Periodic Reporting for period 1 - HaLO (How Language Oppresses)
Reporting period: 2019-04-01 to 2021-03-31
The project uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines the complementary strengths of game theory, theories of social norms and social injustice, to explain:
(i) the effects of oppressive speech within a conversational game;
(ii) the way speech can shift norms that govern the social game;
(iii) how the desire to maintain social injustice motivates oppressive speech.
The proposed model of oppressive speech combines three interlinked work-packages:
· (WP1) Oppressive conversational games.
· (WP2) Oppressive speech shifting social norms.
· (WP3) Structural oppression and social change
GOALS
Speech is a means by which groups of people are oppressed. We use game theory to explain both the motivations of speakers and the mechanism of oppression. A conversation is a game, nested within a larger social game. The project goals are:
Model oppressive conversational games: we model oppressive speech as a conversational game, in which speakers make utterances that change the rules of the game. The changes arising from oppressive utterances shift power from target to speaker.
Model conversational games and social structures: conversations do not exist within a void, but both draw upon and alter social structures. This goal is to show how.
SOCIETAL RELEVANCE
Language is the currency of democratic conversation. Social media has proven a two edged sword with respect to such free exchange. On the one hand, it has enabled debate between citizens on a scale previously unimaginable. On the other hand, this power has been easily subverted by anti-democratic forces, particularly those seeking to oppress groups based on their race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality.
A key problem is online hate speech. To oppose bad actors we must model their behaviours so we can develop tools to resist them.
IMPACT
We will create policy actions and educational materials arising from our simulations. These will advise how to minimise hate speech. It will be available to lawmakers, educators and social media companies.
1. 2020 Reclamation: taking back control of words. Mihaela Popa-Wyatt. Grazer Philosophische Studien 97 (eds. Bianca Cepollaro and Dan Zeman) Non-Derogatory Uses of Slurs. pp.159-176. DOI:10.1163/18756735-09701009 (Meaning; Social Meaning)
2. 2020 “Slurs, Pejoratives, and Hate Speech.” Mihaela Popa-Wyatt. In Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy. Ed. Duncan Pritchard. New York: Oxford University Press.
DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195396577-0403 (Meaning; Social Meaning)
3. 2020 Hyperbolic Figures. Mihaela Popa-Wyatt. In A. Athanasiadou & H. Colston (Ed.), The Diversity of Irony. De Gruyter. pp. 91-106. DOI:10.1515/9783110652246-005 (Meaning; Semantics/Pragmatics)
4. 2020 Mind the Gap: Expressing affect with hyperbole and hyperbolic figures. Mihaela Popa- Wyatt. In Gargett, A. & J Barnden (Ed.) Producing Figurative Expression: Theoretical, Experimental and Practical Perspectives. John Benjamins. 449-468. (Meaning; Semantics/ Pragmatics)
Under revision
5. Compound Figures: Intention Structure and Communicative Channels. Mihaela Popa- Wyatt. In revision for Psychological Philosophy. (Meaning; Semantics/Pragmatics)
Under review
6. 2020 Slurring Speech and Social Norms. Mihaela Popa-Wyatt. In L. Townsend, P. Stovall, and H. B. Schmid (Ed.) “Social Institution of Discursive Norms”. Routledge/Taylor & Francis. (Social Meaning; Speech Acts)
7. Online Harm: Is hate a virus? Is social media a viral promoter? Mihaela Popa-Wyatt. Submitted to Special Issue on “Digital Construction of Identities”, Phenomenology and Mind. (Social Meaning)
8. Norm Shifting through Slurs. Pacific APA. Portland, USA. April 2021.
Accepted but event cancelled
9. 2020 How Language Oppresses: How it Undermines Democracy and What to Do about It. Mihaela Popa-Wyatt, Roland Mühlenbernd, Christoph Hesse, Jeremy L Wyatt. (poster for for “Revitalising Democracies”. Bonn, 28-29 October.) (Social Meaning)
Talks & Public Engagement
10. 2020 “Doing bad things with bad words”. In the Long Night of Science. Berlin, 18 August.
11. 2020 “Slurring speech and social norms”. Online Summer School:
MINORITIES, RIGHTS AND INEQUALITY. Blavatnik School of Government. Oxford. 22-29 July. YouTube Video.
12. “Norms-shifting: a game-theoretic approach to oppression”. Workshop on Slurs, Name-
Calling, and Exclusionary Speech: Shifting the Normative Boundaries through Speech
Acts”. TU-Berlin, 9-13 March 2020.
13. Ditchley Foundation conference: “Technology, society and the state: how do we remain competitive, and true to our values, as the technological revolution unfolds and accelerates?“. 20-22 February 2020.
In composition
14. Group-Identification: Diversity in the face of Unfairness. Roland Mühlenbernd, Mihaela Popa-Wyatt, and Jeremy L Wyatt. (Social Meaning)
15. Gaslighting: Nash demand game with dynamic disagreement point update. Christoph Hesse, Mihaela-Popa-Wyatt , Roland Mühlenbernd. (Social Meaning)
16. Slurs and Norm-shifting in Nash Demand Games. Mihaela Popa-Wyatt and Jeremy L. Wyatt. (Social Meaning)
Grant writing & Workshop Organisation
17. 2020 Workshop on Slurs, Name-Calling, and Exclusionary Speech: Shifting the Normative Boundaries through Speech Acts” + Minorities in Philosophy, TU-Berlin, 9-14 March (with
Axel Gelfert and Quill Kukla).