Analysing Discourse. An Approach From the Sociology of Knowledge

The contribution outlines a research programme which I have coined the “sociology of knowledge approach to discourse” (Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse). This approach to discourse integrates important insights of FOUCAULT’s theory of discourse into the interpretative paradigm in the social sciences, especially the “German” approach of hermeneutic sociology of knowledge (Hermeneutische Wissenssoziologie). Accordingly, in this approach discourses are considered as “structured and structuring structures” which shape social practices of enunciation. Unlike some Foucauldian approaches, this form of discourse analysis recognises the importance of socially constituted actors in the social production and circulation of knowledge. Furthermore, it combines research questions related to the concept of “discourse” with the methodical toolbox of qualitative social research. Going beyond questions of language in use, “the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse” (Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse) addresses sociological interests, the analyses of social relations and politics of knowledge as well as the discursive construction of reality as an empirical (“material”) process. For empirical research on discourse the approach proposes the use of analytical concepts from the sociology of knowl∗ Address all communications to: Reiner Keller, Universität Augsburg, PhilSo-Fakultät, 86135 Augsburg, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]. First published: Keller, Reiner (2005, September). Analysing Discourse. An Approach From the Sociology of Knowledge [33 paragraphs]. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [On-line Journal], 6(3). Available at: http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-05/05-3-32-e.htm.