Title: The Discourse of Politics in Action. Politics as Usual
Author: Ruth Wodak
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2011 (paperback)
In The Discourse of Politics in Action. Politics as Usual, Wodak conducts an elaborate and enlightening investigation whose starting point echoes Michel Foucault’s statement: “People know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what [sic] they do does” (in Wodak 2009). In this light, the main directions pursued in the book are, on the one hand, exploring and explaining “what they [the politicians] do”, and, on the other, articulating “what [their action] does” for/to everyone else, or what consequences politicians’ decisions may have upon various developments and communications in our society. More
Reviewer: Izabela Lazar