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I understood the word "valorize" in academic discourse frequently to mean 
the assigning of greater value to a group,  an ideology or even an argument, 
often due to the power held by the proponent. I think it may also have a 
connotation of appropriation of such value. And as Roy Weintraub's post 
states, it can also have a neutral or positive meaning. 
 
The Encarta World Dictionary on its web site defines  to "valorize" as to 
fix a commodity price:  to set and maintain the price of a commodity at an 
artificially high level through government action. I can see the connection 
between such overvaluation by the power of the state and by that held by 
other powerful entities. 
 
A small aside:  my first name is Sumitra. The anomaly in the email address 
is due to the system in use at my university. I wanted to claim ethnic 
prejudice (not realizing that not all names are easily recognizable!), but 
decided to hold of on my protest. 
 
Thank you. 
 
Sumitra 
 
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