Doing Political Discourse Analysis: Applications, Strategies, Methods and Techniques 2012

Please, register here:
PLEASE NOTICE. That you are registrated, does not mean you are approved. When Polforsk arranges a course, you will usually be informed about approval within one week after the registration deadline.

Responsible: David Howarth & Aletta Norval (Department of Government, University of Essex), Allan Dreyer Hansen (Department of Society and Globalisation Roskilde University)

From: 2012/10/22 to: 2012/10/26
Registration Deadline: 2012/08/26
Place: Roskilde University, Department of Society and Globalisation
Fee: 100 Euro
ECTS (Get approval from your own department!!!): 5

Short description:

This course introduces and elaborates the theoretical and methodological tools for doing political discourse analysis. It is concerned with the way in which we can articulate and apply discourse analysis to problematized empirical cases in the name of critical explanation. It will also serve as a forum to discuss practical research strategies, methods and techniques that are consonant with the field of discourse analysis. The course focuses on the definition of research objects and problems; the construction of appropriate theoretical frameworks; the requisite character and collection of empirical data; the logics of rhetorical and textual analysis; as well as the different modes of argumentation and

Lecturers: David Howarth, Aletta Norval & Allan Dreyer

Further information: sek@polforsk.dk

This course sets out an approach for doing discourse analysis in politics and policy analysis. It is thus concerned with the way we can articulate and apply discourse analysis to problematized empirical cases in the name of critical explanation. It will also serve as a forum to discuss practical research strategies, methods and techniques that are consonant with the emerging field of discourse analysis. The course focuses on the definition of research objects and problems; the construction of appropriate theoretical frameworks; the requisite character and collection of empirical data; the logics of rhetorical and textual analysis; as well as the different modes of argumentation and presentation within discourse theory.

More precisely, the course puts forward a logic of critical explanation, which comprises five basic elements: problematization; retroduction; logics; articulation; and critique. In so doing, it briefly examines the philosophical underpinnings of a poststructuralist approach to social and political analysis, and also concentrates on actual instances of discursive research. With respect to the theoretical aspects, attention is focused on Michel Foucault’s method of problematization; Laclau and Mouffe’s logics of discourse analysis; Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis, as well as certain psychoanalytical themes explored by Lacan and Zizek. We also draw on discussions in speech act theory and their extension to political analysis in the works of Austin, Derrida, Cavell and Rancière.


Participants will also be encouraged to discuss their own ongoing research or research proposals/plans.

Course Objectives

This is an intensive course, available to all those students who are interested in conducting research from a poststructuralist discourse theory approach at PhD level.

At the end of the course, participants:

  • will be conversant with major literatures and debates in the field of discourse analysis;

  • will have acquired a solid grounding in discourse theoretical approaches to social and political analysis and critique;

  • will be able to design a research project in this field;

  • will be trained in the theoretical and methodological considerations arising in this area;

  • will finish with a keen sense of the critical role that discourse plays both in theory and in social and political practice.

Paper and Discussion of Participants Research Projects

During the course, and especially in the last sessions, we will also discuss the research projects of individual participants. Those interested in doing this should send a summary of their projects (max. 1500 words) and a short research paper to paper@polforsk.dk no later than October 4, so that we can build them into the programme. PhD-students submitting project summary or paper will be preferred in case the course is overbooked.

    • Please, observe concerning your paper:
      - it should be in PDF-format,
      - the file name should start with YOUR SURNAME and include the titel and number of pages.
      - there should be NO BLANKS or special characters (parantheses, ö, æ, ø, å, é, etc) in the file name
      - example: doe_john-politics_of_lazyness-12_pages.pdf


Program

The course runs for five days with two sessions on each day, with the exception of the final day, on which there will be one session only. Participants should treat these sessions as flexible, since we will accommodate discussions and issues as they arise.

