On the Discursive Appropriation of the Antinatalist Ideology in Social Media

Authors

George Rossolatos, University of KasselFollow

Abstract

Antinatalism, a relatively recent moral philosophical perspective and ideology that avows “it is better not to have ever existed,” has spawned a new social movement with an active presence in social media. This study draws on the discourse historical approach (DHA) to critical discourse analysis for offering a firm understanding as to how the collective identity of the Facebook antinatalist NSM is formed. The findings from the analysis of the situated interaction among the NSM’s members demonstrate that collective identity is far from a knitty-gritty concept, but a dynamic schema that includes a plethora of micro-interactions. Individuals constantly negotiate its meaning in context, as they seek to streamline the antinatalist system of ideas with their lifeworld through a web of interlocking schemata, discursive and rhetorical strategies.

Keywords

Antinatalism, New Social Movements, Ideology, Netnography, Critical Discourse Analysis, Rhetorical Criticism

Author Bio(s)

George Rossolatos (MSc, MBA, PhD) is an academic researcher, marketing practitioner, and the editor of the International Journal of Marketing Semiotics (Department of English, Kassel University, Germany). Major publications include Interdiscursive Readings in Cultural Consumer Research (2018), Handbook of Brand Semiotics (2015; ed. and co-author), Semiotics of Popular Culture (2015), Brand Equity Planning with Structuralist Rhetorical Semiotics (2012, 2014), //rhetor.dixit//: Understanding ad texts’ rhetorical structure for differential figurative advantage (2013), Applying Structuralist Semiotics to Brand Image Research (2012), Interactive Advertising: Dynamic Communication in the Information Age (2002; ed. and co-author), plus numerous articles in trade and academic journals. His research interests focus on cultural consumer research/popular culture, branding/advertising, new media and span various disciplines such as discourse analysis, semiotics, cultural studies, sociology, rhetoric, phenomenology, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, communication theory. Download full CV from http://bit.ly/1cnUnVT. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: georgerossolatos123@gmail.com.

Publication Date

2-2-2019

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3578

Recommended APA Citation

Rossolatos, G. (2019). On the Discursive Appropriation of the Antinatalist Ideology in Social Media. The Qualitative Report, 24(2), 208-227. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2019.3578