[FIELDS] Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

foucaldian discourse analysis

• critical psychology

• Macro-level analysis: more political and critical

• focuses on discourses  tied to institutions and how it shapes social realities and human lives

• opposite t it 

• large-scale: philosophical

• connected to history and institutions 

• e.g. catholic church -> echoing these discourses

key principles and concepts

1. power

2. postmodern/poststructuralist epistemology

3. discourses

power: everywhere, diffuse embodied

• Michael Foucault 

• it has to be diffused -> everyone experiencing power, network of power

• power: the things you say from others, not concentrated in authority figure, actively creating power of reason and institutions involved

• perpetuating realities 

• More than just coming only from authority figures

  • Daily social interactions produce power relations.

  • Social interactions contain discourses

  • Everyone is a subject to every discourse, automatically imposing qualities, identities, truths, and limits to emotion and behavior.

  • This is taken for granted unless scrutinized.

• truth: what the discourse assumes the true

postmodern/postructuralist epistemology

• all knowledge needs to be understood in relation to its historical and sociocultural contexts

• radical constructivist 

• theory of knowledge: no absolute truth, in relation to its context, historical and sociocultural contexts

• discourses: similar to DA, but with additional considerations 

  • present discourses developed from past discourses

  • discourses determine what we believe the world is like and what we are in relation to it

discourse

• a system of statements historically rooted with the knowledge systems of institutions, specialists and or the elite

• ex. clinical discourses, religious discourses, military discourses, psychiatric discourses 

• discourses are often at odds with each other; with tension 

• when wielded and spread successfully, legitimizes behaviors in line with the discourse

• focus on the realities that are made by these discourses

• elevated across time 

•  what people think of it as people who don’;t follow 

[discourse] hindrance

• hindrance; things that discourses legitimize and delegitimize at the same time 

• everyone does the transmitting 

• discourses that people use strengthen and certain areas of life

[discourse] scrutinize

•  use using those words that make them powerful in the first place 

discourse characteristics

1. discourses are found realized in texts

2. discourses systematically configure the objects they are about

3. discourse dictates what kinds of persons there are

4. needs to be approached as a coherent system of meaning

5. discourses can constitute the same objects differently

6. discourses will refer to other past discourses about the same object

discourses are found realized in texts

• enough to activate a discourse 

• a mere mention/fragment is enough for discourse to work

discourses systematically configure the objects they are about

• analysts need to identify which people are included in the discourse and how it is being used

• thee are unworthy and worthy

• look at those people who are more powerful and not

discourse dicatates what kinds of persons there are

includes what one is allowed/prohibited to do, be, and become

needs to be approached as a coherent system of meaning

analysts need to unpack metaphors and analogies

discourses can constitute the same objects very differently

analysts can compare and contrast discourses, even those that are connected

discourses will refer to other past discourses about the same object

analysts need to consider the evolution of the discourse

when should we use FDA?

• involves applying everything discussed about discourse and power

• identifying the discourses present in what people say or write

• looking into how these discourses construct its subjects 

• comparing these discourses in terms of how they constrict/dehumanize or emancipate/empower

• studying highly sociopolitical issues and events 

sample research questions

1. What are the discourses about (RAC/people + characteristics) found in (material) made by* (source of material)?

   1. How are (RAC/people +characteristics) constructed within these  discourses?

   2. In what ways do these discourses suppress* (RAC/people + characteristics/actions)?

   3. In what ways do these discourses empower/encourage (RAC/people + characteristics/actions)?

conducting the FDA

1. source materials

2. identify how the object is constructed in discourse

3. identify the different discourses involved

4. identify the action orientation

5. identify different subject positions

6. identify options for actions

7. identify consequences to subjective experience

source materials

1. Official Statements 

2. Speeches 

3. Books

4. reports

5. Commentaries

6. Nearly all forms of media 

7. Transcribed interviews and FGDS

step 1: identify how the object is consturcted in discourse

• highlight figures of speeches and descriptions surrounding your topic

• group similar and closely related phrases together

• gestures are not required -> except when it is relevant 

step 2: identify the different discourses involved

• label the clusters of phrases together according to which discourses they belong to 

• sufficient quotes to support discourse

• can be specific provided that there are sufficient quotes to support the specific

• basic template: ___ discourse

step 3: identify the action orientation

• find what the goal is using it 

• question to answer for each discourse identified

  • what is gained from using this particular discourse

  • how is this discourse related to other constructions which appear in the text where the discourse was identified 

• the general objective is to find the agenda.goal being pushed by using a particular discourse

step 4: idetnify different subject positions

• question to answer: what are the subject positions of people within a particular discourse?

  • subject position: where a particular individual is situated within the systems of rights and duties

s4 related questions

• What types of people are highlighted in a __ discourse? Which of these can be seen in the data?

• What specific rights (and duties) are given to the types of people in a __ discourse? What rights become absent?

step 5: identify options for actions

• What  actions, behaviors, practices, and movements become allowed?

• Which one are encouraged?

  • give you power

• which ones are limited?

  • not do 

• which ones are fully prohibited?

  • forbidden

step 6: identify consequences to subjective experience

• in this step, the analyst interprets what ways of being and becoming do the specific discourses push to the forefront 

s6 questions to answer

• What values become the primary basis of right and wrong? best and worst?

  • subjectivity and personal meaning becomes less valuable because you have to be more objective

• what thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and interpretations become allowed? encouraged? limited? prohibited?

• What are the individuals in the discourse allowed/encouraged/required to be? to become? 

• What are the individuals in the discourse limited/prohibited from being? from becoming?