De 'gemiddelde Nederlander'. Statistiek en het volk in politiek taalgebruik (1900-2018)

Abstract

[""This thesis forms a conceptual history of the term ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ (average Dutchman). It examines the ways in which politicians in the Dutch parliament used the term and the separate terms ‘gemiddeld(e)’ and ‘Nederlander(s)’ from 1900 up to 2018. By applying digital quantitative methods to a large database of minutes of parliamentary sessions, these terms are analyzed on the level of their relative numerical prominence, their use in combination surrounding words and their meaning in relation to other concepts through the application of vector semantics and embeddings. The results of this analysis show that the use of ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ over time was influenced by changes in the underlying terms. As the use of the term ‘gemiddelde’ (average) by politicians increasingly shifted from a predominantly quantitative and statistical use to one that was more and more applied to non-quantitative terms like ‘household’ and ‘citizen’ from the ‘90s onward, the popularity of ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ grew. The rise of ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ can also be seen in light of the increasing use of adjectives in combination with ‘Nederlander(s)’ and the enormous growth in popularity in the past 20 years of broadly applicable word combinations with ‘Nederlander(s)’, like ‘hardwerkende Nederlander’ (hardworking Dutchman’ and ‘gewone Nederlander’ (regular Dutchman). At the same time, the meaning of ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ and its change over time should be seen as more than just the sum of its parts. Unlike similar broadly applicable terms, ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ could have both quantitative as well as qualitative meanings in different contexts. In addition, it did not carry the same nativist connotations that terms like ‘gewone Nederlander’ (regular Dutchman) could contain in relation to the subjects of immigration and ethnicity. The popularity of the concept in terms of use also predated the of broadly applicable combinations with ‘Nederlander’ and was less subject to short term developments. This made ‘gemiddelde Nederlander’ a multifaceted and flexible term which politicians could employ in political rhetoric.""]