Undertaking Discourse Analysis For Social Research

Kevin C. Dunn and Iver B. Neumann offer a concise, accessible introduction to discourse analysis in the social sciences. A vital resource for students and scholars alike, Undertaking Discourse Analysis for Social Research combines a theoretical and conceptual review with a “how-to” guide for using the method. In the first part of the book, the authors discuss the development of discourse analysis as a research method and identify the main theoretical elements and epistemological assumptions that have led to its emergence as one of the primary qualitative methods of analysis in contemporary scholarship. Then, drawing from a wide-range of examples of social science scholarship, Dunn and Neumann provide an indispensable guide to the variety of ways discourse analysis has been used. They delve into what is gained by using this approach and demonstrate how one actually applies it. They cover such important issues as research prerequisites, how one conceives of a research question, what “counts” as evidence, how one “reads” the data, and some common obstacles and pitfalls. The result is a clear and accessible manual for successfully implementing discourse analysis in social research.

What can language tell us about society? Looking at a range of genres, from political speeches to internet chat, this book shows how qualitative methods are used to analyse discourses throughout the social sciences. The practical problems of designing and conducting discourse-based research are solved in this key resource for all social scientists.

Kevin C. Dunn and Iver B. Neumann offer a concise, accessible introduction to discourse analysis in the social sciences. A vital resource for students and scholars alike, Undertaking Discourse Analysis for Social Research combines a theoretical and conceptual review with a “how-to” guide for using the method. In the first part of the book, the authors discuss the development of discourse analysis as a research method and identify the main theoretical elements and epistemological assumptions that have led to its emergence as one of the primary qualitative methods of analysis in contemporary scholarship. Then, drawing from a wide-range of examples of social science scholarship, Dunn and Neumann provide an indispensable guide to the variety of ways discourse analysis has been used. They delve into what is gained by using this approach and demonstrate how one actually applies it. They cover such important issues as research prerequisites, how one conceives of a research question, what “counts” as evidence, how one “reads” the data, and some common obstacles and pitfalls. The result is a clear and accessible manual for successfully implementing discourse analysis in social research.

"The book is an essential resource seeking to analyze real texts and discourse."--BOOK JACKET.

WINNER: 2004 AESA Critics' Choice Award "With wonderful clarity Maggie MacLure shows how deconstructionism opens new avenues of critical inquiry and understanding for educational researchers. In exposing the hidden, ideological side of terms like clarity, certainty, mastery, and relevance she allows us to see schooling and educational policy in new ways. In so doing she allows us to imagine classrooms as liberating, pedagogical places, as places where new forms of desire, knowledge, and learning take place" Norman K. Denzin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign This book is both practical and provocative. It demonstrates the insights and the challenges of a discourse-based orientation to educational and social research. Drawing on a variety of educational and social science 'texts' - including press articles, life history interviews, parent-teacher consultations, policy debates and ethnographies - the author shows how knowledge, power, identities and realities are constructed and problematised in discourse. The book also deals with research itself as discursive practice, examining the texts that qualitative researchers produce and consume: reports, monographs, journal articles. Practical examples are included for researchers and graduate students wishing to 'interrogate' their own data from a discourse perspective. The author develops a critical awareness of the researcher's role as writer/reader of texts. The book makes the case for 'discursive literacy' in research. While its primary allegiances are to poststructuralism and deconstruction, it draws from a wide range of disciplines, including interaction sociology, feminist ethnography, literary theory, critical discourse analysis and art history. What holds the book together is the persistent question: how to do educational research and social research within a 'crisis of representation' that has unsettled the relationship between words and worlds?

This book presents post-Marxist theoretical approaches towards social critique and offers discourse analytical tools for critical research. How is a normative critique possible? The author, working at the crossroads of sociological discourse analysis and social philosophy, answers this question and others to show how empirical discourse research can be used to develop normative critique of societies. Divided into three major sections, Herzog introduces the reader to the theoretical approaches to critique, provides tools for normative evaluations of social structures, and finally offers practical examples of theoretical concepts. The book will be of interest to those working in the fields and subfields of discourse analysis, poststructuralism, hegemony theory, cultural political economy and critical theory, with an interdisciplinary orientation.

This book provides an introduction to the basic principles of discourse research, offering practical research strategies for doing discourse analyses in the social sciences. The book includes guidance on developing a research question, selecting data and analyzing it, and presenting the results. The author has extensive practical experience in the field of discourse research and shows, throughout, how the methods suggested are compatible with numerous research questions and problems in sociology, cultural, political and social studies and related disciplines.

This book is about doing discourse analysis. Its focus is on method, but the method is embedded in a wider theoretical perspective on social life, in the view of language as action, in the recognition that the social world revolves around talk (and writing). What is it that we accomplish by talking? Can we reconceptualize such traditional concepts as attribution and personality in discursive terms or shed light on applied topics, such as sexual abuse and legal adjudication? Doing Discourse Analysis: Methods for Studying Action in Talk and Text draws on conversation analysis, critical discourse analysis, pragmatics, and particularly, the discursive approach developed in social psychology. The book presents examples of actual discourse analyses, covers procedures of data collection and strategies for data analysis, and addresses issues of reliability and validity or the scientific warrants for discourse-analytic work. This book provides both the practical steps for doing discourse analysis and the theoretical justifications for these steps. It is an essential book for students and researchers undertaking discourse analysis.

A unique anthology of textual analysis methodologies, this book offers a thorough introduction to the key approaches and the tools students need to implement them. Every chapter contains not just the theory behind each methodology, but also its advantages and disadvantages, its problems with ontology and language, and its relationship to studying social phenomenon. Through contemporary and relatable real-world worked examples, the book illustrates different contexts in which a methodology has been successfully used and allows students to see the methods in action and extrapolate the techniques into their own research. Methods included: Content analysis Argumentation analysis Qualitative analysis of ideas Narrative analysis Metaphor analysis Multimodal discourse analysis Discourse analysis Engaging and authoritative in equal measure, this guide to textual analysis is the perfect foundation for students conducting research in the social sciences.