MSc in Social Research Methods 2005 Discourse Analysis

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MSc in Social Research Methods 2005Discourse
Analysis

• Lecture 3
• Foucauldian Discourse Analysis.
• Comparison of versions of Discourse Analysis.

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Learning outcomes

• By the end of this weeks lecture, a successful
  student will be able to
• Summarize the origins and orientations of
  Foucauldian Discourse Analysis
• Outline criteria for distinguishing discourses
• Compare and contrast Discursive Psychology and
  Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

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Foucauldian discourse analysis

• Origins of Foucauldian discourse analysis

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Orientations of Foucauldian discourse analysis

• Concerned with the availability of discourse
  resources
•  
• (a discourse a system of statements which
  constructs an object Parker, 1992, p. 5)
•  

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Parkers criteria for distinguishing discourses

• A discourse is realised in texts
• A discourse is about objects
• A discourse contains subjects
• A discourse is a coherent system of meanings

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Parkers criteria for distinguishing discourses

• A discourse relates to other discourses
• A discourse reflects on its own way of speaking
• A discourse is historically located
• Discourses support (or are linked to)
  institutions
• Discourses reproduce power-relations
• Discourses have ideological effects

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Example of Foucauldian discourse analysis
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Example of Foucauldian discourse analysis

• Gillies (1999)
• Extract 1
• Cos really its dic its um a sort of an
  addiction really I mean when it all boils down to
  it it is an addiction isnt it I mean you get the
  nicotine and that in your blood and that

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Example of Foucauldian discourse analysis

• Gillies (1999)
• Extract 2
• Its like its a drug its er addictive we I do
  enjoy it sometimes um 2 I suppose its become
  part of my life its a habit really I think if
  you havent had a fag for a long time the first
  fag you have is like a stimulant its um goes
  straight into the bloodstream and goes to the
  brain I think it relaxes people um and I think
  then it just becomes a habit a habit forming er
  er thing really Its just a really nasty
  horrible bad habit and I just dont think I can
  break out...

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Contrast between the versions of discourse
analysis

• Metatheory
• Agency
•         DP emphasis on discourse as a tool
  manipulated by speakers who have a stake in the
  conversation. Hence the speaker is an active
  agent
• FDA emphasis on discourse as constructing
  subjects - hence emphasis on the power of
  discourse to make available certain meanings and
  experiences.

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• Experience
•         DP conceptualizes experience (along
  with subjectivity and identity) only as
  discursive resources - localized discursive
  formations which are continually re-negotiated as
  speakers encounter different rhetorical contexts.
• FDA attempts to theorize experience and
  subjectivity in-themselves through showing how
  certain discourses make certain kinds of
  experience possible or non-possible.

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Contrast between the versions of discourse
analysis

• Metatheory
• Discourse
• versus
• interpretative repertoire

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Contrast between the versions of discourse
analysis

• Possible implications of the different approaches
• From describing to criticizing possibility of
  counter-discourses

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Towards an eclectic approach

• Which version to use?
• Data-set interaction vs document
• Research questions managing interaction vs
  cultural, historical location
• Rationale for eclecticism
• Wetherell we need to examine both the situated
  and shifting nature of discursive constructions,
  and the wider social and institutional frameworks
  (of meaning, social relations etc.) within which
  they are produced

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Towards an eclectic approach

• Subject-positions
• locations within discourse identities or selves
  made relevant by ways of talking

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• Example Masculine identity (Edley, 2001)
• SP 1. James Bond, Rambo, Hollywood hero
• seeking out and enjoying the challenge of
  risky situations
• courage in facing ones enemies in a cool
  manner.

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• SP 2. Mr Average or middle of the road
• Speakers explicitly stated that they were
  different from Hollywood-type media images.
• SP 3. Multi-faceted personality
• Also a contrast with the macho-man image the man
  comfortable doing things more conventionally
  associated with women - such as expressing
  emotions.

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Summary

• Foucauldian Discourse Analysis is concerned with
  the availability of discursive resources
• Parker (1992) outlines 10 criteria for
  distinguishing discourses

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• DP treats the speaker as an active agent, FDA
  emphasizes the power of discourses to construct
  subjectivities.
• DP analyses experience only as a localized
  discursive strategy, while FDA tries to theorize
  experience.
• Case for eclecticism