Critical Policy Studies Discourse and democracy: critical analysis of the language of government by Michael Farrelly (original) (raw)
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This volume presents ten empirical case studies that demonstrate the added value of integrating Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Critical Policy Studies (CPS), producing a theoretical and methodological synergy we term Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA). 1 Our aim is threefold: first, to show how this integration can enrich the conceptualisation-and thus analysis of policy; second, to render explicit the methodological steps whereby such analysis can be operationalised; and, third, to reflect on the distinctive contribution made to both fields when such an integrated approach is applied to actual policy problems. These aims are reflected in the way the chapters are organised. First, each chapter investigates a particular policy-relevant problem which was tackled using a critical discourse analytical approach, with a specific focus on detailed textual analysis. This latter focus reflects an important contribution of CPDA to policy research: namely, an analytical framework capable of capturing, and conceptualising in relation to their socially structuring potential , the fine details of text which are often overlooked in policy analysis, but which have effects on how policy is understood, developed, and implemented. Second, each chapter takes the reader through the methodological decisions made, while making explicit the underlying theoretical assumptions which motivated them. Finally, each chapter reflects on the novel theoretical and empirical insights which were born out of this integrated approach. CDA is an approach to social scientific research which combines detailed analysis of texts with theoretically informed accounts of the phenomena under investigation, in order to identify the processes by which language (re)produces social practices and helps privilege certain ways of doing, thinking, and being over others. It investigates how language figures in the constitution, contestation, and transformation of social problems, and thereby processes of social change. CDA 2 has its origins in linguistics and can best be seen as a problem-oriented interdisciplinary research movement, subsuming a variety of approaches, analytical models and research agendas (Fairclough
Critical Discourse Analysis- Incorporating the DHA and MDA Approaches
HSS8004 101296306 2 Critically assess the value and limitations of at least one of the methods of data collection or critical analysis covered in the module. Where appropriate, discuss the ethical and practical issues which may arise by the use of this method(s) within your own planned research. My Master's dissertation is researching how the 'identity crisis' in the Philippines is represented, reproduced and challenged within online media between May 28 th , Flag Day, and June 12 th , Independence Day. The research also explores the extent to which historical nation-building strategies-in particular those of José Rizal, the first renowned Filipino nationalist (Reid, 2010) -have influenced the crisis.
According to van Dijk (1998a) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is a field that is concerned with studying and analyzing written and spoken texts to reveal the discursive sources of power, dominance, inequality and bias. It examines how these discursive sources are maintained and reproduced within specific social, political and historical contexts. In a similar vein, Fairclough (1993) defines CDA as discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of causality and determination between (a) discursive practices, events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony. (p. 135) To put it simply, CDA aims at making transparent the connections between discourse practices, social practices, and social structures, connections that might be opaque to the layperson.