This book approaches the issue of ideology in specialized communication in professional, institutional and disciplinary settings across domains as diverse as law, healthcare, corporate management, migration, NGOs, etc. What unites the contributors is their commitment to a discourse view of language use, i.e., the view that organisational and professional practices are rooted in social, ideological orders, although a variety of perspectives on the exact nature of the relationship between ideology and discourse can be discerned in individual chapters.

The acts of interpretation - by participants and analysts alike - are invested in ideology, explicitly or implicitly. This manifest/hidden duality surrounding ideology-in-discourse constitutes the main focus. Challenging the traditional presumption of objectivity, impersonality and non-involvement that has often characterized research on Language for Specific Purposes, this book demonstrates how the specialized communication setting is a critical site where ideology is intrinsically embodied in discursive practices.

Contents:

Giuliana Garzone/Srikant Sarangi: Discourse, Ideology and Specialized Communication: a Critical Introduction - Srikant Sarangi: Other-orientation in Patient-centred Healthcare Communication: Unveiled Ideology or Discoursal Ecology? - Giuseppina Cortese: The Right To Be Just Other Children: Protectionist and Liberationist Ideologies in the Discourse of Children's Rights - Donella Antelmi: Manifest Ideology and Hidden Ideology in Legal Language: Definitions and Terms - Chiara Degano: 'Good' and 'Bad' Subjects: Ideology in Social Research - Marc Silver: Rethinking 'Ideology': A Critical Analysis of How Historians Read and Respond to Ideology - James Archibald: Responsible Mediation or Communicating the True Message across the Cultural Divide - Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini/Elisa Turra: Organizational Change from Old to New Economy: Exploring Consensus and Conflict in Business Meetings - Gina Poncini/Lorene Hiris: When (Un)ethical Behavior is an Issue for the Industry: An Examination of CEO Letters of Securities Brokerage Firms - Sylvain Dieltjens/Priscilla Heynderickx: Strategic Uses of the Pronoun We in Business Communication - Estrella Montolío Durán: Advising without Committing: the Use of Argumentative Reservation in Texts Written by Consultants - John Douthwaite: Gender and Ideology in Advertising - Robin Anderson: Genre Bending in Economic Journalism: an Analysis of the Lex Column in the Financial Times - Maria Freddi: Ideology and Ethics in the Discourse of Designers: a Corpus Study - Paola Catenaccio: De-humanising the Alien: the Construction of Migrants' Rights in EU Legislation - Davide Mazzi: The Rhetoric of Judicial Texts: the Interplay of Reported Argumentation and The Judge's Argumentative Voice - Lidia De Michelis: «A Forward-looking Country»: Britain and the Unbearable Lightness of 'Corporate' National Identity - Antonio Pinna: Evaluation and Ideology in Political Discourse: the Use of Modal Verbs in G. W. Bush's Presidential Speeches - Alison Duguid: Men at Work: how Those at Number 10 Construct their Working Identity.