Session times:
Session 1: 9h30-12h00
Coffee Break: 10h30-11h00

Lunch 12h00-13h00
Session 2: 13h00-15h30
Coffee Break: 14h00-14h30

The course arises from our recent books: Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory (Abingdon, Routledge, 2007) and Aversive Democracy (Cambridge, 2007). It will also discuss material from our forthcoming books: Howarth, After Poststructuralism (Palgrave, 2010) and Griggs and Howarth, The Politics of Sustainable Aviation (Manchester University Press, 2010).

All asterisked readings are essential, and (apart from our books). The participants are to acquire these reading themselves.

Within a week after the registration deadline, participants will be informed whether they are approved or not.


Monday, October 22

Introducing Poststructuralist Discourse Theory: A Problem-Driven Approach

The first day focuses on providing an introduction to Poststructuralist Discourse Theory, and is divided into two sessions. The first session introduces poststructuralist/post-Marxist discourse theory (PDT) in relation to the “discursive turn” in the contemporary social sciences. We present a brief genealogy of the development of the concept of discourse by focusing on its ever-widening ontological and methodological scope; situate PDT in relation to other discourse-oriented approaches; outline some of the basic assumptions and core concepts of the approach; and introduce the logics of critical explanation as one way operationalizing these assumptions and concepts in empirical research.

Session 1

Readings

  • Laclau, E., & C. Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (London: Verso, 1985, 2001 2nd Edition), Chapter 3.

  • ´i¸ek, S. (1990) ‘Beyond Discourse Analysis’, in Laclau, E. New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (London: Verso).

  • Laclau, E. New Reflections on the Revolution of Our Time (London: Verso, 1990), pp. 3-59.

  • D. Howarth (2010) ‘Pluralizing Methods: Contingency, Ethics and Critical Explanation’, in A. Finlayson (ed.) Democracy and Pluralism: The Political Thought of William E. Connolly, London: Routledge.

  • M. Hajer (1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse (Oxford: OUP), Chapter 2.

  • J. Dryzek (1997) The Politics of the Earth (Oxford: OUP), Chapter 1.

  • Laclau, E. On Populist Reason (London: Verso, 2005), Chapter 5.


Background Readings

Glynos, J., Howarth, D., Norval, A., and Speed, E. (2009) ‘Discourse Analysis: Varieties and Methods’, ESRC National Centre for Research Methods, NCRM/014, http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/796/1/discourse_analysis_NCRM_014.pdf

´i¸ek, S. The Sublime Object of Ideology (London: Verso, 1989), Chapter 1.

Laclau, E., ‘Discourse’ in Goodin, Robert A., and Philip Pettit, eds., A Companion to Contemporary Political Philosophy (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), pp. 431-437.

Laclau, E. ‘Populism: What’s in a Name?’ in Panizza, F., ed., Populism and the Mirror of Democracy (London: Verso, 2005).

D. Howarth and Y. Stavrakakis, ‘Introducing Discourse Theory and Political Analysis’, in Howarth, D., A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), Introduction.

D. Howarth, Discourse (Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000), Introduction & Chapters 3-7.

Session 2

In the second session of Day 1, we turn to the role of problematization and logics in the practice of applying discourse theory in political science. We begin by discussing Michel Foucault’s efforts to develop a method of discourse analysis that goes beyond traditional hermeneutics, without relapsing into naturalism, positivism, or a methodological anarchism. Attention is paid to the archaeological method, which Foucault employed in his early writings (The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things), after which we concentrate on the genealogical approach of his later studies.

Participants will be given the opportunity to problematize a set of themes and issues related to their own research, and to construct a short research problem or proposal.

Readings

  • J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Introduction, Chapters 2 and 3.

  • C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers, Vol. 1, Principles of Philosophy, (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960), pp. 28-31.

  • J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Introduction, Chapters 1, 5 and 6.

Further Reading:

D. Howarth (2002) ‘An Archaeology of Political Discourse? Evaluating Michel Foucault’s Explanation and Critique of Ideology’, Political Studies, 50(1): 117-135.

