ABOUT THE MINICOURSE

​​

This minicourse offers a real-time analysis of political discourse, focusing on President Lula da Silva’s opening speech at the ongoing COP30 in Belém (November 10, 2025). By hosting the summit in the "heart of the Amazon," Brazil is engaging in a specific form of geopolitical performance. This session explores how political discourse functions as a vehicle for "green power": a symbolic capital that converts environmental stewardship into international political legitimacy.​

​

Drawing on her doctoral research project Green Power Diplomacy, Jana Vaněčková will employ her multidisciplinary framework in conducting this workshop-style minicourse. Participants will see how the concept of "Green Power"—defined as a form of symbolic power where environmental narratives are deployed to generate geopolitical influence and legitimacy—can be examined in discourse using tools from Critical Discourse Studies, and more specifically, Teun Van Dijk’s Socio-Cognitive approach. Van Dijk's concepts of context models and the ideological square will be presented and practically applied to understand how political discourse constructs mental representations of "Us" (The Global South/Guardians of the Forest) and "Them" (Denialists/The North).