Discourse as the Recontextualization of Social Practice
Discourse as the Recontextualization of Social Practice
a. Social Practice
Social practices are socially regulated ways of doing things—but the word “regulate”
may give the wrong impression here, since “regulation,” in the sense in which we normally
understand it, is only one of the ways in which social coordination can be achieved. Different
social practices are “regulated” to different degrees and in different ways— for instance, through
strict prescription, or through traditions, or through the influence of experts and charismatic role
models, or through the constraints of technological resources used, and so on (cf. Van Leeuwen,
2005: ch. 3). In this section, I present the model of social practice I will use in this book, using
one specific text to show how elements of social practices enter into texts. The example is a short
newspaper article from the “family pages” of the Daily Mirror, a Sydney, Australia, tabloid
newspaper, which appeared a few days before the beginning of the school year :
“When Mum first took me to school I started to cry because I thought I would never
see her again.”
“But after a few days I really loved school.”—Mark, aged six.
Mark, now 10, quickly discovered starting school wasn’t as “scary” as he thought.
Mark was one of the many children teacher-turned-author Valerie Martin spoke to
when writing From Home to School, a book dealing with the fi rst day.
“The first day at school can be a happy and memorable one,” Valerie said.
“But the secret is getting ready and preparing now.”
Valerie said the main problems for new pupils were separation from families, meeting
large numbers of children they didn’t know and conforming to a classroom situation. Here are
some of Valerie’s suggestions to help take the hassle out of the big day. Over the next few days
try to get your child used to :
• putting on and taking off clothes
• tying shoe laces
• eating and drinking without help
• using a handkerchief
Valerie says it is important your child knows how to:
• use and flush a toilet
• ask for things clearly
• say his or her name and address
• cross a road safely
On the first day it is important not to rush children. Valerie says give them plenty of time
to get ready, eat breakfast and wash and clean their teeth. If possible, get everything ready the
night before because children become unsettled if they have to rush. “And fi nally don’t worry if
you or your child cries,” Valerie says. “It won’t last long.”
Although not all are always represented, I assume here that all actually performed social
practices include all of the following elements.
(1) Participants
A social practice first of all needs a set of participants in certain roles (principally those of
instigator, agent, affected, or benefi ciary). Not all of the participants are explicitly mentioned in
the text. There is no mention of the teacher, for instance. Clearly, recontextualizations can
exclude some of the participants of the practices they recontextualize. But the key participants
(journalist and readers) are not realized in and by the text, nor are the many other participants
involved in the production and distribution of newspapers. The text only realizes the journalist’s
actions (reporting). The other elements of the practice are usually seen as “context.” But as the
concept of “social practice” combines both “text” and “context,” the latter concept becomes
perhaps somewhat redundant here.
(2)
Actions
The core of any social practice is a set of actions performed in a sequence, which may be
fixed to a greater or lesser degree and which may or may not allow for choice, that is, for
alternatives with regard to a greater or lesser number of the actions of some or all of the
participants, and for concurrence, that is, for the simultaneity of different actions during part or
all of the sequence.
(3) Performance Modes
Our example text, parents are advised “not to rush children.” When “preparing children
for the first day,” it is apparently not enough to perform the actions that make up the practice,
they must also be performed at a certain pace, and the need to be unhurried does not relate to all
of the actions but only to those that are performed “the night before” and “on the first day” itself.
Representations of social practices are full of such “stage directions,” or performance modes, as I
will call them here.
(4) Eligibility Conditions (Participants)
Eligibility conditions are the “qualifications” participants must have in order to be
eligible to play a particular role in a particular social practice. Similarly, to be eligible for the
role of “expert author,” certain “qualifications” are necessary. Such eligibility conditions refer to
further social practices: the social practice (by no means universal) of keeping track of people’s
ages by means of a certain calendar, in the one case, and the social practices of teaching and
social science research, in the other. The relation of “preparatory practice” to “core practice” is
just one of the ways in which social practices can be interconnected—and a practice which, in
one context, is “preparatory” may be “core” in another.