D. Howarth, ‘Discourse Theory and Political Analysis’ in E. Scarborough and E. Tanenbaum (eds), Research Strategies in the Social Sciences (Oxford: OUP. 1998), Chapter 12.

M. Foucault, ‘Politics and the Study of Discourse’, in G. Burchell, C. Gordon and P. Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, Hemel Hampstead: Harvester, 1984, Ch 2.

H. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, Brighton: Harvester, 1982, Chapters 4, 5

M. Foucault, The Archaeology of Knowledge, London: Tavistock, 1972.

P. Dews,‘Althusser, Structuralism and the French Epistemological Tradition’, in G. Elliot (ed), Althusser: A Critical Reader, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1994, Ch 5.

J. Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, Cambridge: Polity, 1985, Chapters 9, 10.

Howarth, D., A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000).

S. Benhabib, Critique, Norm and Utopia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), Preface, Introduction.

R. Bernstein, The New Constellation (Cambridge: Polity, 1991), Chapters 1, 5, 10.

J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Chapter 1.

I. Shapiro, ‘Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or: What’s Wrong with Political Science and What to do About it’, in I. Shapiro, R. M. Smith, and T. E. Masoud (eds) (2004) Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (Cambridge: CUP, 2004).

W. Connolly, ‘Method, Problem, Faith’ in I. Shapiro, R. M. Smith, and T. E. Masoud (eds) (2004) Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (Cambridge: CUP, 2004).

Tuesday, October 23

The Emergence and Articulation of Political Demands, Subjectivities and Political Frontiers

Day 2 is devoted to a discussion of the formation and dissolution of frontiers in political discourse and the role that the logics of equivalence and difference play in these processes. Drawing on the work of Laclau and Rancière, as well as Foucault and Austin, we concentrate on the analysis of the emergence and articulation of political demands and subjectivities, as well as on the different ways in which political frontiers are constructed and managed.

The first part of the day is devoted to clarifying the conceptual basis of the discussion. The focus here is on the development of the conceptual tools for the analysis of political frontiers and the articulation of political demands in Laclau and Mouffe’s work, as well as the analysis of the staging of arguments as presented in the work of Rancière. In addition, we will also look at the work of Michel Foucault and John Austin, to capture the processes involved in the articulation of subject positions.

The second part of the day focuses on a discussion of work putting these insights to use in political analysis. In this session we will concentrate on some practical examples, where course participants will be analysing the articulation of political frontiers in selected political speeches, such as speeches by Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela. (Texts of these speeches will be provided to participants on Day 1.)

Readings
Frontiers and the Articulation and Staging of Demands: Conceptual Issues

  • E. Laclau, On Populist Reason (London: Verso, 2005), especially chapters 4 and 5.

  • Aletta J. Norval, ‘Frontiers in Question’, Acta Philosophica, 2 (1997), pp. 51-76.

  • Aletta J. Norval, ‘Democracy, Pluralization and Voice’, Ethics and Global Politics, Vol. 2 (4) (December 2009), pp.297-320..

  • Aletta J. Norval, ‘Passionate Subjectivity, Contestation and Acknowledgement: Rereading Austin and Cavell’, in Andrew Schaap (ed.) Law and Agonistic Politics (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 163-78.

Articulating Demands and Political Frontiers: Applications

  • Andries du Toit, ‘The micropolitics of paternalism’, Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 19, no. 2, 1993, pp.314-366

  • A. J. Norval, 'Social ambiguity and the crisis of apartheid', in Laclau, E. (ed.) The Making of Political Identities. London: Verso (1994).

