An illustrative story of a graduate student serves to show that as the literate discourse community lives out the tension between those who initiate shared power and those who maintain traditional standards, discourse communities can include or exclude others by using the power of leadership. Discourse communities act through professional meetings, scholarly journals, and the normal actions of departmental life. Three classifications of power work together to discipline members within a community: showing sufficient resources to discourage challenges to those resources; changing flexible social fields into hardened, objectified structures; and acting out culturally defined social roles to perpetuate subordination. Any member of a discourse community can be made subordinate by these disciplinary means used by leaders of a community. (RS)

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews