Abstract

This is an essay introduction to a special edition of Critical Discourse Studies on the work of Phil Graham. It is a critical overview and reappraisal of his major interdisciplinary contribution to the field: an axiological approach that focuses on meaning and values in a materialist political economy of language. The contributors to this volume enlist Graham's approach to trace the aftermaths and discontents of neoliberalism: nothing less than resurgent nationalisms, monoculturalism and autocracy, fuelled by social media and digital communications. This new political economy of discourse raises substantive ethical and moral challenges for the future of critical discourse studies.