Summer School
›The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD)‹

University of Augsburg (Germany), July 29-31, 2024
Organiser: Prof. Dr. Reiner Keller (University of Augsburg)

Please visit https://www.uni-augsburg.de/en/fakultaet/philsoz/fakultat/soziologie/diskursforschung/ for information and details on the venue, SKAD-related events etc.

Following the high interest and success of the last five international workshops with participants from different countries and all world regions, there will be another introductory workshop in English on the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) at the University of Augsburg in July 2024. The organiser invites novice as well as experienced academics from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to sociology, ethnology, political science, cultural studies, linguistics, education, and other humanities, to explore the potential of this approach to studying discourses in the context of their own projects and research. Please note that the English Summer School SKAD gives priority to participants without a German language background. German speakers are invited to register for our German language Summer School WDA. 

The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse draws from Berger & Luckmann’s sociology of knowledge, the interpretive paradigm in pragmatist sociology, and core Foucauldian concepts in the analysis of regimes of power/knowledge, discourses & dispositifs. In doing so, SKAD re-directs discourse research towards Foucauldian research interests about questions of social relationships of knowledge & knowing and politics of knowledge & knowing. Doing discourse research refers, according to SKAD, to elements of qualitative research designs (like theoretical sampling, sequential analysis, analysis by contrasting cases, category building, discourse ethnography) and interpretive analytics.

Since the late 1990s, the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) has been established in discourse & dispositif research in Germany and many other countries. Today, it informs a large amount of research projects and publications across fields and disciplines. Workshops introducing theory, methodology, and methods of SKAD research have been established in Germany for more than 20 years. Workshops in French and English have followed suit in the last years (e.g., in the United States, Switzerland, Austria, France, Denmark, Belgium, United Kingdom, Romania, Portugal, Japan). 

The Augsburg summer school builds on the broad international interest in SKAD and introduces core issues of the concrete doing and practice of SKAD based discourse research. It addresses colleagues from the social sciences and the broad range of the humanities who are interested in learning about SKAD and its profile within the field of discourse studies as well as in doing SKAD research/using SKAD methodologies in their own discourse-oriented research. 

The workshop will discuss the following topics: 

• What is at stake when using SKAD in discourse research?
• SKAD theory: discourses & dispositifs – and how to conceptualise them
• Research questions and conceptual tools in SKAD
• The methodology of interpretive analytics
• Getting into the field: methods of data collection and analysing data
• Getting out of the field: from data analysis to comprehensive diagnostics
• Discussion of participants’ research
• Special interest sessions (optional): SKAD applications in sociology and the humanities & SKAD application in political science

Special Interest Session A: Sociology & Humanities (Reiner Keller)
The session discusses specific questions on SKAD based discourse and dispositif research (for example, the analysis of visualisations, materiality, the ethnography of dispositifs) and allows for an in-depth discussion of SKAD applications in various disciplines (subject to selection if necessary). Participants are invited to discuss SKAD in relation to their own research interests and work.

Special Interest Session B: Political Science (Miranda Böttcher)
Discourse-oriented approaches have gained relevance in political research. This in-depth section of the SKAD summer school will provide space to discuss basic questions and approaches of SKAD based political research. It will cover all parts of the research process: from data collection via data management and analysis to the integration and presentation of results. All steps and phases will be illustrated using examples from empirical research (previous SKAD research as well as participants’ presentations). 

The workshop includes data analysis sessions. Furthermore, participants are invited to present their individual research project for group discussion.

 

 

The Venue: University of Augsburg 

The University of Augsburg is located in the city of Augsburg in southern Germany, which is 60 km/40 miles from the Bavarian capital Munich and can be easily reached by train or by flight via Munich (MUC) airport. Hotel rooms are available from 40-90 Euro per day.

 

The Workshop 

• The three-day workshop starts on July 29/2024 at 9.30 pm and ends on July 31/2024 at 5 pm.
• The number of participants is limited to 25 people max. Depending on the number of participants who wish to present their work, the organisers may need to select amongst the individual projects for discussion.
• Special interest sessions A: sociology & humanities / B: political science (please select one option; later change is possible)
• Additional program: open space time slots for questions and discussion, dinner, citywalk, pubcrawl
• Venue: University of Augsburg Campus; for more information see  https://www.uni-augsburg.de/en/fakultaet/philsoz/fakultat/soziologie/diskursforschung/, “Arrival and Accommodation”.
•  Contact: Martin Blessinger, skad@phil.uni-augsburg.de

 

Workshop Fee

The workshop fee is 80 Euro per person (includes refreshments during the workshop). This fee does not cover travel, accommodation, or meals, which are the responsibility of each individual participant. A reduced fee (40 Euros) might apply for participants arriving from Non-European ‘low income’ countries without institutional coverage of participation. Please contact us, if this applies to you (skad@phil.uni-augsburg.de).

