1. Constructing (Ir-)Rationality: An Analytical Framework
Nikki Slocum-Bradley
Prepared for:
Beyond Rationality Workshop
Center for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences
LSE – 21 November 2009
United Nations University - Comparative Regional Integration Studies
UNU-CRIS

2. Meaning Construction Rationality & morality are closely linked.
Both are inherent to meaning construction
Examples from the Holocaust
(Re-)Framing / defining / evoking a social paradigm
How is meaning constructed? Are there universal features and/or components?
All meaning is constructed – including what is ‘rational’, ‘irrational’, ‘moderate’, ‘extreme’, and so forth. Inherent to the construction of a particular rationality is the construction of a particular morality. What appears to be fair and just in a given episode depends upon the meaning attributed to events, actors and context.

3. Positioning Diamond: The building blocks of meaning
Identities
Rights &
Duties
Social Forces
Storylines
Based upon Positioning Theory and drawing upon insights from scholars across all social scientific disciplines, the Positioning Diamond is an analytical tool to examine how meaning is constructed in discourse. It highlights the mutually influential role of identities, rights and duties, storylines and the social forces of discursive acts in constructing social reality. It can be used in psychology and across social science.
The four elements of the positioning diamond are inter-related, or mutally determining.

4. Social Forces
Social Forces of (discursive) acts: the significance of what an actor says or does.
We use social forces to evoke the other elements of the Positioning Diamond.
Examples: the shaking of a hand

5. Storylines
Storylines are the narrative conventions that structure both how we give accounts of events as well as how we experience them (and not others) as adhering together in an episode. Entails what is going on (descriptive) and what is conceived as the goal of actions.
Storylines are the narrative conventions that structure both how we give accounts of events as well as how we experience them. A series of actions and events is perceived as adhering together in an episode (and others are not seen as pertinent). The “rules” that determine what goes together are normative. Normative conventions entail not only ‘what is going on’ but also what is perceived to be the goal of the actions or events. Thus, it has a canonical component. Episodes can be very fleeting or have a longer duration.

6. Identities
Identities are meanings applied to persons or other narrated actors in specific contexts. They comprise 2 related aspects: A) the definition of the actor(s) B) the characteristics ascribed to the actor(s)
Identities are meanings applied to persons or other narrated actors in specific contexts. These contexts are the storylines within which they are embedded. Within any given storyline, a variety of identities can be evoked for the actors. Identities comprise two related aspects:
the definition of the actor(s): (e.g. ‘Tony’, ‘the former PM’, a ‘Brit’, ‘Britain’, ‘the EU’, ‘grandpa’, an Anglophone, a Christian, a White, etc.)
the characteristics or traits ascribed to the actor(s): (e.g. competent (or not), wise (or not), democratic (or not), legitimate (or not), arrogant (or not), etc.)
Identities are relational, such that by evoking one identity, others are also evoked. For example, if I evoke my identity as a female, I simultaneously evoke the gender identity of my interlocutor. Like the episodes, identities evoked can be very fleeting (speaker and listener) or of longer duration, more akin to long-term roles (mother and son).
Exactly which identities are evoked within a storyline has important implications for the rights and duties attributed to the actors and for the ‘rationality’ inherent to the unfolding of the episode. This was illustrated very well in the recent discussion over the meaning actions of the army psychologist in the U.S. who murdered several people. We’ll look at this example more carefully in a moment.
The characteristics ascribed to the actor(s) are also tightly interwoven with the rights and duties attributed to the actor. Often they are the consequence of a judgement made about the extent to which the actor has adequately fulfilled his/her duties and/or whether his/her rights have been transgressed.

7. Rights & Duties
Implicitly inherent to the evocation of specific identities, within the context of a given storyline, is the assignment of sets of rights and duties to the actors. These encompass formal rights and obligations and normative conventions.
Rights and Duties: Implicitly inherent to the evocation of certain identities, within the context of certain storylines, is the assignment of sets of rights and duties to the actors. These include formal obligations and (implicit) normative conventions.
Examples: As the “speaker”, I have the right to be listened to; and my interlocutor has the duty to listen. As a “mother”, I have the duty to nurture my sons, and they have the right to my care and protection. They also have certain duties to obey (at least some of the time). In the U.S. I have a duty to tip the waiter at least 15% of the bill. If someone does me a favor or pays me a complement, I have the duty to express gratitude.

8. Positioning Analysis: Holocaust Example I
Storyline: ‘Dirty work’ I.D.s: Soldiers are fellow workers Rs&Ds: Workers have duty to do their fair share of the ‘dirty work’.  Killing Jews is helping with the dirty work, and thus fulfilling one’s duty.
In this meaning system, the action of killing Jews is interpreted as ‘cleaning up’ (act), and is thus part of a soldier’s responsibilities.

