Analysing Political Discourse I: Theories, Concepts and Research Designs

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) 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. CDA has become extremely popular in recent years as one of the key largely qualitative approaches to social and political change used across the variety of social and political sciences.

By offering comprehensive introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis as an approach to research on dynamics of contemporary political change, this course wishes to outline key theoretical foundations, methodological premises and analytical pathways in CDA. In doing so, 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, 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 course also aims at clarifying several misconceptions and misinterpretations of CDA that are widespread in social- and political-scientific research. For example, as CDA is often approached from a limited perspective i.e. as just a ‘method’ rather than a coherent approach with a distinct theory and methodology, the course wishes to show a variety of theories, methods and analyses deployed in critical-analytical explorations including at the intersection of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Also, as CDA is also often viewed as a homogeneous approach, the course wishes to discard such criticism while showing CDA a heterogeneous research tradition that 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.

However, the major aim of the course is practical as it is geared towards making 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. 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, however, strongly advised if students wish to acquire a thorough theoretical as well as practical knowledge as well as in-depth analytical skills in CDA).

The first part of the Course (i.e. Week I) starts with a series of sessions devoted to introducing critical discourse studies and their relationship to other approaches in text and discourse analysis, within both linguistics and the 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 looks in detail at Critical Discourse Analysis. 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. On the one hand, noon session on Day 2 and morning session on Day 3 look at the key approaches to analysing discourse as practiced within linguistics and related social sciences (e.g. in sociology or anthropology). The sessions present their varied, micro/macro positioning of discourse in the course of socio-political analysis. On the other hand, the afternoon lecture on Day 3 discusses relationships between CDA and social theory. The latter is considered from the point of view of its key influences in/on CDA, especially with regard to, inter alia, theories of Michel Foucault, Jürgen Habermas, or Pierre Bourdieu, as well as in a wider context of parallel developments in social-scientific approaches to discourse (such as e.g. the ‘Discourse Theory’ of Laclau & Mouffe or Grounded Theory, Content Analysis, Hermeneutics, etc.).

The two-part lecture on Day 4 introduces key premises and central concepts of the DHA before discussing it from the point of view of its contribution to the interdisciplinary connections within/beyond CDA as well as tackling criticisms thereof within different social sciences. The focus throughout the lecture is on the understanding of the key concepts used in the DHA: ideology, power, critique, discourse, interdiscursivity and recontextualisation. A special attention is paid to the DHA-specific notion of ‘discursive strategies’ discussed from their point of view of their role in self- and other-presentation, legitimation and pre-legitimation, or in political and other identity-building processes.

Finally, the morning lecture of Day 5 focuses on a general placement of CDA and wider Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) including the DHA within the landscape of contemporary qualitative research methods. The lecture is hence devoted to discussing the key features of a CDS/DHA research from the point of view of such standard qualitative methods as interviews, ethnography and text/document analysis. The lecture also focuses on issues related to possible research designs in CDS/DHA and to hypothesising and constructing research questions as well as conceptual puzzles in research projects founded on CDS/DHA.

Week I closes with an individual consultation hour (within noon session on Day 5) during which students can individually discuss their research projects with the instructor. This session is especially for Students taking only Week I of the course (NB: there will be further opportunities for individual consultations in Week II - for students taking both weeks or Week II only).

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

Note from the Academic Convenors to prospective participants: by registering to this course, you certify that you possess the prerequisite knowledge that is requested to be able to follow this course. The instructor will not teach again these prerequisite items. If you doubt whether you possess that knowledge to a sufficient extent, we suggest you contact the instructor before you proceed to your registration.

Students attending the course be familiar with selected aspects of social theory, especially those relevant for the discourse-analytic approaches discussed during the course (see outline for details).

Students should also be open to new, interdisciplinary qualitative methods of research in social and political sciences and 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.