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. 62–78
Logics, discourse theory and methods
Advances, challenges and ways forward
Published online: 14 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20048.gly
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.20048.gly
Abstract
Logics of Critical Explanation proposed a methodological approach that could render the insights of Poststructuralist Discourse Theory (PDT) and post-Marxist political theory more conducive to critical empirical research. It also offered a language with which to counter positivist tendencies to colonize the space of methods and research strategies, showing how PDT could facilitate both explanatory and critical endeavours. Since its publication in 2007, a number of studies have applied the logics framework to empirical cases, while critically engaging with its methodological and theoretical arguments. The main purpose of this article is to evaluate some of these developments, and to set out some future challenges faced by this research programme.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Negotiating the methodological deficit
- 2.The logics approach
- 3.Developments and challenges
- 4.Discourse and logics, language and materiality
- 5.Articulating adjacent idioms
- 6.The ‘application problem’ revisited: Judgement, retroduction and paradigms
- 7.Research techniques in gathering and analysing data
- 7.1Topic modelling
- 7.2Q methodology
- 8.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
References
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