9. Positioning Analysis: Holocaust Example II
Storyline: Mercy killings I.D.s: Chilren are destitute, helpless. Soldiers are saviors. Rs&Ds: Soldiers’ duty to help children.  Killing children is putting them out of their misery, so the soldier fulfills his duty.
In this meaning system, the action of killing children is interpreted as an act of mercy – of relieving them from their misery, and is thus fulfilling the soldier’s responsibilities.

10. Criteria for a Rational Act
For an action to be considered ‘rational’ it must be defined as an act that
conforms with the evoked narrative conventions (coheres with SL), and
conforms with the moral code evoked (consistent with the duties and rights assigned to the actor performing the act)
Drawing upon these insights, it becomes evident that for an action to be considered ‘rational’ it must be defined as an act that
conforms with the evoked narrative conventions (in other words, it coheres with the storyline), and
conforms with the moral code evoked (that is, the act is consistent with the duties and rights assigned to the actor by virtue of the identity evoked).
If these conditions are not fulfilled, some repair-work must be done to explain the lack of conformity! One needs to generate a story about the actor’s perceptions, capacities, skills, motivations, or psychological or moral states or traits. This type of repair-work looks like this:

11. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because:

12. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you.

13. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you. …she doesn’t speak English.

14. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you. …she doesn’t speak English. …she didn’t want to admit that she doesn’t know the answer.

15. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you. …she doesn’t speak English. …she didn’t want to admit that she doesn’t know the answer. …she was late for another meeting.

16. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you. …she doesn’t speak English. …she didn’t want to admit that she doesn’t know the answer. …she was late for another meeting. …she is mean.

17. Repair Work
She didn’t reply to your question because: …she didn’t hear you. …she doesn’t speak English. …she didn’t want to admit that she doesn’t know the answer. …she was late for another meeting. …she is mean. …she is crazy (irrational).
And usually when all else fails, that is we can find no other explanation to mediate the discrepancy, we resort to:
...she is crazy. This is basically the same thing (in many cases) as saying that she is irrational or the act is irrational.

18. Levels of Discourse
Level 1: Content – Who & what the narrator is talking about. (Can include Meadian ‘me’) Level 2: Narrator-Interlocutor – What the narrator & interlocutor are doing, their identities, rights & duties. (Meadian ‘I’) Level 3: Ideological – What are the relevant wider social issues & players?
The positioning diamond can be applied at all ‘levels’ of discourse. It is useful to distinguish between three levels.
First, a narrator can talk about persons (including him- or herself). (S)he can talk about things and concepts as if they were persons, thereby creating “characters” or “actors” out of the inanimate. In the process of naming, describing, and/or interacting with these “characters”, the narrator constructs “identities” for them. This level, concerning what the narrator is talking about, or what might be called the content of the narrator’s discourse, is level 1.
Discourse level 2 concerns what is “going on” at the level of the narrator and his or her (implied) interlocutor or audience, including what identities, right and duties are attributed to them.
Finally, at a third level, there may be meanings constructed that are relevant to wider societal issues or ideologies (others have referred to these as “master narratives” or “dominant discourses”; see Moissinac, 2007: 236).

19. Positioning Diamond Analytical Grid
Positioning Diamond Elements
Levels of Analysis
Level 1
(Content)
Level 2
(Narrator-Interlocutor)
Level 3
(Ideological)
Social Forces of Discursive Acts
Storylines
Identities
Rights and Duties
Each element of the positioning diamond can be interpreted at each level of analysis, resulting in a four-by-three grid for potential meanings. However, not all levels are always relevant in an episode. It is often ambiguous as to whether some levels are addressed “intentionally” by the narrator or not, and it can also be unclear whether different audiences may have interpreted the discourse at each of the different levels. The main criterion for the discourse analyst is whether each level helps explain the unfolding of social episodes.
Some misunderstandings and conflicts, for example, may be well explained by evidence that different audiences have interpreted a narrator’s discourse at different levels – one party having interpreted the discourse at the narrator-interlocutor level (level 2) and the other having interpreted it at the ideological level (level 3).
Now, let’s see how this works, using a few real-life examples.

20. Swiss Election Campaign Poster (SVP)
This political poster reads ‘Acquiring security’, whereby the word for ‘acquiring’ (schaffen) is a pun on the word for sheep (Schaff). In the lower right corner are the phrases ‘My home – our Switzerland’ and ‘Swiss quality’. The poster depicts three white sheep in Switzerland kicking a black sheep out of Switzerland. We can use our framework to analyze what is going on:
Level 1:
IDs, Rs&Ds: White, good, Swiss ‘sheep’ have the right to remove black, bad, foreign, criminal ‘sheep’ from Switzerland.
SL:The foreigners are criminals who are abusing the Swiss, and the Swiss are protecting their country and way of life.
SF: Castigation of foreigners.
Level 2:
IDs, Rs & Ds: Voters are assigned the duty to vote for SVP (the narrator), which will be Switzerland’s savior.
SL: Voting for SVP will save Switzerland.
SF: Call to vote for SVP.
Level 3:
Not really addressed , but the broader SL could be seen as ‘Protecting Switzerland’s sovereignty’, ‘Fighting migration’ or ‘Clash of civilisations’, etc.

