Advances in Critical Policy Discourse Analysis

This Section seeks to bring together scholars using critical text analytical and discourse analytical approaches in the study of policy and politics, with the aim to contribute to Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2013; Montesano Montessori, Farrelly and Mulderrig (eds.) 2019; Montesano Montessori, 2023). The Section Chairs are particularly interested in exploring: ▪️ how policies are constituted and contested ▪️ how to bring complexity into processes of policy making and policy analysis ▪️ how to approach to the role of ideology and how critical discourse approaches might lead to improved policy making processes▪️To present examples of critical constructive policy analysis, for instance through suggesting alternative practices or processes (Mukhtarov and Gasper, 2022; Montesano Montessori and Lautensach, 2024). We aim to discuss these questions under the analytical umbrella of Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (Montesano Montessori, Farrelly, and Mulderrig, 2019), and we invite proposals for themed Panels and individual Papers which critically interrogate the role of text(s) in constituting, legitimating, and contesting policy problems in a range of political contexts. Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) combines critical discourse analysis with critical policy studies by establishing theoretical and methodological synergies between these two fields to enrich our understanding of how policy is constituted and contested in various contexts. It does so by bringing the rigorous and systematic analysis of texts, informed by linguistic theory, into transdisciplinary dialogue with theoretical frameworks capable of recognising the socially structuring potential of discourse, but which alone tend to overlook the micro-textual processes. This approach seeks to achieve explanatory adequacy in critical policy research by attending to the micro, meso and macro levels at which policy ideas operate; and the knowledge, values and ideologies which underpin them. CPDA emerges from two long-standing traditions in social science research whose origins lie in Linguistics and Political Science respectively. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) combines detailed analysis of texts with theoretically informed accounts of policy problems. It asks how political language construes specific policy problems in a way that transmits and naturalises ideologies, thus linking directly to patterns of injustice, discrimination and power (Fairclough et al., 2011; Wodak and Meyer, 2016; Flowerdew and Richardson, 2018). Critical Policy Studies (CPS) continues Lasswell’s commitment to developing critical and democratic policy science, while placing a strong theoretical emphasis on the idea of ‘contingency’ in policy formation. It pays particular attention to (ideological) norms, values and assumptions which underpin policy processes (Fischer et al., 2015). As such, CPS shares an analytical focus with CDA on the socially constitutive role of knowledge, power and discourse. Furthermore, both CPS and CDA mark the ‘ideational’ turn in social science, which views discourse as having causal powers in social life (Fairclough, Jessop, Sayer, 2004). Section Chairs invite proposals for Panels and Papers which follow and enhance the tradition of CPDA in combining textually oriented discourse analysis (TODA) with theoretically informed explanatory critique of policy and political texts. Panels should be organised around a particular theme which may be based on a particular policy field, political issue, theoretical framework, or methodological approach. We would particularly welcome proposals which advance CPDA by focusing on its application in the following areas of policy and practice: ▪️ Economic Policy ▪️ Education Policy ▪️ Environment and Sustainability Policy (SDGs and beyond) ▪️Health Policy ▪️Security Policy Research questions which might be explored in those areas include, but need not be confined to, the following: ▪️ What are the specific ideological issues at stake? How are these legitimated? ▪️ Are there identifiable political ‘mantras’ which naturalise particular policy perspectives? (e.g. ‘There is no alternative’; ‘Expert knowledge is redundant in the digital era’; ‘Policy must keep pace with rapid social and technological change’) ▪️ How does policy operate and translate across scales? ▪️ How do policy imaginaries (simplifying discourses) seek to reduce complexity? What problems arise from this? What constructive and evidence-based alternatives can replace simplifying or biased imaginaries? ▪️ (How) is policy constrained and framed by discourses of risk and resilience? ▪️ (How) is policy inflected by populist political discourse? We also welcome Papers which explore the tensions between policy hegemony and counter-hegemonic resistance, for instance: ▪️ The role of the digital in new social movements ▪️ Initiatives to free ‘sustainability’ from the grip of technology and digitalisation. References: Fairclough, N (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis London: Longman Fairclough, N. (2013) Critical Discourse analysis and critical policy studies. Critical Policy Studies 7(2): 177-197 Fairclough, N., Mulderrig, J. and Wodak, R. (2011). ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’, in T Van Dijk (Ed.) Discourse Studies: a multidisciplinary introduction, London: Sage (357-378) Fairclough N. Jessop R. and Sayer A. (2004). Critical realism and semiosis. In: Joseph J. and Roberts J. (Eds.) Realism discourse and Deconstruction. London: Routledge Fischer, F., Torgerson, D., Durnová, A and Orsini, M. (2015). Introduction to critical policy studies. In Handbook of Critical Policy Studies, (Eds, Fischer, F., Torgerson, D., Durnová, A and Orsini, M.) Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 1-24 Flowerdew, J. and Richardson, J. (Eds.) (2018). The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies. London, New York: Routledge Montesano Montessori, N. (2023): Critical Policy Discourse Analysis. In: M. Handford & J.P. Gee (eds). Handbook of Discourse Studies. Pp. 610-624. Routledge Montesano Montessori, N., Farrelly, M., Mulderrig, J. (Eds) (2019) Critical Policy Discourse Analysis Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (Eds). (2016, 3rd Ed.). Methods of Critical Discourse Studies. London: Sage Montesano Montessori, N., & Lautensach, A. (2024). A blueprint for what? From a critical policy discursive analysis of UN’s sustainable development goals to a constructive rearticulation for their application. Critical Policy Studies, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2024.2355140 Mukhtarov Farhad, Des Gasper, Aditya Alta, Neha Gautam, Maria Sattwika Duhita & Diego Hernández Morales (2022) From ‘merchants and ministers’ to ‘neutral brokers’? Water diplomacy aspirations by the Netherlands – a discourse analysis of the 2011 commissioned advisory report, International Journal of Water Resources Development, 38:6, 1009-1031, DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2021.1929086