Discourse analysis and language problem.pptx

How can we study discourse analysis?

1. Discourse Analysis: A Critical Approach to Analyse Qualitative Data

2. Question What is discourse analysis and how can we use it to analyse development policy?

3. What is discourse? „to speak is to do something“ language does not give an objective description of reality - reality is constructed through discourse - discourse as a certain way of speaking about a topic

4. Gaza Conflict

5. Gaza Conflict „civil war“? - „ international conflict“? - „fascism and genocide“?

6. Different discourses … have different implications … allow for different actions … provide certain statements … entail certain constructions of identity

7. Different conceptions of discourse: does it refer to texts only or include symbols, architecture, institutions, non-verbal practices? - does the analysis of discourses deal with texts (micro-level) or with social phenomena, especially power structures (macro-level)? - are discourses produced intentionally by agents or are they anonymous structures? - is discourse analysis supposed to abstract from the texts themselves? Is it concerned with their meaning or merely with their description? - should it use quantitative or qualitative methods?

8. What is discourse? Structural linguistics (de Saussure): - sign as the smallest unit carrying meaning - sign composed of signifier and signified

9. Structural linguistics : - Arbitrariness of the sign Signifier Signified 'Tree '

10. Structural linguistics: - linguistic systems as stable and discrete structures - Meaning is a result of differences between signifiers: tree / bee / sea / grass / flower - only the differential relation between signifiers allows communication

11. Poststructuralism Relation between signifier and signified is unstable and has to be reproduced continuously - Meaning only through exclusion - Meaning through difference in social contexts - Identity is also constructed through difference

12. What is discourse? From the perspective of linguistics, discourses are systems of representation, in which the relations between signifiers and signifieds are (temporarily) stabilized .

13. Sociology of knowledge approach Mannheim's sociology of knowledge: knowledge is dependent on social situation (- Marx!) - Berger/ Luckmann : The social construction of reality - Keller: sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) - discourses as 'socio-historically situated practices' ('liberating' DA from linguistic issues)

14. Sociology of knowledge approach objective : to examine the discursive construction of 'common sense' and 'objective reality' - unlike Critical DA: no unmasking of the strategic use of language by those in power, no reference to true meaning deriving from something outside the text (like class position of the author) - looking at concrete data (oral and written texts, articles, books, discussions, institutions, disciplines) in order to analyse how discourses are structured and how they are structuring knowledge - discourses as 'battle fields', 'power struggles around the legitimate definition of phenomena‚ but also as ‚social order of knowledge‘

15. skad discourses as structured practices of sign usage, manifest in documents and institutions - dispositifs (apparatuses) producing discourses and emerging out of discourses - speaker positions (positions of legitimate speech acts), subject positions (identity positions offered by discourse) and social actors - structures of discourse derived from empirical material (like grounded theory), but data not necessarily coherent: it may articulate different discourses

16. Foucault's archaeology of knowledge 'The important thing … is that truth is not outside power... Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by virtue of multiple forms of constraint. And it induces regular effects of power. Each society has its regime of truth, its politics of truth: that is, the types of discourse which it accepts and makes function as true, the mechanisms and instances which enable one to distinguish true and false statements, the means by which each is sanctioned, the techniques and procedures accorded value in the acquisition of truth, the status of those who are charged with saying what counts as true.'(1980: 131)

17. Foucault's archaeology of knowledge L'Archéologie du Savoir , Foucault's methodological outline for discourse analysis, has little to do with this. Instead it stresses: - discontinuities and incoherences - structures, not subjects ('death of the author') - pure description of discursive events, analysis has to remain on the level of discourse - no analysis of linguistic signs, no analysis of thought and meaning - analysis of discourses as 'practices obeying certain rules', but these rules ‘are not the result, laid down in history and deposited in the depth of collective customs, of operations carried out by individuals’, - rejection of the link between social relations of power and discourse!

18. rules of formation of objects, enunciative modalities, concepts and strategies - ‘the rules of formation operate ... in discourse itself; they operate therefore, according to a sort of uniform anonymity, on all individuals who undertake to speak in this discursive field’ - Dreyfus/ Rabinow : illusion of autonomous discourse - Foucault: discourses are discourses not because they cover the same topic or share the same assumptions, but because they function according to the same rules of formation

19. Discourse analysis I: Truman's point 4 Truman's point 4 of his inaugural address in 1949 is widely seen as the beginning of the 'era of development'.

20. Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and the skill to relieve the suffering of these people. The United States is pre-eminent among nations in the development of industrial and scientific techniques. The material resources which we can afford to use for the assistance of other peoples are limited. But our imponderable resources in technical knowledge are constantly growing and are inexhaustible. I believe that we should make available to peace-loving peoples the benefits of our store of technical knowledge in order to help them realize their aspirations for a better life. And, in cooperation with other nations, we should foster capital investment in areas needing development. Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts, to produce more food, more clothing, more materials for housing, and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens. ... All countries, including our own, will greatly benefit from a constructive program for the better use of the world's human and natural resources. Experience shows that our commerce with other countries expands as they progress industrially and economically. Greater production is the key to prosperity and peace. And the key to greater production is a wider and more vigorous application of modern scientific and technical knowledge. Only by helping the least fortunate of its members to help themselves can the human family achieve the decent, satisfying life that is the right of all people.