21. Positioning Analysis of SVP Campaign Poster
Positioning Diamond
Elements
Levels of Analysis
Level 1
(Content)
Level 2
(Narrator-Interlocutor)
Level 3
(Ideological)
Social Forces
of Discursive Acts
Admonition & (R)ejection of foreigners
Warning; Call to vote
Warning; Call to action
Storylines
Swiss are ousting (criminal) foreigners
SVP will secure Switzerland from foreign threats.
Securing Switzerland (from foreigners)
Identities
Swiss: good
Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
SVP: police, savior, cleaner
Other political parties: lenient, permit insecurity
Foreigners: bad, security threats
Rights and Duties
Swiss have R&D to remove foreigners from society.
Swiss have duty to vote for SVP.
Swiss have R & D to protect & secure Switzerland

22. Response to Election Campaign Poster (I)
This poster is a response to the original election campaign poster. It says ‘Acquire security: get rid of Ueli Maurer. Popular initiative for the riddance of hate-mongering politicians. (The words for ‘riddance’ and ‘acquiring’ are both puns on the word ‘sheep’.)

23. Response to Election Campaign Poster (II)
Another response to the original poster says ‘For the riddance of racist Swiss’, whereby again the word for ‘riddance’ is a play on the German word for ‘sheep’. On the right side, we find another pun: ‘Null Bock’ means ‘no desire’ or ‘fed up’, whereby ‘Bock’ is the name for a male sheep.
Our positioning diamond analytical framework helps illuminate what is going on here.
This response to the original election campaign poster makes the narrator (level 2) of the original poster into its content (level 1). Thus:
Level 1:
IDs, Rs & Ds: A diverse population of Swiss ‘sheep’ have the right & duty to protect Switzerland from the racist SVP (e.g. its party head) from Switzerland.
SL: The diverse Swiss population is ousting out racist politicians.
SF: Admonition of the SVP
Level 2:
Ids, Rs & Ds: Swiss people have the duty to not vote for the racist SVP in the election.
SL: The Swiss are/must fight racism in Switerland.
SF: Call to not support the SVP.
Level 3:
SL: Fighting racism, xenophobia, neo-Naziism, etc.

24. Positioning Analysis of Reaction Posters
Positioning Diamond
Elements
Levels of Analysis
Level 1
(Content)
Level 2
(Narrator-Interlocutor)
Level 3
(Ideological)
Social Forces
of Discursive Acts
Admonition & (r)ejection of SVP, racists
Warning;
Call to vote;
Admonition of SVP
Warning; Call to action
Storylines
Swiss are ousting racists, such as SVP
Swiss people will secure Switzerland from racists & hate-mongering politicians.
Securing Switwerlqnd (from racism & xenophobia)
Identities
Swiss: diverse, tolerant
SVP, racists: bad, threat, nazis, hate-mongers
Swiss: intolerant of racists & hate-mongerers
SVP: nazis, hate-mongers
Tolerant people;
Racists, xenophobes
Rights and Duties
Swiss have R&D to remove racists from society.
Swiss have duty to NOT vote for SVP.
Swiss have R & D to protect & secure Switzerland

25. From Principle to Plan: The Analytical Process
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) A narrative context is evoked (‘storyline’);
B) Certain identities are evoked within this context;
C) Rights and duties are allocated to actors.
A,B & C are evoked through discursive acts.
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
(based upon rights & duties assigned)
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.

26. From Principle to Plan: Example I
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act: Remove ‘foreigners’ from Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.

27. From Principle to Plan: Example I
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act: Remove ‘foreigners’ from Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.
Possible actions:
Put ‘foreigners’ on a bus toward border;

28. From Principle to Plan: Example I
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act: Remove ‘foreigners’ from Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.
Possible actions:
Put ‘foreigners’ on a bus toward border;
Shoot ‘foreigners’ on sight.

29. From Principle to Plan: Example II
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act:
Restrict ‘foreigners’’ entry into Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.

30. From Principle to Plan: Example II
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act:
Restrict ‘foreigners’’ entry into Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.
Possible actions: Refuse to issue visas.

31. From Principle to Plan: Example II
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act:
Restrict ‘foreigners’’ entry into Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.
Possible actions: Refuse to issue visas.
Put ‘foreigners’ crossing border illegally on a bus.

