A critical discourse analysis of social change in women-related posts on
      Saudi English-language blogs posted between 2009 and 2012
Creators: name: Al Maghlouth, Shrouq
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2017

description: This thesis examines the discourse on social change in women-related posts
      on Saudi
      
      English-Language blogs written between 2009 and 2012. These posts discuss
      a number of
      
      reformative measures that took place during that period in order to allow
      for greater
      
      women’s empowerment in Saudi Arabia. The thesis consists of nine chapters.
      Chapter
      
      One introduces briefly the thesis while Chapter Two offers a relevant
      literature review
      
      relating to critical discourse analysis, feminism, social change and
      online/digital
      
      discourse. This is conducted with special focus on the socio-cognitive
      approach as the
      
      main framework adopted in the analysis and its emphasis on cognitive
      context models
      
      and their role in the change/ status quo struggle. Chapter Three lays the
      theoretical
      
      foundation upon which this thesis is based as well as the methodology it
      adopts in data
      
      selection, collection and analysis. For data analysis, a sample of forty
      posts has been
      
      collected on five different topics: women in politics, women and the
      driving ban, women
      
      in non-traditional work environments, women and sports, and gender
      segregation. Using a
      
      three-levelled analysis, the posts at hand have been examined from
      textual, intertextual
      
      and socio-cognitive perspectives. The textual level consists of four
      linguistic parameters:
      
      social actor representation, process type analysis, evaluation and
      metaphor. The
      
      intertextual levels target intertextuality and interdiscursivity while the
      socio-cognitive
      
      level ties in all these descriptive findings to offer interpretations and
      insight into relevant
      
      mental representations. In light of this, Chapters Four to Eight examine
      the posts
      
      thematically and based on the five topics identified earlier. Finally,
      Chapter Nine offers
      
      conclusive cumulative evidence and a discussion of the overall findings.
      The findings
      
      show a clash between the use of grammar and lexis, with social actor
      representation and
      
      process types often suggesting different mental representations from those
      conveyed
      
      through evaluation and metaphor. Women are, to a large extent, represented
      as lacking in
      
      agency and power despite the fact that their relatively restrictive status
      quo is evaluated as
      
      negative and change is conceptualised as positively evaluated metaphorical
      movement
      
      and liberation. In fact, this detailed analysis reveals that representing
      the clash between supporters of change and their opponents appears to be
      the central focus, even at the
      
      expense of women and their representation in discourse.