Call for Papers
RC 33 Session: Methodologies of Sociological Discourse
Research
Session
organizer: Reiner Keller (Augsburg University)
RC33 Conference 2016
9th International Conference on Social Science
Methodology
11-16 September 2016
University of Leicester, UK
The University is looking forward to extending a warm
welcome to all delegates for the 9th International Conference on Social Science
Methodology in September 2016. The University of Leicester is an ideal venue
for the 2016 RC33 Logic and Methodology in Sociology given our location in the
heart of England with great transport links and connections. The Department of
Sociology Conference Team will host the conference for up to 500 participants.
For more information: http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/sociology/research/rc33-conference
RC 33 Session
Methodologies of sociological discourse research
In her influential book “Situational Analysis”, American sociologist
Adele Clarke (UCSF) argued that in today’s societies, every social phenomenon
including social actors are awash in a sea of discourses. Nevertheless, and
despite the groundbreaking works of Michel Foucault, sociology has to date been
hesitant in developing methodologically sound ways for approaching discursive
phenomena that have been adequately reflected upon. This is due in part to the
dominance of a rather loosely defined concept of discourse in cultural studies,
and of other, more widely used linguistic tools and devices in discourse
research across the humanities.
In this context, the proposed session intends to discuss methodologies
of discourse research that are adapted to sociological purposes and are able to
address the complex discursivity of today’s orders of discourse and knowledge
production, accounting for actors as well as discourse structuration in
methodologically substantiated ways by using sociological methods and tools for
inquiry. In addition to a general discussion of such methods, the session will
offer and in-depth focus on the methodology and methods of the sociology of
knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD) which combines elements of the
sociological interpretive paradigm with Foucauldian concepts and strategies of
qualitative research for doing discourse research today. Papers addressing the
methodology and methods of sociological discourse research in SKAD or related
approaches via theoretical reflection or analytical and empirical cases are
welcome. In this way, the session aims to strengthen genuinely sociological
methodologies of discourse research.
Please note: Abstract submission is only possible via
the conference homepage (see above). Abstracts are limited to 5000 characters.
The deadline for abstracts is 21st January, 2016.