Call for Submissions
The
Discursive Construction of Reality IV
Interdisciplinary perspectives on a
sociology of knowledge approach to discourse research
sociology of knowledge approach to discourse research
Location: University of Augsburg, Germany
Date: March 21, 2019 (begins ~ 1:30 pm) – March 22, 2019
(ends ~ 6:00 pm)
Conference organizers: Prof. Dr. Reiner Keller, Dr. Saša Bosančić
Concept
Over the last decade, the
research programme outlined by the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse
(SKAD) has spread to many disciplines in social science. A common interest in
discourse research has resulted in a widely distributed community that
prevalently, but not exclusively, uses qualitative research designs to examine
forms of 'discursive construction of reality'. Corresponding studies may be
found in sociology, but also in neighbouring disciplines such as political
science, historical science, educational science, theology, linguistics, and
criminology, among many others. This approach to discourse research combines
social constructionist and interpretive-pragmatic schools of thought with the
theoretical concepts and lines of investigation of discourse in the tradition
of Michel Foucault, with the intention of analysing knowledge relations and
policies in society. Bearing these core tenets in mind, the original approach
has nonetheless been successfully amended, expanded, and occasionally modified
to meet the demands of different fields of study and forms of data.
Following the Augsburg conferences in 2013, 2015,
and 2017 on interpretive and sociology of knowledge discourse research with
over 120 participants and 40 contributions from different disciplines in each
year, the upcoming conference would like to continue in the spirit of an
interdisciplinary discussion about the foundations and applications of SKAD and
SKAD-inspired discourse research, as well as related perspectives.
·
theoretical and methodological explication of the
research programme of SKAD, including the question of how SKAD fits into the
current landscape of discourse research or into the specific discussions within
the scope of individual disciplines.
·
concrete methods and ‘modus operandi’
in empirical research contexts,
focusing less on the respective object of research but instead on analytical procedures
involved in these studies. Especially when going beyond the ‘classic’
text-based or qualitative approaches (including audiovisual, ethnographic, or
interview material // quantitative applications), how do we proceed, in
practice, when researching discourse?
·
the question of how different heuristic tools and methods be integrated in a SKAD frame of
reference and how can they be applied? This area of contributions includes
strategies of mapping (see Adele Clarke for instance), ethnographic research
designs in discourse and dispositive studies, the questions of how to integrate
and conceptualize visualizations and materiality in discourses studies.
·
subjectivation research, which in recent years has increasingly pursued research interests
that point to the possibilities of expanding and supplementing discourse and dispositif
research. This involves empirical investigation of normative subject positions
on the one hand, and the human self-relations, subjectivities, biographies and
self-technologies influenced by the subject positions on the other. This focus
is concerned with addressing theoretical and methodological questions of how
the linking of discursively constructed
subject positions and self-relations, biographies, identities, etc. can
be conceived, as well as with how the concrete empirical implementation of such
research projects can be achieved.
·
the presentation of ongoing or completed
empirical studies that draw on the SKAD. Contributions from different
disciplinary perspectives are welcome. The focus here is on the respective
research projects and their results. At the same time, it should become clear
what the specific sociological and discourse-analytical structure and yield of
the research presented is for the respective fields of investigation
and/or the sociological discourse research.
Please send your
submissions to wda@phil.uni-augsburg.de in the form of an abstract
(max. 2,500 characters).
Deadline for submissions:
October 15, 2018
For further information to the registration
modalities, travel, accommodation and much more please visit www.diskurswissenschaft.de
Social Events at the conference
Besides a dinner with traditional Swabian and Bavarian
cuisine on first day of the conference we invite you to our closing party on
March 22nd after the end of the conference.