From the 'War on Poverty' to the 'War on the Poor': Knowledge, Power, and Subject Positions in Anti-Poverty Discourses

摘要

Anti-poverty discourses are interrogated through a case study of articles on the websites of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and The Toronto Star covering a tenant activism campaign. An autonomous media article by OCAP on direct actions to "stop the war on the poor" is compared with an article in The Toronto Star depicting tenant-activists lobbying government in the "war on poverty." Subjectivity and power relations are analyzed by deconstructing binaries, including deserving/undeserving poor, pride/shame, and dignity/stigmatization. I find productive interdiscursive relations emerging, whereby the two discourses are mutually implicated in creating possibilities for social transformation. I also argue that critical discourse analysis needs to become a more participatory engaged methodology, taking direction from and providing accountability to its research subjects.