Methodologies... Summer School, Applied Social Studies, UCC. Thursday 23rd June, 2011

Discourse Analysis as a Critical Tool for Policy Analysis

Elizabeth Kiely

Plan for Session What do we mean by discourse?

What is critical discourse analysis?

How is it useful for policy analysis

How do we do use critical discourse analysis as a research method?

What do we mean by discourse?‘Discourses can be thought of...

as practices for producing meaning, forming subjects and regulating conduct within particular societies and institutions, at particular historical times’ (MacLure, 2003, p.175)

Discourses are ‘... Practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak’ (Foucault, 1971, p.49).

What do we mean by discourse?Discourse is constitutive of social

practice and is constituted by social practice.

Discourses represent things and position people.

Discourses produce subjectivitiesDiscourses occur in micro

(political speech; interview) and macro contexts (medical discourse; social work discourse, curricular discourse)

Discourses we may be familiar with...

Discourse of managerialismDiscourse of professional

practiceDiscourse of child welfareDiscourse of risk Therapeutic discourse Discourse of consumption

What are discursive data for the purpose of analysis? Language in use in speech and writing

Examples (not an exhaustive list)Interview / focus group data Media – television / radio broadcasts,

newspaper articles, news reports Parliamentary debates & political

speeches Organisational internal documentsProgrammatic materials Policy documents

Discourse within Critical Theory

Key Practitioners of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA): Norman Fairclough, Teun Van Dijk, Ruth Wodak

Aim: ‘... To unmask ideologically permeated and often obscured structures of power, political control and dominance as well as strategies of discriminatory inclusion and exclusion in language use (Wodak et. al., 1999, p. 8).

CDA should ‘... deal primarily with the discourse dimensions of power abuse and the injustice and inequality that result from it (Van Dijk, 1993, p. 252).

Discourse Within Critical Theory

There are differences in styles of CDACDA is both theory and method

(Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999).CDA is interdisciplinaryIn CDA all social life is not reduced to

discourse (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999). CDA accepts a non-relativistic

understanding of truth as epistemic gain; does not accept judgemental relativism.

Researcher / Analyst – not neutral and reflexive

Discourse within Poststructuralism

Influences - Michel Foucault, Jacques DerridaDiscourses are inextricably linked to institutions

and to disciplines in societyThe workings of power and knowledge are

evident in discourse There is no one truth; truth is produced through

discursive workDeconstructive project – a project of resistance,

which illuminates institutional forgetting when matters attain the status of common sense (MacLure, 2003, p.179).

Subjectivities are produced in / through discourse.

How is discourse analysis useful for policy analysis? Has much to offer policy as discourse

analysis Helps us to think of policy as ‘a

strategic and political process’ – policy in a wider historical, social and cultural context

Helps us to think of policy as ‘creating’ a problem rather than ‘discovering’ it (Carol Lee Bacchi, 1999).

Allows us to critically consider the presumptions underpinning policy, which are often not analysed.

... Usefulness for policy analysisHelps us to attend to the impact of the

closure effected by the interpretation of the problem, the policy chosen and the solutions / programmatic interventions put forward.

Provides us with an approach to look for gaps, silences, the unspeakable in policy discourses.

Helps us to identify what to contest in policy discourse

We are encouraged to critically analyse all policy discourses including our own proposals etc.

... Usefulness for policy analysis usefully enables us to analyse the

impact of problem representations of the subjects of policy; there are real people living the effects of discourses and policy constructions.

Useful for tracing continuity or shifts in policy discourses

Provides opportunities for highlighting alternative / marginal and disappearing policy discourses

Useful for policy activism

How to do discourse analysisNo precise blueprint What is /are my research question(s)? What analysis will provide a useful

response to this /these question(s)? To conduct this analysis what data do I

need and from whom?What are the practical steps involved? -

Access, working out the selection / corpus of data to be analysed.

Read to enable you to build up your discourse analytic tool kit.

How to do discourse analysis...

Analysing (Fairclough’s approach)

Description of text(s) – content and form

Interpretation of text (s) – interdiscursivity and intertextuality, blending and ordering of discourses

Broader social analysis –Attention to the wider social, historical and cultural context; attending to power and ideology, Assess impact / effect of discourse.

Analysing - Describing Ask yourself basic questions about

the text to describe it – who wrote / said it? Who is the audience? What are key features of the language used? What motivated the text? When was it written / said? What exactly is being said / written? Are there non-verbal components?What are key features of how it is being said or written? What is the genre / text type?

Analysing – Interpreting Intertextuality and interdiscursivity

-how does the discourse relate to others, past and present?

Choice of words Rhetoric Metaphors Who and how does it interpellate /

hail / seek to build a rapport with?

Analysing / Interpreting...What is defined as the problem(s)?What explanations of the problem are

offered / not offered?What is the solution(s)?What problem(s), explanation(s) and

solution(s) are not offered?Is there the presence of one or more

discourses within the text?What discourse (s) is /are privileged within

the text?Is there evidence of negotiation with /

resistance to discourses within the text?

Analysing / Broader Social Analysis.... Can you identify silences / what is not said

within the discourse?Can you identify / look for alternative / resistant

discourses?Is there a shift / discursive break in the

discourse / continuity in the discourse? Can you assess the impact of the discourse?What can you say about access to discourse –

insiders / outsiders?What can you say about the relationships

between the discourses (you are studying) and social struggle / conflict, hierarchies of credibility and the exercise of power relations?

Van Dijk – Key questions for a CDA How do powerful groups control

public discourse? How does such discourse control

mind and action of less powerful groups and what are the consequences e.g. material inequality?

How do dominated groups discursively challenge / resist such power?

Wodak’s discourse- historical approach Historical analysis Socio political analysis – interdiscursivity

and intertextuality (media analysis)Socio cognitive analysis – collective

memories, frames and context models Attention to genre Analysis of texts in their specific

settingsAnalyse verbal expressions Key – historic, triangulate and cognitive

analysis

Issues / Challenges Is my analytical toolkit good enough? Corpus sizeNot always viewed as sufficient, when

used as a stand alone research methodPublishing work resulting from CDA – may

be perceived as a subjective, ideological interpretation not the outcome of a robust ‘objective’ research process

Emancipatory requirementInterdisciplinarity Access and Dissemination

Exercise: Analysis of.... Reference sheet for teachers

delivering the lesson on teenage pregnancy to junior cycle students (RSE resource materials)

Information lesson to third class students (RSE resource materials)

Three letters (written to newspapers) in relation to the RSE programme