Placing the “Analyst” in Discourse Analysis: Iteration, Emergence and Dialogicality as Situated Process

Abstract

Discourse analysis is a powerful and versatile methodological tool, informing a diverse body of critical geographic scholarship. Too often, however, discourse analysis remains unexplored, operating as a “black box,” underelaborated and hence undertheorized as to just what it offers. In this article, we articulate discourse analysis as inherently processual, by which we mean both that it should be understood as a process and that it can play an integral role throughout the research process. This article is derived from a meta-analysis of an exercise that invited early-career geographers to conduct discourse analysis on commentary centered on the 2013 U.S. federal government shutdown. The reflexive research process highlights the iterative, emergent, and dialogic properties of a processual engagement with a text. We suggest that recognizing these qualities enriches the role of both the analysis and the analyst(s) and expands the valence of discourse analysis as a productive and versatile component of critical human geography.

论述分析是强而有力且丰富的方法工具, 告知了多样的批判地理学学术研究。但论述分析却大半未经探索, 而是如同“黑箱”一般进行操作, 且未被充分阐述, 因此未能充分理论化到底它能够提供什麽。在本文中, 我们明确地表达, 论述分析本质上是过程式的, 意味着我们同时意指论述分析应被理解为一个过程, 且能够在整个研究过程中扮演整合的角色。本文来自于对邀请的新进地理学者针对有关 2013 年联邦政府关闭的评论生产论述分析之实践所进行的元分析。反身性的研究过程, 凸显出过程式的文本涉入的反覆、浮现、辩证的属性。我们主张, 指认这些特质, 将能同时丰富分析和分析者 (们) 的角色, 并拓展论述分析的效价作为批判人文地理学中, 具有生产力且多元丰富的组成。

El análisis del discurso es una poderosa y versátil herramienta metodológica, que informa un cuerpo diverso de erudición geográfica crítica. Muy a menudo, sin embargo, el análisis del discurso sigue inexplorado, operando como una “caja negra,” falto de elaboración y por tanto poco teorizado en lo que tiene por ofrecer. En este artículo, articulamos el análisis del discurso como algo inherentemente procedimental, con lo cual significamos que este análisis debe ser entendido como un proceso y que éste puede jugar un papel integral a través de todo el proceso de investigación. El presente artículo se deriva del meta-análisis de un ejercicio al que se invitaron algunos geógrafos, que apenas inician su carrera, a aplicar un análisis del discurso a un comentario centrado en el cierre del gobierno federal de los EE.UU. en 2013. El proceso de investigación reflexiva destaca las propiedades reiterativas, emergentes y dialógicas de un compromiso procedimental con un texto. Sugerimos que reconocer estas cualidades enriquece el papel tanto del análisis como del o los analistas, y expande el valor del análisis del discurso como un componente productivo y versátil de la geografía humana crítica.

Key Words:

• discourse analysis
• ideology
• political debate
• qualitative methods
• situated analysis

关键词:

• 论述分析, 意识形态, 政治辩论, 质化方法, 情境化分析。

Palabras clave:

• análisis del discurso, ideología, debate político, métodos cualitativos, análisis situado

Notes

1 Significantly, Boychuk's uncredited quote originates with chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who waged a series of wars in the process of unifying the modern German state.

2 Wetherell (2001) noted the centrality of “induction” to conversation analysis—a discursive method defined by its enumeration and quantitative analysis of particular words or themes in a text.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chad N. Steacy

CHAD N. STEACY is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography and member of the Collaborative Lounge for Understanding Society and Technology at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include geographies of urban decline, psychoanalytic and critical race theory, and qualitative methodologies.

Brian S. Williams

BRIAN S. WILLIAMS is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include biopolitical and Marxist theory, critical race scholarship, and the politics of the environment and agriculture in the U.S. South.

Christian L. Pettersen

CHRISTIAN L. PETTERSEN is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include politics of truth, military humanitarianism, state theory, biopolitics, and critical qualitative methodologies.

Hilda E. Kurtz

HILDA E. KURTZ is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. E-mail: [email protected]. She is interested in food politics, biopolitics, discourse analysis, and discourses of social change.