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Potter et al - A model of Discourse in Action ABS 1993.pdf (122.27 kB)

A model of discourse in action

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journal contribution
posted on 2012-03-02, 09:34 authored by Jonathan Potter, Derek Edwards, Margaret Wetherell
In the last fifteen years or so a number of varied strands of research have been dubbed 'discourse analysis': speech act orientated studies of conversational coherence (e.g. Coulthard and Montgomery, 1981); so called 'discourse processes' work on story grammars and the like (e.g. van Dijk and Kintch, 1983); the 'Continental' discourse analysis of Foucault (e.g. 1971), which has been concerned to show the way different cultural entities are constituted discursively as well as the historical development of that constitution; and finally specific developments within the sociology of science which arose in part as a consequence of methodological debates on the role of discourse in research methods (e.g. Gilbert and Mulkay, 1984). The approach we have developed (Edwards and Potter, 1992; Potter and Wetherell, 1987; Wetherell and Potter, 1988) draws on important features of both the Continental and the sociology of science work; although it is also strongly influenced by developments in conversation analysis (e.g. Atkinson and Heritage, 1984) and rhetoric (e.g. Billig, 1987). It also emphasises the centrality of constructionist processes (Gergen, 1985); and this is a facet of discourse analysis we will develop further in the current article.

History

School

  • Social Sciences

Department

  • Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies

Citation

POTTER, J. ... et al., 1993. A model of discourse in action. American Behavioral Scientist, 36 (3), pp. 383 - 401.

Publisher

© SAGE Publications

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publication date

1993

Notes

This article was published in the journal, American Behavioral Scientist [© Sage Publications] and the definitive version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0002764293036003008

ISSN

0002-7642

Language

  • en