[Tps] TPS/ECPR Policy Network - Forum: Qualitative Social Research, Issue on Discourse Empirical Methods

[Navdeep Mathur]

http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/fqs-e/inhalt2-07-e.htm

Volume 8, No. 2 – May 2007
>From Michel Foucault's Theory of Discourse to Empirical Discourse
Research. Current Methodological Trends and Practices in Social
Research
Edited by
Andrea D. Bührmann, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodriguez,
Gavin Kendall, Werner Schneider & Francisco J. Tirado

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Editorial FQS 8(2): From Michel Foucault's Theory of Discourse to
Empirical Discourse Research

Andrea D. Bührmann, Rainer Diaz-Bone, Encarnación Gutiérrez-Rodríguez,
Werner Schneider, Gavin Kendall & Francisco Tirado

This issue outlines the foundations and the various strands of
FOUCAULTian discourse analysis in existence today. The diverse
contributions give insight into theoretical and methodological aspects
of the FOUCAULTian concept of discourse. They work out the research
practices of discourse analysis and concrete developments in this
field. Such a discussion seems to be necessary because of the growing
presence and influence of discourse analysis within the field of
qualitative social research. Further, with this approach, the
combination of a structuralist view with a praxeological perspective
on society can be reflected upon. [1]

The FOUCAULTian notion of discourse describes a certain kind of
practice that is to be conceived as a collective—rather than an
individual—reality. This discursive practice is located in social
areas or fields and it results in the construction of collective
orders of knowledge as supra-individual realities. FOUCAULT himself
argued that discourses also have a strong impact at the individual
level: individuals "as subjects" are discursively constructed and
constituted. Therefore the FOUCAULTian concept of discourse is—on the
one hand—analysed at the meso- or macro-level from where it influences
socialised individuals and interactions in social situations, while
this concept is—on the other hand—also analysed at the micro-level.
Here the analysis focuses on the discursive constitution of the
subject, i.e. its subjectivation/subjectification and the
relationships between discursive and non-discursive practices.
Recently, combinations of these two perspectives have been attempted
and here the FOUCAULTian concept of dispositif possesses a strategic
role. All these topics provide a starting point for the articles in
this issue about methodological developments in the field of
FOUCAULTian discourse analysis. [2]

One might say, then, that FOUCAULTian discourse analysis is not (or is
no longer) just a theoretically informed "position" or another
"perspective" in the area of qualitative social research. Many
researchers in the last few decades have become more and more aware
that the socio-historical analyses of FOUCAULT and his methodological
considerations about archaeology and genealogy have laid the
groundwork for a new methodological area for empirical research. It
follows that discourse research has to reflect on the coherence of the
research practice and its integration with the theoretical notions of
FOUCAULTian discourse theory. Therefore, there are (or have to be
developed) specific forms of research design, modes of explanation,
methodological standards and quality criteria for the evaluation of
FOUCAULTian analysis—as the published articles in FQS 8(2)
demonstrate. The articles also demonstrate that discussions are still
active about questions such as: does FOUCAULTian discourse analysis
include or prescribe certain methods, research tools and instruments,
their design and use in the practice of discourse analysis? how can
other approaches and paradigms be combined with FOUCAULTian discourse
research? This collection of articles demonstrates that there are
different strands of FOUCAULTian research and that FOUCAULTian
discourse analysis is not integrated in the way that one could speak
of a FOUCAULTian paradigm but, rather, in the way that one could speak
of an emerging field in qualitative social research. [3]

This issue does not only include articles but also reports from
different research groups working with the FOUCAULTian
approach—especially from Germany, but also from France and Spain. We
want to give an insight into these research activities and provide
some information about research institutions. We cannot claim to
deliver an exhaustive description of the field, but we can claim that
the various groups identified are the source of multiple dialogues (of
which this issue is itself one result) and have identified common
methodological agendas. Here new perspectives for a FOUCAULTian
methodology emerge, as concepts such as "interdiscourse",
"dispositif", "materialities" (as techniques, bodies, visual
materials, media), events, other forms of practices and performativity
produce questions about the consequences of adequate methodological
adaptation. [4]

We think that the issue will give an insight into the state of the art
in FOUCAULTian discourse research as an emerging field of qualitative
social research and will have an impact on its ongoing
internationalisation. An extended introduction to the international
field of discourse analysis as well a survey of the articles published
in this journal is presented in the article The Field of Foucaultian
Discourse Analysis: Structures, Developments and Perspectives. [5]

Citation

Bührmann, Andrea D.; Diaz-Bone, Rainer; Gutiérrez-Rodríguez,
Encarnación; Schneider, Werner; Kendall, Gavin & Tirado, Francisco
(2007). Editorial FQS 8(2): From Michel Foucault's Theory of Discourse
to Empirical Discourse Research. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung /
Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8(2),
http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-07/07-2-E1-e.htm.

Revised 6/2007


Last update: 08.06.2007

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(c) 2007 Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research
(ISSN 1438-5627)

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/fqs-e/inhalt2-07-e.htm