  • Andrew Schaap, ‘The absurd proposition of Aboriginal sovereignty’, in Andrew Schaap, (ed.) Agonistic Politics (Farnham: Ashgate Publishers, 2009), pp. 209-223

  • A.J. Norval, ‘‘No Reconciliation without Redress’: Articulating political demands in post-transitional South Africa’, Critical Discourse Studies, Vol. 6 (4), (forthcoming, November 2009)

Further Readings

J. Austin, How to do Things with Words.

H. Gottweis, ‘Rhetoric in policy making: between logos, ethos, and pathos’, in F. Fischer, Handbook of Public Policy (London: Taylor and Francis, 2006).

S. F. Griggs and D. Howarth, ‘A Transformative Political Campaign? The New Rhetoric of Protest Against Airport Expansion in the UK’, Journal of Political Ideologies, (2004), Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 167-87 [available on-line via library].

S. F. Griggs and D. Howarth, ‘An Alliance of Interest and Identity? Explaining the Campaign against Manchester Airport’s Second Runway’, Mobilization, (2002) Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 43-58.

M. Hajer and Justus Uitermark, ‘Performing Authority: Discursive politics after the assassination of Theo van Gogh’ Public Administration Vol. 86 (1), pp. 5-19 (2007).

D. Howarth, ‘The Difficult Emergence of a Democratic Imaginary: Black Consciousness and Non-Racial Democracy in South Africa’, in D. Howarth, A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds) Discourse Theory and Political Analysis, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.

D. Howarth, ‘Complexities of Identity/Difference: Black Consciousness Ideology in South Africa’, Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 2 (1), 1997 [available on-line via library].

D. Howarth and Y. Stavrakakis, ‘Introducing Discourse Theory and Political Analysis’, in D. Howarth, A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000). Several chapters in this book deploy Laclau’s conceptualization of political frontiers in the analysis of concrete cases.

Aletta J. Norval, ‘The things we do with words - contemporary approaches to the analysis of ideology’, British Journal of Political Science, 30 (2000), pp. 313-46

Jacques Rancière, Disagreement (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), especially chapters 1-3 and 5.

Q. Skinner, 'Meaning and understanding in the history of ideas' in J. Tully (ed), Meaning and Context: Quentin Skinner and his Critics.

Wednesday, October 24

Day 3 is devoted to the questions of articulating analytical strategies and of normative/ ethical judgements in discourse analysis. Our discussions will focus on the possibilities of articulating the different approaches of Michel Foucault, Norman Fairclough and Ernesto Laclau in terms of their conceptual tools as well as regarding their different views on ethical and normative critique in social analysis. The first session will present the different positions, the second will be a work-shop for students articulating analytical strategies focussing on conceptual as well as normative elements of analysis.

Readings

  • Chouliaraki, Lilie, and Norman Fairclough. 1999. Discourse in late modernity : rethinking critical discourse analysis. chapter 2: “Social life and critical social science” and 7 “Discourse difference and the openness of the social”. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

  • Critchley, Simon. 2002. «Ethics, Politics and Radical Democracy: the History of a Disagreement». CULTURE MACHINE. The Journal of Philosophy 4(The Ethico-Political Issue):1–17. http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Articles/critchley.htm

  • Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and social change. Chapter 2 and 3: p. 31-100Cambridge, MA: Polity Press.

  • Fairclough, Norman, Bob Jessop, og Andrew Sayer. 2002. ”Critical Realism and Semiosis”. Alethia 5(1):2–10.

  • Foucault, Michel. 1980. ”Truth and Power”. p. 183–93 i Michel Foucault. Power/ Knowledge, 1980. New Yourk: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

  • Foucault, Michel. 1991. ”What is Enlightenment”. p. 32–50 i The Foucault reader. London: Penguin Books.

  • Foucault, Michel, og Lawrence D. Kritzman. 1988. ”The concern for truth”. i Politics, philosophy, culture : interviews and other writings 1977-1984, vol. 1. London: Routledge. p. 255 – 67

  • Hansen, Allan Dreyer. 2010. «Dangerous Dogs, Constructivism and Normativity: The Implications of Radical Constructivism». Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory (20):93–107.

