I went to a meeting about qualitative methods and this method was suggested as a useful tool. I am quite tempted to give it a go because I can see it might prove useful, but the paper that is supposed to give lots of info about this is not available here (typical) so, firstly could I use this method for looking at government and other documents, to see what they are really getting at, that is, is it an accepted method outside psychology, which is where they were locating its use, and secondly, does anyone know of a good book in this area that covers the use of this method for documents of this type, I've located one that looks like it covers newspapers, but don't want to get one that just covers its use for interviews etc. they have a copy in the library, but I can't get there at the moment, and anyway its a week loan book, so that won't be much use anyway. any help would be appreciated.

Hi,

I would guess any thing by Norman Fairclough would be a useful place to start:

http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/profiles/263

Fairclough's New Labour, New Language? might be of interest.

Hi Joyce - discourse analysis is a method of critical psychology/social constructionism and so I think it would be ideal to look at government documents, in order to potentially expose the underlying relations of power that are behind what is being said. I think Foucaultian and Critical discourse analysis would be more useful for you than Discursive Psychology, however it would be useful to read the documents with all three in mind and see what you can make of them.

I've never used it to look at government/policy documents as I'm in psychology/sociology, but an excellent book chapter that goes over the methods is in Willig, C. 2008. Introducing Qualitative Research in Psychology: Adventures in theory and method. I'll have a look at the references I have used for discourse analyses that I have done and post any I think could be relevant, that is off the top of my head though. Also might be useful to have a look at Ian Parker's work, again he's in critical psychology but he has done a lot of work on discourse analysis. Hope that helps a little, Nx

This is a useful place to start:

Andersen, NA (2003) 'Discursive analytical strategies: understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau, Luhmann' (Bristol: The Policy press)

A couple of other suggestions:
Grice, Paul (1989) Studies in the Way of Words, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, “Logic and Conversation”, chapter 2 pp. 22-40.

And a book called "Discourse analysis" by Rosalind Gill.

Did you see Scollon's book already?
Analyzing Public Discourse: Discourse Analysis in the Making of Public Policy

Good luck!

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yes, Scollon's book is a good one.  It is a fairly broad school with a few different strands. Foucault's theories are worth a look, but also Laclau's.  It really depends what you are trying to explain/interpret. Andersen's book is a broad outline of the philosophical positions, and then other books will help you grasp more practical techniques of analysis.  If you look in the library in the qualitative methods section you may find some interesting stuff on text/discourse analysis methods.

Hope this helps.

P.S. Also, Chilton 'Political Discourse......' I can't remember the exact title but it's something along those lines

Hi Joyce,

I have used discourse analysis to look at what government reports are really getting at, and found it to be really useful. I don't think you necessarily have to use it to look at power relations, I didn't, and still found that it increased my understanding of what the reports were actually trying to say/emphasising. And I'm in social sciences (not psychology), so it definitely isn't restricted to just psychology!

I would also recommend Fairclough!

Thanks everyone for the replies. It was kind of a 'eureka' moment at the meeting, it seemed ideal for looking a government policy in education - which is my field. the only thing was that the person who was talking about it was applying it to an interview which was quite short, and I was wondering if it could be used 'on the big screen', and also wondering if it was an acceptable method outside psychology. (I often have to stop myself from doing/suggesting unconventional things, like when the art department here wanted to do something with the science department on 'outer space' for a sculpture, and they came up with all the conventional planet type ideas - and I suggested that they might like to take another angle, maybe outside your personal space, or outside your home, e.g. garden/woodland- didn't go down awfully well, and they went with the boring plant theme, not that planets are boring, but it was just so obvious) anyway i will get the books and have a go, nothing ventured etc!!! :-)