(5) Presentation Styles
Social practices also involve dress and body grooming requirements, or presentation styles, for
the participants. Presentation styles may be explicitly prescribed (school and other uniforms,
wedding rings, and so on) or not, and social practices vary a great deal in the amount of freedom
they leave to (some or all of) the participants in this respect. Like performance modes,
presentation styles may apply to the whole of a social practice or to specific parts of it: the
wearing and taking off of hats by men during certain social practices (e.g., burials) is one
example. And like eligibility conditions, presentation styles connect to preparatory practices,
such as dressing, shaving, hair dressing, makeup, and so on.
(6) Times
Social practices and specific parts of them take place at more or less definite times. The
other social practices referred to in our example are not linked to specific (or unspecific)
times, and would therefore seem to be free of time constraints.
(7) Locations
Social practices are also related to specifi locations. Practices may involve changing from
one location to another.
(8) Eligibility Conditions (Locations)
In other cultures, the distance between, and the postures of, the participants, rather than
“fixed feature arrangements,” might suffi ce to make a room into a classroom or living
room. Like the eligibility conditions for participants, the eligibility conditions for locations
refer back to “preparatory practices”—of building, of interior decorating, of arranging
furniture, of cleaning. And, different social institutions will allow a different amount of
freedom with regard to each of the aspects mentioned.
(9) Resources: Tools and Materials
The “props” needed to perform a practice or some part of it may again connect with other
practices, for example, practices of time keeping: clocks are a crucial tool for strictly
scheduled social practices, and so is the school bell in the case of schooling.
(10) Eligibility Conditions (Resources)
Like participants and locations, tools and materials are subject to eligibility conditions: not
any bag qualifies as a schoolbag; not any piece of paper qualifies as material for the
activity of learning how to write. How much room for interpretation there is in these
conditions will vary from practice to practice, but some conditions will always apply.
b. The Recontextualization Chain
In recontextualization, the recontextualized social practice may be (1) a sequence
of nonlinguistic actions, for example, dressing or having breakfast, (2) a sequence in which
linguistic and nonlinguistic actions alternate (“language in action”; see Malinowski, 1923),
or (3) a sequence of linguistic (and/or other semiotic) actions (a “genre,” in the sense of,
e.g., Martin, 1992). The recontextualizing social practice, however, must always be a
sequence of linguistic (and/or other semiotic) activities, a “genre.”
Recontextualization not only makes the recontextualized social practices explicit
to a greater or lesser degree, it also makes them pass through the fi lter of the practices in
which they are inserted. The way in which this happens is rarely transparent to the
participants of the recontextualizing practice, and is usually embedded.
(1) Substitutions
The most fundamental transformation is the substitution of elements of the actual social
practice with semiotic elements. What kinds of substitution occur depends on the context
into which a practice is recontextualized.
(2) Deletions
Recontextualization may also involve the deletion of elements of the social practice.
Generalized names for whole activity sequences, or large portions thereof (e.g., “getting
ready for the fi rst day” or “the fi rst day itself”) do not necessarily imply deletion. The
detailed activities may be referred to elsewhere in the text. When this is not the case,
however, they cause the detail to be deleted. It may be that such detail is readily supplied
by the reader (e.g., the deletion of the “resources” involved in “cleaning your teeth”) so that
its inclusion would seem condescending. It may also be that detail is withheld for other
reasons. In our example, the practices of researching and writing a book are not referred to
in detail perhaps because they are deemed irrelevant to Daily Mirror readers.
(3) Rearrangements
Elements of the social practice, in so far as they have a necessary order, may be rearranged,
scattered through the text in various ways. In our example text, for instance, the activity of
“preparing for the first day” comes after the activity of “taking the child to school,” when,
in reality, the two would have to occur in reverse order. Again, “separation from families”
follows “really love school,” when in reality the opposite order would have to apply. Such
rearrangements are motivated by the concerns of the recontextualizing practice: the generic
structure of the article, with its stages of “drawing the reader in,” “explaining the problem,”
and “providing the solutions in the form of adhortations to parents” necessitates them. The
activities are rearranged to suit the persuasive and hortatory purposes which constitute
them as a social practice.