  • Laclau, Ernesto. 2002. «Ethics, Politics and Radical Democracy: a Response to Simon Critchley». CULTURE MACHINE. The Journal of Philosophy 4 (The Ethico-Political Issue):1–11. http://culturemachine.tees.ac.uk/Articles/laclau.htm

  • Laclau, Ernesto. 2000. «Identity and Hegemony: The Role of Universality in the Constitution of Political Logics». i Contingency, hegemony, universality : contemporary dialogues on the left, Phronesis. London: Verso.

Background Applications:

Critchley, Simon, and Oliver Marchart. 2004. Laclau: a critical reader. London: Routledge: Section 2.

Thursday and Friday, October 24-25

Research Strategies and ParticipantsResearch

On the fourth day we discuss the general principles of research strategy, and then, in the final two sessions of the course (afternoon Day 4, morning Day 5) turn to a discussion of participants’ research. These sessions will primarily be devoted to the discussion of the research projects of participants. Those interested should send summaries of their research projects (1500 words max), as well as a short research paper at least three weeks before our summer school sessions start to the organisers, so that we can build them into the programme. By way of conclusion, these sessions will also act as a forum to raise and discuss general issues and questions arising out of earlier sessions.

Readings

  • J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Chapter 6.

  • J. Glynos, and Howarth, D. (2008) ‘Critical Explanation in Social Science: A Logics Approach’, Swiss Journal of Sociology, 34(1): 5-35.

Background Applications

A. Wright (2012) ‘Fantasies of Empowerment: Mapping Neoliberal Discourse in the Coalition Government’s Schools Policy’, Journal of Educational Policy, Vol. 27. Forthcoming.

M. Hajer (1995) The Politics of Environmental Discourse (Oxford: OUP), Chapter 4.

O. Reyes (2000) ‘New Labour’s Politics of the Hard-Working Family’, in D. Howarth, A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds) Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

D. Howarth & S. F. Griggs (2006) ‘Metaphor, Catachresis and Equivalence: The Rhetoric of Freedom to Fly in the Struggle over Aviation Policy in the United Kingdom’, Policy and Society (2006), Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 23-46.

S. Griggs & D. Howarth (2012) ‘Phronesis, Logics, & Critical Policy Analysis: Heathrow’s “Third Runway” & the Politics of “Sustainable Aviation” in the UK’, in B. Flyvbjerg, T. Landman & S. Schram (eds), Real Social Science, Cambridge: CUP.

T. Solomon (2009) ‘Social Logics and Normalization in the War on Terror’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 38(2), 269-294.

M. Watson and C. Hay (2003) ‘The Discourse of Globalization and the Logic of No Alternative’, Policy and Politics, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 289-305.

S. F. Griggs and D. Howarth, ‘Populism, Localism and Environmental Politics: The Logic and Rhetoric of the Stop Stansted Expansion Campaign in the United Kingdom’, Planning Theory, (2008), Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 123-44.

J. Dean (2010) Rethinking Contemporary Feminist Politics, London: Palgrave.

A. J. Norval, Deconstructing Apartheid Discourse, London: Verso, Chapter 6.

E. Laclau, On Populist Reason (London: Verso, 2005).

C. Mouffe (2005) ‘The “End of Politics” and the Challenge of Right-wing Populism’, in F. Panizza (ed) Populism and the Mirror of Nature, London: Verso.

D. Howarth, ‘The Ideologies and Strategies of Resistance in Post-Sharpeville South Africa: Thoughts on Anthony Marx’s Lessons of Struggle, Africa Today, (1994) Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 21-38.

D. Howarth (2005) ‘Populism or Popular Democracy? The UDF, Workerism and the Struggle for Radical Democracy in South Africa’, in F. Panizza (ed) Populism and the Mirror of Nature, London: Verso.

Please, register here:
PLEASE NOTICE. That you are registrated, does not mean you are approved. When Polforsk arranges a course, you will usually be informed about approval within one week after the registration deadline.
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