Discourse Analysis of Welfare Reform
Posted by Joel Gehman on Nov 14th, 2008
I was one of the discussion leaders this week in APLNG 581. My discussion centered on Fairclough’s (2000) application of critical discourse analysis (CDA) to the discourse of welfare reform under Tony Blair and his New Labor party circa 1997.
Because this article was quite dense — both conceptually and empirically — my summary drew attention to three areas of focus.
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First is the issue of genre. Who has control and how is it framed (unilateral vs. shared)?
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Second is the issue of discourse. Who is present and who is absent? Of those present, who is speaking and who is silenced?
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Third is the issue of style? How are the positions among participants related.
Download Article Summary (877k .pdf)
Citation: Fairclough, N. 2000. “Discourse, social theory, and social research: The discourse of welfare reform.” Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4: 163-195.
Tags: Discourse Analysis, Download, Language, Summary