(4) Additions
Elements can also be added to the recontextualized social practice. Repetitions The same
element may occur a number of times in the text. An ongoing concept formation takes
place, with the resulting concept fusing the semantic features of all of the expressions used
as synonyms.
a. Social Practice
Social practices are socially regulated ways of doing things—but the word “regulate”
may give the wrong impression here, since “regulation,” in the sense in which we normally
understand it, is only one of the ways in which social coordination can be achieved. Different
social practices are “regulated” to different degrees and in different ways— for instance, through
strict prescription, or through traditions, or through the influence of experts and charismatic role
models, or through the constraints of technological resources used, and so on (cf. Van Leeuwen,
2005: ch. 3). In this section, I present the model of social practice I will use in this book, using
one specific text to show how elements of social practices enter into texts. The example is a short
newspaper article from the “family pages” of the Daily Mirror, a Sydney, Australia, tabloid
newspaper, which appeared a few days before the beginning of the school year :
“When Mum first took me to school I started to cry because I thought I would never
see her again.”
“But after a few days I really loved school.”—Mark, aged six.
Mark, now 10, quickly discovered starting school wasn’t as “scary” as he thought.
Mark was one of the many children teacher-turned-author Valerie Martin spoke to
when writing From Home to School, a book dealing with the fi rst day.
“The first day at school can be a happy and memorable one,” Valerie said.
“But the secret is getting ready and preparing now.”
Valerie said the main problems for new pupils were separation from families, meeting
large numbers of children they didn’t know and conforming to a classroom situation. Here are
some of Valerie’s suggestions to help take the hassle out of the big day. Over the next few days
try to get your child used to :
• putting on and taking off clothes
• tying shoe laces
• eating and drinking without help
• using a handkerchief
Valerie says it is important your child knows how to:
• use and flush a toilet
• ask for things clearly
• say his or her name and address
• cross a road safely
On the first day it is important not to rush children. Valerie says give them plenty of time
to get ready, eat breakfast and wash and clean their teeth. If possible, get everything ready the
night before because children become unsettled if they have to rush. “And fi nally don’t worry if
you or your child cries,” Valerie says. “It won’t last long.”
Although not all are always represented, I assume here that all actually performed social
practices include all of the following elements.
(1) Participants
A social practice first of all needs a set of participants in certain roles (principally those of
instigator, agent, affected, or benefi ciary). Not all of the participants are explicitly mentioned in
the text. There is no mention of the teacher, for instance. Clearly, recontextualizations can
exclude some of the participants of the practices they recontextualize. But the key participants
(journalist and readers) are not realized in and by the text, nor are the many other participants
involved in the production and distribution of newspapers. The text only realizes the journalist’s
actions (reporting). The other elements of the practice are usually seen as “context.” But as the
concept of “social practice” combines both “text” and “context,” the latter concept becomes
perhaps somewhat redundant here.
(2)
Actions
The core of any social practice is a set of actions performed in a sequence, which may be
fixed to a greater or lesser degree and which may or may not allow for choice, that is, for
alternatives with regard to a greater or lesser number of the actions of some or all of the
participants, and for concurrence, that is, for the simultaneity of different actions during part or
all of the sequence.
(3) Performance Modes
Our example text, parents are advised “not to rush children.” When “preparing children
for the first day,” it is apparently not enough to perform the actions that make up the practice,
they must also be performed at a certain pace, and the need to be unhurried does not relate to all
of the actions but only to those that are performed “the night before” and “on the first day” itself.
Representations of social practices are full of such “stage directions,” or performance modes, as I
will call them here.
(4) Eligibility Conditions (Participants)
Eligibility conditions are the “qualifications” participants must have in order to be
eligible to play a particular role in a particular social practice. Similarly, to be eligible for the
role of “expert author,” certain “qualifications” are necessary. Such eligibility conditions refer to
further social practices: the social practice (by no means universal) of keeping track of people’s
ages by means of a certain calendar, in the one case, and the social practices of teaching and
social science research, in the other. The relation of “preparatory practice” to “core practice” is
just one of the ways in which social practices can be interconnected—and a practice which, in
one context, is “preparatory” may be “core” in another.