21. Implications : way of life of industrialized societies is superior, misery is caused by lack of knowledge (science and technology), 'we' can help 'them' achieving a better life through capital investment and transfer of technology, 'we' will also benefit from such a program for economic and political reasons Actions : investment in 'underdeveloped areas', sending of experts, 'development cooperation' Statements : improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas, humanity possesses the knowledge to relieve their suffering, poverty as handicap and threat, help them help themselves, better use of the world's resources Identity : 'We' (scientific advances, industrial progress, greater productivity, decent and satisfying life, bold, helping the least fortunate) and 'people in underdeveloped areas' (victims, disease, misery, inadequate food, stagnant and primitive economy, burdens, aspirations for a better life)

22. Discourse analysis II: Poverty reduction at the World Bank World Bank's most important publication dealing with poverty in 2000

23. Discourse analysis II: Poverty reduction at the World Bank ‘ Well-functioning markets are important in generating growth and expanding opportunities for poor people. That is why market-friendly reforms have been promoted by international donors and by developing country governments, especially those democratically elected. … The debate about reforms is therefore not over a choice between reforms or no reforms: the absence of reforms to develop vibrant, competitive markets and create strong institutions condemns countries to continued stagnation and decline. … [T]here is now substantial evidence that open trade regimes support growth and development... Trade reforms have delivered growth, and thus poverty reduction, but their distributional effects have been more complex. … in some countries trade restrictions had benefited poor people by artificially raising the prices of the goods they produced. In such cases it is not surprising that trade liberalization would hurt poor people. … In view of the urgent need to get countries into dynamic, job-creating development paths, it is critical that the difficulty of reform and the impossibility of compensating every loser not lead to policy paralysis.’

24. Discourse analysis II: Poverty reduction at the World Bank Implications : liberalization leads to growth and thus to poverty reduction (chain of equivalences), debates about liberalization are futile, donors and governments are interested in poverty reduction, democracy and market-friendly reforms go together Actions : pushing for reforms in economic policy: liberalize, deregulate, privatize Statements : markets are important for growth and thus poverty reduction, there is no choice between reforms or no reforms, impossibility of compensating every loser Identity : liberals (expanding opportunities, vibrant, dynamic, job-producing, competitive, democratic, strong institutions) and others (artificially raising prices, stagnation and decline, policy paralysis)

25. Discourse analysis III: 'Development' Discourse of 'Development' giving rise to: - academic disciplines, professorships, study programs, seminars - ministries, governmental agencies, international organisations , non-profit organisations - books, journals, articles, brochures, leaflets - projects in infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, ... - financial transfers of approx. 50-100.000 mio $ annually => a dispositif of 'development' united by a strategic purpose, reproducing (and transforming) the discourse of 'development'

26. Structure of 'development' discourse: existential assumption: 'development' as organising and conceptual frame - normative assumption: 'development' is a good thing - practical assumption: 'development' can be realised - methodological assumption: states as units of analysis which cab be compared according to a universal scale

27. Structure of 'development' discourse: existential assumption: 'development' as organising and conceptual frame - normative assumption: 'development' is a good thing - practical assumption: 'development' can be realised - methodological assumption: states as units of analysis which cab be compared according to a universal scale

28. Formation of objects: objects : geographically defined units classified as ‚underdeveloped‘ - Western Self not as object of discourse - aspects of the objects gain visibility as elements explaining ‚underdevelopment‘, as deficiencies to be corrected by interventions of development policy (infrastructure, capital investment, rural poor, women, environment, market, governance,...)

29. Formation of enunciative modalities: knowledge claims confined to certain persons (‚development experts‘) and institutional places (‚development organisations ‘, university departments) - discursive structure implies subject position of expert who knows what ‚development‘ is and how to achieve it => authoritarian element - 'local‘ statements merely to articulate need for 'development‘

30. Formation of concepts: - problems conceived as deviation from the norm (illiteracy, malnourishment, unemployment, overpopulation, failed states, bad governance, defective democracies,...) - regular emergence of new concepts: cycle of diagnosis - prescription and promise - disappointment - new diagnosis

31. Formation of strategies norm : industrialised societies of North America and Western Europe - discursive subsets ( capitalist vs. socialist path , export promotion vs. import substitution, modernisation vs. dependency , ...) - strong influence of historical constellation on popular strategies (NIEO, adjustment, good governance, ...)

32. Discursive transformations from colonial to development discourse - from development to globalisation and corresponding transformations of the dispositif - incoherences between different discourses