32. From Principle to Plan: Example II
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storyline: Securing Switzerland
B) Identities: Swiss: good; Foreigners: bad, threats, criminals
C) R&Ds: Swiss have duty to protect Switzerland
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
Rational act:
Restrict ‘foreigners’’ entry into Switzerland
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act. This includes evoking identities for the actors.
Possible actions: Refuse to issue visas.
Put ‘foreigners’ crossing border illegally on a bus.
Shoot ‘foreigners’ crossing border illegally on sight.

33. Challenging Rationality
The ‘rationality’ of this analytical process can be challenged at each interpretive step (and their parts). (We must secure Switzerland, but reforming the sheep is the solution. OR ‘Switzerland is secure enough.’)
Some challenges will take the form of a normative/ethical challenge. (‘We could remove foreigners by bus or bullet, but the latter would be extreme.’)
Other challenges can target the identities evoked. (‘We must oust the bad sheep, but not all foreigners are bad.’)

34. Example: Rwandan Genocide
RTLM journalist: ‘If Hutus unite and understand that Tutsis should abandon their thirst for power forever, then clearly no foreigner will rule Rwanda. We are the ones who should rule, in full democracy. It is therefore clear that if one ethnic group in the country takes an uncompromising stand while it constitutes the minority, the majority cannot roam around asking for help saying that the minority ethnic group has attacked them. This would be utter foolishness. This is disgraceful in the eyes of the international community, which says that if an ethnic group rises against us, we should fight back and subjugate it, and if we lose, we should allow it to govern. It is then impossible for the Tutsi minority, which is 8%, to defeat the Hutus and to rule the country just because it is backed by Museveni.’
Citation: Kantano Habimana, RTLM Tape No (KT ), 04-05/06/1994.
United Nations University - Comparative Regional Integration Studies
UNU-CRIS

35. Example: Rwandan Genocide – Redressing an alleged transgression
‘They are hard to please, they are wicked… It is obvious that they were created to gulp our Rwandan blood and to kill. It is in their nature. It is thus a waste of time to continue pleading with them… Let them take up guns, we will do the same. Let the Inyenzi’s fate be sealed, as is already the case. …So, we have no other choice but to fight the Inyenzi-Inkotanyi and to exterminate them.’
(Valérie Bemeriki, RTLM Tape no 0035 (KT ), 20/06/1994)
‘Inkotanyi’ is the word used for the group against which the Rwandan Armed Forces was fighting. The term ‘Inyenzi’ literally means ‘cockroahes’ in the Kinyarwanda language.
United Nations University - Comparative Regional Integration Studies
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36. From Principle to Plan: Example from Rwanda
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storylines: ‘(Hutu) Majority Fights for Democracy’;
‘Attack on Rwandan National Sovereignty’
B) Identities: Hutus: Majority, Rwandan
Tutsis: Minority, Foreigners
C) R&Ds: Majority (Hutus): right to govern.
Minority (Tutsis): Duty to submit to rule of the majority.
Rwandans (Hutus): Right to sovereignty.
Foreigners (Tutsis): Duty to respect sovereignty & not interfere.
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act.
The term ‘Inyenzi’ literally means ‘cockroahes’ in the Kinyarwanda language. It is a metaphor with an inherent logic that suggests the appropriateness of certain actions.

37. From Principle to Plan: Example from Rwanda
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storylines: ‘(Hutu) Majority Fights for Democracy’;
‘Attack on Rwandan National Sovereignty’
B) Identities: Hutus: Majority, Rwandan
Tutsis: Minority, Foreigners
C) R&Ds: Majority (Hutus): right to govern.
Minority (Tutsis): Duty to submit to rule of the majority.
Rwandans (Hutus): Right to sovereignty.
Foreigners (Tutsis): Duty to respect sovereignty & not interfere.
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
‘Fight back’, ‘Subjugate’, ‘exterminate’ the cockroaches
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act.

38. From Principle to Plan: Example from Rwanda
STEP 1: Establishing a Meaning System (Pos Diamond)
A) Storylines: ‘(Hutu) Majority Fights for Democracy’;
‘Attack on Rwandan National Sovereignty’
B) Identities: Hutus: Majority, Rwandan
Tutsis: Minority, Foreigners
C) R&Ds: Majority (Hutus): right to govern.
Minority (Tutsis): Duty to submit to rule of the majority.
Rwandans (Hutus): Right to sovereignty.
Foreigners (Tutsis): Duty to respect sovereignty & not interfere.
STEP 2: Determine the appropriate/rational Act
‘Fight back’, ‘Subjugate’, ‘exterminate’ the cockroaches
STEP 3: Interpret specific actions as manifestations of the act.
Kill Tutsis

39. Contact Information
                               
Dr. Nikki Slocum - Bradley
UNU-CRIS
c/o Grootseminarie
Potterierei 72, 2nd floor
B Bruges
Tel
Fax
United Nations University - Comparative Regional Integration Studies
UNU-CRIS