(5) Presentation Styles
Social practices also involve dress and body grooming requirements, or presentation styles, for
the participants. Presentation styles may be explicitly prescribed (school and other uniforms,
wedding rings, and so on) or not, and social practices vary a great deal in the amount of freedom
they leave to (some or all of) the participants in this respect. Like performance modes,
presentation styles may apply to the whole of a social practice or to specific parts of it: the
wearing and taking off of hats by men during certain social practices (e.g., burials) is one
example. And like eligibility conditions, presentation styles connect to preparatory practices,
such as dressing, shaving, hair dressing, makeup, and so on.
(6) Times
Social practices and specific parts of them take place at more or less definite times. The
other social practices referred to in our example are not linked to specific (or unspecific)
times, and would therefore seem to be free of time constraints.
(7) Locations
Social practices are also related to specifi locations. Practices may involve changing from
one location to another.
(8) Eligibility Conditions (Locations)
In other cultures, the distance between, and the postures of, the participants, rather than
“fixed feature arrangements,” might suffi ce to make a room into a classroom or living
room. Like the eligibility conditions for participants, the eligibility conditions for locations
refer back to “preparatory practices”—of building, of interior decorating, of arranging
furniture, of cleaning. And, different social institutions will allow a different amount of
freedom with regard to each of the aspects mentioned.
(9) Resources: Tools and Materials
The “props” needed to perform a practice or some part of it may again connect with other
practices, for example, practices of time keeping: clocks are a crucial tool for strictly
scheduled social practices, and so is the school bell in the case of schooling.
(10) Eligibility Conditions (Resources)
Like participants and locations, tools and materials are subject to eligibility conditions: not
any bag qualifies as a schoolbag; not any piece of paper qualifies as material for the
activity of learning how to write. How much room for interpretation there is in these
conditions will vary from practice to practice, but some conditions will always apply.
b. The Recontextualization Chain
In recontextualization, the recontextualized social practice may be (1) a sequence
of nonlinguistic actions, for example, dressing or having breakfast, (2) a sequence in which
linguistic and nonlinguistic actions alternate (“language in action”; see Malinowski, 1923),
or (3) a sequence of linguistic (and/or other semiotic) actions (a “genre,” in the sense of,
e.g., Martin, 1992). The recontextualizing social practice, however, must always be a
sequence of linguistic (and/or other semiotic) activities, a “genre.”
Recontextualization not only makes the recontextualized social practices explicit
to a greater or lesser degree, it also makes them pass through the fi lter of the practices in
which they are inserted. The way in which this happens is rarely transparent to the
participants of the recontextualizing practice, and is usually embedded.
(1) Substitutions
The most fundamental transformation is the substitution of elements of the actual social
practice with semiotic elements. What kinds of substitution occur depends on the context
into which a practice is recontextualized.
(2) Deletions
Recontextualization may also involve the deletion of elements of the social practice.
Generalized names for whole activity sequences, or large portions thereof (e.g., “getting
ready for the fi rst day” or “the fi rst day itself”) do not necessarily imply deletion. The
detailed activities may be referred to elsewhere in the text. When this is not the case,
however, they cause the detail to be deleted. It may be that such detail is readily supplied
by the reader (e.g., the deletion of the “resources” involved in “cleaning your teeth”) so that
its inclusion would seem condescending. It may also be that detail is withheld for other
reasons. In our example, the practices of researching and writing a book are not referred to
in detail perhaps because they are deemed irrelevant to Daily Mirror readers.
(3) Rearrangements
Elements of the social practice, in so far as they have a necessary order, may be rearranged,
scattered through the text in various ways. In our example text, for instance, the activity of
“preparing for the first day” comes after the activity of “taking the child to school,” when,
in reality, the two would have to occur in reverse order. Again, “separation from families”
follows “really love school,” when in reality the opposite order would have to apply. Such
rearrangements are motivated by the concerns of the recontextualizing practice: the generic
structure of the article, with its stages of “drawing the reader in,” “explaining the problem,”
and “providing the solutions in the form of adhortations to parents” necessitates them. The
activities are rearranged to suit the persuasive and hortatory purposes which constitute
them as a social practice.
(4) Additions
Elements can also be added to the recontextualized social practice. Repetitions The same
element may occur a number of times in the text. An ongoing concept formation takes
place, with the resulting concept fusing the semantic features of all of the expressions used
as synonyms.