SKAD Autumn Workshop registration open

'Autumn School': The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD)

University of Augsburg, September 14.-16., 2017

Organisers: Prof. Dr. Reiner Keller, Dr. Saša Bosančić, MA Matthias Roche

http://kellersskad.blogspot.de; http://www.uni-augsburg.de/keller

Please visit www.diskurswissenschaft.de for up-to-date information and details concerning registration, venues, etc.

Discourse Studies today cover a large field of approaches across the social sciences, ranging from work inspired by Foucault to Critical Discourse Analysis and through to hegemonic stability theory, corpus linguistics, and on to more interpretive approaches. The present workshop will introduce participants to the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD). SKAD draws from Berger & Luckmann's sociology of knowledge, the interpretative paradigm in pragmatist sociology, and core Foucaultian concepts in the analysis of regimes of power/knowledge. In doing so, SKAD re-directs discourse research towards Foucaultian research interests about questions of social relationships of knowledge & knowing and politics of knowledge & knowing. Concerning itself with ‘ways of doing’, it uses elements of qualitative research design (like theoretical sampling, sequential analysis, analysis by contrast cases, category building, discourse ethnography) and interpretative analytics.

Since it first appeared in the late 1990s, the Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) has experienced considerable popularity in discourse research in Germany and several other countries. Today, it informs a large amount of discourse research and publications in the field of discourse studies. Workshops introducing theory, methodology and methods of SKAD research have been established in Germany for more than a decade now. Workshops in French and English have followed suit in the last few years (e.g., in the United States, Switzerland, Austria, France, Denmark, Belgium, United Kingdom, Romania).

The present workshop builds on the emerging interest in SKAD in international contexts and will be the starting event for an annually recurring series of SKAD workshops in English at the University of Augsburg. SKAD workshops address core issues of the concrete doing and practice of discourse research. It addresses colleagues from the Social Sciences and the Humanities who are interested in learning about SKAD and its particular profile within the field of discourse studies as well as in doing SKAD research/using SKAD methodologies in their own concrete work in the context of discourse research.

The two-day workshop will discuss the following topics:

•  SKAD: what is at stake when using SKAD in discourse research?
•  SKAD theory: discourses - and how to conceptualize them
• Research questions and conceptual tools in SKAD
• The methodology of interpretative analytics
•    Getting into the field: methods of data collection and analyzing data
•   Getting out of the field: from data analysis to comprehensive diagnostics

During the workshop, small data work sessions will be included, that is participants will work together on concrete data. Furthermore, participants might present and have discussed their own research project and data.

Workshop on the constitution of nature in/through discourse

The discursive constitution of nature relations in society  
Workshop at the University of Augsburg, May 12 -13, 2017

Program (German)




In the last three decades, the analysis of environmental discourses has transcended traditional disciplinary boundaries, encompassing perspectives from sociology, political and media science, cultural and historical science, as well as different linguistics variants. This workshop examines the relationship between these very distinct approaches and how each of them affect research projects regarding their potential for intervention, their pursuit of critical and emancipatory interests, and their analytical precision. Debating this as of yet largely unexplored topic of synergy and friction between different environmental discourse research positions is intended to highlight the possibilities and added value inherent in interdisciplinary strategies, not least of all by taking a closer look at existing case studies on a variety of environmental topics (e.g., climate change, energy, environmental activism, etc.).

Note: the workshop's designated lingua franca is German. Please register by e-mail by contacting matthias.sebastian.klaes (at) phil.uni-augsburg.de

Reiner Keller and SKAD at ICQI 2017

13th Congress of Qualitative Inquiry

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, May 17 - 20, 2017

icqi.org

Registration is still available for Reiner Keller's on-site workshop under
http://icqi.org/home/workshops/

 

"Doing Discourse Research” (Workshop on Thursday, May 18)

Discourse Studies today cover a large field across the social scienes, ranging from work inspired by Foucault, Critical Discourse Analysis through Hegemonics Analysis, Corpus Lingustics and more interpretive approaches. The present workshop on “Doing Discourse Research” will introduce participants to the main positions in the heterogeneous field of discourse research (including Foucauldian perspectives, CDA, Hegemonics and the Sociology of Knowledge approach to discourse SKAD). As there is no one best way to discourse research, each of the positions mentioned allows for dealing with particular questions in critical inquiry into discourses. The first part of the workshop therefore discusses the relationship between theoretical groundings, analytical potential and methods of doing discourse research in these diverse approaches. Second, the workshop will present in more detailed ways the proceedings of the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse developed by Reiner Keller. SKAD draws on Berger & Luckmann’s sociology of knowledge, but includes major Foucauldian concepts and research interests. Integrating both, it re-orientates discourse research towards questions of social relationships of knowledge and politics of knowledge, referring in its concrete ‘ways of doing’ to qualitative research design and interpretative analytics.

Part 1: The arena of discourse studies

• Discourse Research – which approach, what for?
• How to find good questions?
• The analytical process: Deconstruction, reconstruction or co-construction?
• Multiple ways of doing and multiple outcomes

Part 2: How to do it: The example of SKAD

• Looking for discourses and ‘dispositifs’: Texts and beyond
• Strategies for analyzing data

 

General Congress Sessions with Reiner Keller

What's new in SKAD? Update March 2017

Dear readers and followers of the SKAD page, 

I'd like to give you advance notice of some upcoming events: 

• The first SKAD 'autumn school', held entirely in English and geared toward international participants, is now scheduled to take place at the University of Augsburg in September 2017. This intensive workshop is intended to allow researchers to work directly with myself and other SKAD experts towards exploring SKAD fundamentals as well as advanced techniques and applying them to their own fields of interest. More info coming very soon!
• A first draft of the English translation of the original SKAD book, in which I explain the origins and principles of this approach in full detail, is now complete. I am now in the process of revising and updating it; hopefully the book will be out by the end of the year (or earlier, if possible).
• Along with some colleagues, I am preparing a textbook on SKAD to be published with Routledge in the near future.
  

As always, feel free to leave a message or ask questions in the comments below!

All the best,

Reiner Keller

The Discursive Construction of Reality III

The Discursive Construction of Reality III

March 23 - 24 2017 in Augsburg, Germany
Conference organizers: Reiner Keller and Sasa Bosancic

Participation is free of charge, please contact sasa.bosancic@phil.uni-augsburg.de for details.