Discourse and power. Diferential impacts of tourism policies in Mexico (2000-2018)

Abstract

Public policy analysis is key to understanding the priorities of current governments as well as the mechanisms that make these policies operational (Considine, 1994: 4). To this end we will examine the plans and programs of the last three administrations to deconstruct the methods, the narratives, and the frameworks in which they were developed. Using tools for discourse analysis from a socio-cognitive approach (Van Dijk, 2012) the discourse associated to public policy instruments is analyzed in order to detect the explicit and implicit assumptions, themes, principles, goals and meanings that guided tourism policies in the last two decades. Therefore, by examining official documents we will identify social representations, assessments, intentions, and elements such as roles, positions, and relationships within thee local microstructures. Although the present analysis includes representations that emanate from the official discourse and focuses on the Magic Towns Program as a prime reference, we suggest that the implicit social representations are revealed in the rhetoric of public tourism policies in Mexico.