Discourses on Economic Inequality and Their Influences on Radical Activism

As economic inequality is commonly an excuse for radical activism, discourses on economic inequality would shape the activism, according to discourse theory. Discourses for or against the influence of economic inequality may derive from egalitarianism, neoliberalism, Confucianism, and others. Research concerning the theory has largely tried to unveil discourses, but has mostly not delineated how they affect activism, especially regarding the frame alignment thesis of the theory. A plausible condition for the alignment is the postmodern orientation of people exposed to the discourses, such that people with the orientation are susceptible to discourses framed for the orientation, typically through the Web and other new media. To substantiate the theory in the current postmodern transition, the proposed study is to launch an exploratory phase of qualitative analysis of discourses and a subsequent verifying phase of quantitative analysis of the impacts of the discourses on radical activism.