Constructing resistance in the quest for social justice

Abstract This study adopts the concept of “positive peace” and draws on critical discourse studies to investigate the texts of two Thai activists responding to the 2006 coup d’état and subsequent events in Thailand. The study analyses the texts from a systemic functional linguistic (SFL) perspective to show how the first text challenges the legitimacy of the coup, and how the second text reflects a widening of the cracks then appearing in Thai royalist hegemony. In particular, the study compares the construal of one social actor in the first text published in 2007 with that in the speech of the second activist three years later, highlighting how the meaning of a key word evolved from one of oppression to one of pride.