Analysing Discourse – Analysing Politics: Theories, Methods and Applications, Week I: Theories and Methods

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA; often also defined as Critical Discourse Studies, CDS)  is a way of carrying out social research with a focus on ‘discourse’ i.e. on text and other forms of semiosis analysed in their contexts of use, production and reception. However, while becoming very popular across the variety of social and political sciences, many features of what CDA is or does remain misinterpreted. For example, CDA is often approached from a limited perspective i.e. as a ‘method’ rather than a coherent approach with a distinct theory and methodology. Though resting on sound theoretical and methodological foundations, CDA is also often viewed as a homogeneous approach with criticism against CDA failing to notify that it is indeed a heterogeneous research tradition which consists of several schools which, while sharing general principles on e.g. the relation between language and power, ideology, differ in their theoretical and methodological ontology as well as their analytical pathways and foci.

By offering comprehensive introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis as an approach to research on dynamics of contemporary political and institutional change, this course wishes to outline key theoretical foundations, methodological premises and analytical pathways in CDA. In doing so, and by clarifying several misconceptions and misinterpretations of CDA that are widespread in social- and political-scientific research, the course wishes to highlight those aspects of critical-analytic studies which make them particularly useful to interdisciplinary and context-related explorations of contemporary politics. By showing similarities and differences between CDA – and especially one of its major traditions known as the Discourse-Historical Approach (or DHA) – and other discourse-based approaches widely-used in social and political studies (e.g. the Discourse Theory initiated by Laclau and Mouffe or other approaches, see below), the course wishes to highlight such advantages of CDA/DHA research as, inter alia, systematic approach to analysis or its clear relation to the levels of pre-analytical theorising and post-analytical interpretation.

The major aim of the course is practical as it wishes to make students familiar with the ways of analysing political and related discourses from a critical-analytic as well as discourse-historical perspective. For this reason, whether within lectures or the related discussion or hands-on analysis workshops, the course aims at showing the practical application of presented theories, methods and analyses. All of these will be related to studies of a wide array of genres incl. those from within the political field itself (e.g. parliamentary and other speeches, party programmes, etc.) as well as from within the related fields of policy-making and administration (regulations, policy documents, etc.) or of media and its representations of politics (reporting, interviews, debates, etc.). The analyses of those genres will be guided by such DHA principles as, inter alia, ‘interdiscursivity’ or ‘recontextualisation’, which allow for relating discourses produced synchronically and diachronically as well as across different contexts and within different texts and genres.

The course takes place in a 1+1 format so both weeks can be taken independently or as a one 2-week module (the latter option is strongly advised for students wishing to acquire a thorough theoretical knowledge as well as in-depth analytical/practical skills in CDA).

The first part of the Course (Week I) starts with a series of sessions devoted to introducing critical discourse studies and their relationship to other approaches to text and discourse analysis within linguistics and wider social sciences. The opening lecture on Day 1 is devoted to discussing those key developments within linguistics and other social sciences that contributed to the development of critical-analytic approaches in text and discourse studies. The morning lecture on the Day 2 of the course looks in detail at Critical Discourse Analysis and, further to discussing its central concepts such as text, discourse or context, it also introduces the main trends – or approaches – in CDA. It does so from the point of view of pointing to both similarities and differences between various strands of CDA and to highlighting the common ground of critical-analytical research traditions.

Day 2 also opens a series of sessions devoted to concepts and theories in CDA and other, especially social scientific, approaches to text and discourse studies. First, noon session on Day 2 looks at two other key approaches to analysing discourse as practiced within linguistics and related social sciences (e.g. in sociology or anthropology), that is: Conversation Analysis (CA) and Narrative Analysis. Second, Day 3 discusses relationships between CDA and other (socio-)theoretical perspectives. The latter are considered from the point of view of its key influences in/on CDA, especially with regard to theories of discourse of Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas and Ernesto Laclau/Chantal Mouffe as well as in a wider context of parallel developments in social-scientific approaches to discourse (such as e.g., Grounded Theory, Content Analysis, Hermeneutics, etc.).

The lecture on Day 4 introduces key premises and central concepts of the DHA (such as, inter alia, interdiscursivity, recontextualisation, or multi-level definition of context) before outlining central research foci in DHA as well as discussing it from the point of view of its contribution to the interdisciplinary connections within/beyond CDA and to tackling criticisms thereof within different social sciences.

Through hands-on analytical workshops on Days 4 and 5, students become initially familiar with various pathways of analysis in CDA/DHA performed in a systematic manner i.e. along a set of clearly defined analytical categories. On Day 4 students are introduced to relationships between, the major (i.e. entry and in-depth) levels of analysis in CDA/DHA and are made familiar with the ways in which static and pragmatic aspects of text and discourse are analysed in a systematic manner. During the noon workshop in Day 4, we focus on argumentation as a key, transversal dimension of discursive strategies, thus looking at argumentation-oriented analysis that has traditionally been a core element of CDA/DHA explorations. Day 5 – which closes Week I of the course – is dedicated to analysis; first and during the morning session, students are introduced to the entry-level analysis in DHA through the so-called thematic analysis. Second and in the course of the noon session, in-depth analysis is in CDA/DHA is practiced, bringing the various analytical categories discussed so far together.

Please note that the major aim of the course is to transfer and generate knowledge from discussions and interactions between the instructors and participants and among the students. All students are therefore expected to fully participate in the course (i.e. ask critical questions, complete in time all obligatory readings, actively participate in in-class tasks and discussions and out-of-class assignments, relate obtained knowledge to their current/future research, etc.).

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.