Discourse analysis passed through an interesting development: While it came up as a critique on science and established patterns of knowledge by questioning effects of power, it nowadays works also as a qualitative empirical method of social science itself. Aligned with this development, discourse analysis has emancipated from discourse theory and constitutes a widespread field on discursive approaches emphasising the performance criteria on empirical research. Discourse analysis in political science aims to analyze the processes of social construction and their social implications. The methodological approach in this paper is based on Jäger’s manual for analysis introduced in “Kritische Diskursanalyse” [Critical Discourse Analysis, 2001], who draws from the discourse theory of Foucault. He supplies a “tool box” for analyzing discourses and highlights their impact on power (Jäger 2001). Beyond Jäger’s approach, discourse analysis as an empirical project has to explain the foci of attention the interpretation of a discourse is based on. For that reason, I suggest a triple staged discourse analysis combining a hermeneutic and constructivist approach: 1) a content analytical step which generates the research design of the discourse analysis, 2) the discourse analysis itself and 3) the consolidation of step one and two, enabling me to ‘verify’ the categories I used for analyzing the discourse. I will illustrate the triple staged methodology by analyzing selected documents concerning the articulation of sustainability activities of Transnational Corporations (TNCs). Exemplifying this methodological approach will allow me to show how a discourse analytical research design can be enriched with components of qualitative social research.
