New article by M. Hennlichová, M. Votoupalová & K. Lancová: Politics of scarcity: Energy crisis and discursive practices in wartime France (1914–1918)
Marcela Hennlichová, Markéta Votoupalová, Klára Lancová, Politics of scarcity: Energy crisis and discursive practices in wartime France (1914–1918), Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 133, 2026, 104604, ISSN 2214-6296, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2026.104604
Abstract: This interdisciplinary study focuses on propagandist discourse that encompasses the public communication of governmental energy-saving measures as well as their presentation, framing, discursive practices, and argumentation strategies, which we refer to as the Politics of Scarcity. We analyse this discourse within a selected case study of wartime France in 1914–1918, using a unique set of primary sources, including public media, an official brochure, propaganda posters and a selected subjective war account. While employing the discursive approach developed by van Dijk, our findings suggest that the principal communicative strategies of the Politics of Scarcity in wartime France include reducing the government’s discursive prominence and employing socially divisive language that emphasises ingroup and outgroup membership (constructing ‘self’ and ‘the other’) in ideologically motivated communication.