Analysing Discourse II – Analysing Politics: Theories, Methods and Applications

Note: This course can be preceded by SD102A – Analysing Discourse I – Analysing Politics: Theories, Methods and Applications Short Bio Michał Krzyżanowski is Full Professor and Chair of Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, Sweden. He has lectured and guest-lectured widely including at the Universities of Aberdeen, Bremen, Brussels (VUB), Florence (EUI), Göteborg, Lancaster, Milan (Bicocca), Poznań, Tilburg or Umeå. Michał is Executive Editor of Journal of Language and Politics and sits on editorial boards of such journals as, inter alia, Critical Discourse Studies, Social Semiotics or Qualitative Sociology Review. He also co-edits Book Series Bloomsbury Advances in Critical Discourse Studies. His research focuses on discourse and communication in the context of socio-political, organisational and institutional change in Europe from the point of view of media and the public sphere, communication in/of national and supranational politics and organisations, social and political identities, and discrimination and social exclusion. He has also worked on developing new approaches in qualitative research methodology and critical discourse studies. He has published widely incl. in such journals as Discourse & Society, Social Semiotics, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Critical Discourse Studies or Journal of Language and Politics and is the author and editor of several major monographs and anthologies in critical discourse research on media, political and organizational communication. He is co-editor of the widely acclaimed Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences (with R. Wodak, 2008; Polish translation 2011). His other book publications include: Multilingual Encounters in Europe’s Institutional Spaces (with J. Unger and R. Wodak, Bloomsbury Academic, 2014), Advances in Critical Discourse Studies (with J.E. Richardson, D. Machin and R. Wodak, 2013), Ethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis (2011); The Discursive Construction of European Identities (2010); European Public Sphere and the Media: Europe in Crisis (with A. Triandafyllidou and R. Wodak, 2009); The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria (with R. Wodak, 2009); Discourse and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe (with A. Galasińska, 2008); (Un)Doing Europe: Discourses and Practices of Negotiating the EU Constitution (with F. Oberhuber, 2007). Prerequisite knowledge Students attending the course should be open to new, interdisciplinary qualitative methods of research in social and political sciences. They should ideally have some background in relevant social theory as well as in the existent discourse- and language oriented approaches to social and political analysis. Students should be interested in both synchronic and/or diachronic analyses of contemporary national and supranational politics in Europe and beyond, also in relation to other fields such as media, institutions, policy-making, etc. Short outline This course offers comprehensive introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as an empirical approach to research on dynamics of contemporary political and institutional change. The course aims to highlight key approaches in CDA and especially its so-called ‘Viennese’ or Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA), widely recognised for its systematic and empirically funded work on both national and supranational politics in Europe. The course presents CDA as both theory and practice and does so at the background of various linguistic and social-scientific approaches to text and discourse studies as well as at the background of developments in social and political theory. The course takes place in a 1+1 format so both weeks can be taken independently or as a one 2-week module (advisable). The first Week of the course is devoted to theoretical and analytical groundwork with students being introduced to history and development of text and discourse studies as well as to CDA and its relationship to other approaches in discourse analysis. Students are also made initially familiar with key steps and categories of CDA/DHA-inspired analysis. During Week two, students further their analytical skills while using various analytical categories and paths and different types of empirical material analysed in a series of in- and out-of-class individual and group assignments. They are also presented with a series of applications of CDA/DHA in various analyses of contemporary political and institutional discourse.