 

Registration 

Please register by e-mail at skad@phil.uni-augsburg.de. This should include the following elements: 

• Last name, first name, e-mail, gender (m/f/d)
• Private address or invoice address (if different)
• Current position
• If applicable: your current research project in discourse analysis and whether or not you are interested in presenting and discussing your own research/data at the workshop.
• Choice of special interest (A: sociology & humanities / B: political science)

After your registration you will receive a preliminary confirmation. We will then send you an invoice for the participation fee to be paid (this may take some time due to administrative processes). The registration becomes fully effective when the participation fee has been received on our booking account. Withdrawing from the workshop is possible until four weeks before the event; cancellations after this date will not be refunded. There will be a waiting list in case the event is fully booked.

 

Preliminary Workshop Program 

Monday (29/07/2024)
09.30 am  Registration
10.00 am  Welcome from the organisers + introduction of the participants
                 The arena of discourse studies
12.30 am  Lunch (not included)
1.45 pm    SKAD: What’s it all about?
2.45 pm    Break
3.00 pm    SKAD: Theory and concepts
4.30 pm    Break
4.45 pm    Data analysis session 1
6.15 pm    End of day 1
                 Welcome reception with food & drinks

Tuesday (30/07/2024)
9.30 am    SKAD: Research process and methods
10.45 am  Break
11.00 am  Data analysis sessions 2
12.30 am  Lunch (not included)
1.45 pm    Data analysis sessions 3
3.15 pm    Break
3.30 pm    Participants presentations
5.00 pm    City walk
7.00 pm    Downtown group dinner (not included) 

Wednesday (31/07/2024)
9.30 am    Special interest sessions A (sociology & humanities) or B (political science)
10.45 am  Break
11.00 am  Special interest sessions A (sociology & humanities) or B (political science)
1.00 pm    Lunch (not included)
1.45 pm    Discussion: Future perspectives in SKAD related discourse re-search
5.00 pm    End of workshop 

 

The Organisers 

Prof. Dr. Reiner Keller is Professor of Sociology at the University of Augsburg. From 2011 to 2016 he headed the sociology of knowledge division of the DGS. He started working on and with SKAD in the 1990s. He has longstanding experiences in discourse workshops as well as a long list of publications in discourse research. His work & research interests include social science discourse research, sociology of knowledge and culture, qualitative methods, and analysis of contemporary societies. He has a longstanding experience in conducting and directing collaborative research projects. Recent projects include DFG-funded research on politics of knowledge and knowing in the field of hydraulic fracturing (2017-2021), energy transition (2018-2023) and regulatory conflicts surrounding prostitution (2018-2023), respectively. See http://www.uni-augsburg.de/keller 

Keller, R. (2011): The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD). In: Human Studies, 34 (1), pp. 43-65.
Keller, R. (2012): Entering Discourses: A New Agenda for Qualitative Research and Sociology of Knowledge. In: Qualitative Sociology Review, Vol. VIII Issue 2, pp. 46-55.
Keller, R. (2013): Doing Discourse Research. An Introduction for the Social Sciences. London: Sage.
Keller, R. (2014): Comparing Discourse Between Cultures. A Discursive Approach to Movement Knowledge. In: Baumgarten, B., Daphi, P., Ulrich, P. (Eds.): Conceptualizing Culture in Social Movement Research. Hampshire: Palgrave, pp. 113-139 (with P. Ullrich).
Keller, R./Hornidge, A./Schünemann, W. (Eds.) (2019): The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. Investigating the Politics of Knowledge and Meaning-Making. London: Routledge (open access)
Keller, R. (2024): The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse. A Research Agenda. New York: Springer (translated from the 3rd German edition, in prep).

Dr. Miranda Böttcher combines her background in political science and linguistics in her research on the discursive construction of environmental policy. She adapted the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) for her dissertation project, which examined the privileging and marginalization of types of knowledge within the emerging governance of “climate engineering”. 

Boettcher, M. (2020): Coming to GRIPs with NETs Discourse: Implications of discursive structures for emerging governance of Negative Emissions Technologies in the UK, Frontiers in Climate, 2 (20).
Boettcher, M. (2019): Cracking the code. How discursive structures shape climate engineering research governance. Environmental Politics, 5 (29).
Boettcher, M. (2022): Language, knowledge, power: The Discursive Construction of Climate Engineering Governance, Doctoral Dissertation, Utrecht University.

  

General Conditions for Participation 

1. Participants who have received preliminary confirmation must pay all fees associated with workshop participation within four weeks after initial confirmation. Should payment not be received at this time, their right to participate is forfeit.
2. Paying the appropriate fee within the allocated timeframe grants participants access to a workshop. Participants may transfer their right to participate to another person with the organisers’ permission.
3. Participants may withdraw from workshops up to 4 weeks before the event. Participants will receive a refund in this case. Fees cannot be refunded if a participant withdraws after this time.
4. In case that the workshop must be cancelled by the organisers due to force majeure, all fees will be refunded.
5. The organisers take no responsibility for damage to or loss of electronic and other equipment.