended in “European Research Area Policy Agenda 2022–2024”

A study of persuasive presuppositions

ORCiD logo with link | University of Opole | Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
Published online: 21 March 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.23043.mol
Abstract
The EU Directorate General for Research and Innovation’s “European Research Area Policy Agenda: Overview of Actions for the Period 2022–2024” outlines twenty actions to boost research excellence, investment and reform, coordination and support, or green and digital transformation of the academia, in an attempt to create a truly common “European knowledge market.” Filled with strategic planning jargon, the policy specifies the recommended interventions for years to come and with billions of Euros of funding to follow. Using a qualitative critical discourse approach, this study explores policy-making from a linguistic perspective to capture the characteristics of current EU R&I discourse. Language choices have a constitutive role in policy papers due to the discursive capacity for legitimization and subsequent persuasion. The analysis focuses on the persuasive presuppositions induced by certain lexico-grammatical choices, including evaluative and rhetorical devices, and shows how the ERA policy fosters acceptance of a European vision of R&I values.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Persuasive devices and legitimization in policymaking
  • 3.The context of ERA Policy Agenda 2022–2024
  • 4.Analytic protocol
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Verb choices for required actions
    • 5.2Evaluative modifiers and rhetorical constructions
    • 5.3Catchphrases
  • 6.Constructing legitimate responses to challenges, risks and requirements
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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