Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing

Networking Arguments presents an original study on the use and misuse of global institutional rhetoric and the effects of these practices on women, particularly in developing countries. Using a feminist lens, Rebecca Dingo views the complex networks that rhetoric flows through, globally and nationally, and how it s often reconfigured to work both for and against women and to maintain existing power structures.

To see how rhetorics travel, Dingo deconstructs the central terminology employed by global institutions--mainstreaming, fitness, and empowerment--and shows how their meanings shift depending on the contexts in which they re used. She studies programs by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the United States, among others, to view the original policies, then follows the trail of their diffusion and manipulation and the ultimate consequences for individuals.

To analyze transnational rhetorical processes, Dingo builds a theoretical framework by employing concepts of transcoding, ideological traffic, and interarticulation to uncover the intricacies of power relationships at work within networks. She also views transnational capitalism, neoliberal economics, and neocolonial ideologies as primary determinants of policy and arguments over women s roles in the global economy.

Networking Arguments offers a new method of feminist rhetorical analysis that allows for an increased understanding of global gender policies and encourages strategies to counteract the negative effects they can create.

Author: Rebecca Dingo
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
Published: 03/30/2012
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.66lbs
Size: 9.10h x 5.90w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780822961888

About the Author
Rebecca Dingo is professor in the Department of English and the Department of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri. She is the author of Networking Arguments: Rhetoric, Transnational Feminism, and Public Policy Writing.