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Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

Science and Technology Studies

New Zealand

Publication Year

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Full-Text Articles in Business

Strategic Ambiguity As A Discourse Practice: The Role Of Keywords In The Discourse On ‘Sustainable’ Biotechnology, S. R. Leitch, S. Davenport Jan 2007

Strategic Ambiguity As A Discourse Practice: The Role Of Keywords In The Discourse On ‘Sustainable’ Biotechnology, S. R. Leitch, S. Davenport

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

In this article we examined the ways in which strategic ambiguity (Eisenberg, 1984) in the use of keywords (Williams, 1976/1983) served an enabling function within a discourse marked by conflict and ideological divisions. Our analysis focused on the intertextual relationships between five documents intended by the Government to guide the development of biotechnology in New Zealand. Through our analysis we identified ‘sustainability’ as a keyword and three major roles for the deployment of the discourse strategy of strategic ambiguity in the use of this keyword. First, strategic ambiguity lent an internal and intertextual coherence to the texts (albeit superficial). Second, …


The Politics Of Discourse: Marketization Of The New Zealand Science And Innovation System, S. R. Leitch, S. Davenport Jan 2005

The Politics Of Discourse: Marketization Of The New Zealand Science And Innovation System, S. R. Leitch, S. Davenport

Faculty of Commerce - Papers (Archive)

The politics of change are both played out within the arena of discourse and dedicated to transforming that arena. In this article, we bring together critical discourse theory and political process theory in order to highlight the ways in which a process of discourse transformation can be deployed by organisations to effect political and economic change. In the process we examine the discursive interplay between the actors as well as the discursive constraints on action. The context for our analysis was the attempt by a national science funding body to transform the New Zealand discourse of science and innovation in …