Article published in:
Discourse Theory: Ways forward for theory development and research practice
Edited by Benjamin De Cleen, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos, Yannis Stavrakakis and Ilija Tomanić Trivundža
[Journal of Language and Politics 20:1] 2021
► pp. 47–61

Discourse, concepts, ideologies

Pausing for thought

| University of Oxford
Two branches of discourse studies, critical discourse analysis (CDA) and discourse theory (DT), could benefit through extending their critical focus and incorporating findings and methodologies of neighbouring disciplines. While indebted to the attentiveness of CDA to ordinary language, ideology studies have by contrast developed interpretative, non-judgmental analytical frameworks that explore the many-faceted features of ideology, power, and the political. In turn, the macro-focus of DT on binary distinctions, articulatory equivalences, and the construction of hegemony through empty signifiers, overlooks the complex internal conceptual morphology that produces multiple ideological vocabularies. Through a layered filtering of texts, utterances, and linguistic intensities, ideological micro-morphology reveals processes of semantic decontestation in order to defend, alter or criticize political thought-practices. It illuminates the complex interrelationship between word and concept and accepts fantasies as ineluctable and decodable features of communal life. By reaching out beyond their disciplinary confines, the interplay of these parallel approaches could enrich the scholarly understanding of the political.
Keywords: discourse analysis, ideology, ideological morphology, political concepts, Laclau
Published online: 14 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20051.fre
References

References

Carpentier, Nico, and Benjamin De Cleen
2007 “Bringing Discourse Theory into Media Studies.” Journal of Language and Politics 6: 266–293. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Collier, David, Fernando Daniel Hidalgo, and Andra Olivia Maciuceanu
2006 “Essentially Contested Concepts: Debates and Applications.” Journal of Political Ideologies 11: 211–235. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
d’Ancona, Matthew
2017 Post Truth. London: Ebury Press.Google Scholar
Fairclough, Norman
2001 Language and Power, 2nd edn. Harlow, UK: Longman.Google Scholar
Flinders, Matthew, and Matt Wood
2018 “Discursive Depoliticisation and Political Disengagement.” In The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics, edited by Ruth Wodak and Bernhard Forchtner, 603–617. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Freeden, Michael
1996 Ideologies and Political Theory: A Conceptual Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2003 Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2012 “The Professional Responsibilities of the Political Theorist.” In Liberalism as Ideology: Essays in Honour of Michael Freeden, edited by Ben Jackson and Marc Stears, 259–277. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2013 The Political Theory of Political Thinking: The Anatomy of a Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
2021 “Ideologiekritik – A Critique.” In Postcolonial Texts and Contexts, edited by Katja Sarkowsky & Mark Stein, 15–29. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Freeden, Michael, Lyman Tower Sargent, and Marc Stears
eds. 2013 The Oxford Handbook of Political Ideologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Freeden, Michael, Javier Fernández-Sebastián, and Jörn Leonhard
eds. 2019 In Search of European Liberalisms: Concepts, Languages, Ideologies. Berghahn: New York and Oxford. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Geuss, Raymond
1981 The Idea of a Critical Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Glynos, Jason
2001 “The Grip of Ideology: a Lacanian Approach to the Theory of Ideology.” Journal of Political Ideologies 6: 191–214. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Glynos, Jason, and David Howarth
2007 Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Glynos, Jason, Robin Klimecki, and Hugh Willmott
2015 “Logics in Policy and Practice: A Critical Nodal Analysis of the UK Banking Reform Process.” Critical Policy Studies 9(4): 393–415. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno
2002 Dialectic of Enlightenment. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Howarth, David
ed. 2015 Ernesto Laclau: Post-Marxism, Populism and Critique. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto
1990 New Reflections on the Revolution of our Time. London: Verso.Google Scholar
2005 On Populist Reason. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal Mouffe
1985 Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Laycock, David
ed. 2019 Political Ideology in Parties, Policy, and Civil Society: Interdisciplinary Insights. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Martínez Rivas, Rafael, and Irene Lanzas Zotes
2020 “Tres Approximaciones Teóricas a Los Discursos Polítocos: Concepto, Significante y Argumento.” Revista de Estudios Politicos 188: 41–69. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Therborn, Göran
1980 The Ideology of Power and the Power of Ideology. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Thompson, Martyn P.
1993 “Reception Theory and the Interpretation of Historical Meanings.” History and Theory 32: 248–272. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Trencsényi, Balázs, Michal Kopeček, Luka Lisjak Gabrijelčič, Maria Falina, Mónika Baár, and Maciej Janowski
2018 A History of Modern Political Thought in East Central Europe, vol. II. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van Dijk, Teun A.
1997 Discourse as Structure and Process. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth
2015 The Politics of Fear. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Bernhard Forchtner
eds. 2018 The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer
eds. 2009 Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (2nd revised edition). London: Sage.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

De Cleen, Benjamin, Jana Goyvaerts, Nico Carpentier, Jason Glynos & Yannis Stavrakakis
2021. Moving discourse theory forward. Journal of Language and Politics 20:1 ► pp. 22 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.