Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

What Is Discourse?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect

  • 1165 Accesses

Abstract

In this chapter, the concept of discourse is explained with reference to several schools of thought. Then, the understanding of Laclau and Mouffe about the discourse is presented. In this part, important concepts, such as signification, subject positions, hegemony, discourse coalitions, split identities, logics of equivalence and difference, will be described. These concepts will be used to understand identity, discourse and political apparatuses. Later this chapter discusses how Laclau and Mouffe can be used in the studies of international relations and foreign policy analysis. Finally, this chapter introduces the method and data set used in the book.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography – Books, Articles, Reports, Speeches

  • Aslan, Ali. 2012a. “The Foreign Policy-Hegemony Nexus: Turkey’s Search for a ‘New’ Subjectivity in World Politics and Its Implications for US-Turkish Relations.” Perceptions 17(4): 159–184.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cameron, Robin. 2013. Subjects of Security: Domestic Effects of Foreign Policy in the War on Terror. New York: Palgrave.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Debrix, Francois. 2003. “Language, Nonfoundationalism, International Relations.” In Language, Agency, and Politics in a Constructed World, ed. Francois Debrix, 3–25. New York: M. E. Sharpe Armonk.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, Charlotte. 2010. “Who speaks? Discourse, the Subject and the Study of Identity in International Politics.” European Journal of International Relations 17(2): 327–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fairclough, Norman. 2013. Critical Discourse Analysis: Critical Study of Language. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, Michel. 2001. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by R. Howard. London/New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, Roger. 2003. “On Critical Linguistics.” In Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. Caldas Coulthard Carmen Rosa and Malcolm Couthard, 3–14. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, Jim, and David. Campbell. 1990. “Critical Social Theory and International Relations.” International Studies Quarterly 34(3): 269–293.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glynos, Jason, David Howarth, Aletta Norval, and Speed Ewen. 2009. “Discourse Analysis: Varieties and Methods.” ESRC National Centre for Research Methods Paper. NCRM 14. Accessed June 2016 http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/796/1/discourse_analysis_NCRM_014.pdf

  • Hajer Maarten, A. 2006. “Doing Discourse Analysis: Coalitions, Practices, Meaning.” In Words Matter in Policy and Planning: Discourse Theory and Methods in the Social Sciences, ed. Margo van den Brink and Tamara Metze, Vol. 344, 65–74. Utrecht: Netherlands Geographical Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Stuart. 1996. “Introduction: Who Needs Identity? “In Questions of Cultural Identity, ed. Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, 1–17. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, Lene. 2006. Security as Practice: Discourse Analysis and the Bosnian War. Abington: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, David. 2000. Discourse. Buckingham: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, David. 2006. “The Method of Articulation.” In Words Matter in Policy and Planning: Discourse Theory and Methods in the Social Sciences, ed. Margo van den Brink and Tamara Metze, Vol. 344, 23–42. Utrecht: Netherlands Geographical Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, David, and Yannis, Stavrakakis. 2000. “Introducing Discourse Theory and Political Analysis.” In Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change, ed. David Howarth, Aletta Norval, and Yannis Stavrakakis, 1–37. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, Leif, C. 2012. “Seduced and Surrounded by Security: A Post-Structuralist Take on Norwegian High North Securitizing Discourses.” Cooperation and Conflict 48(1): 80–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorgensen, Marianne, and Louise. Phillips. 2002. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London: Sage.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Bradley, S. 1987. Strategic Discourse and Its Alternatives. New York: Center on Violence and Human Survival Occasional Paper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, Ernesto. 1989. “Politics and the Limits of Modernity.” Social Text 21: 63–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, Ernesto. 1996. Emancipation(s). London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laclau, Ernesto, and Chantal. Mouffe. 2001. Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics, Second Edition. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Müller, Martin. 2008. “Reconsidering the Concept of Discourse for the Field of Critical Geopolitics: Towards Discourse as Language and Practice.” Political Geography 27: 322–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Müller, Martin. 2010. “Doing Discourse Analysis in Critical Geopolitics.” Online Journal of Political Geography and Geopolitics 12. Accessed June 2016. http://espacepolitique.revues.org/1743?r=1&l=ri&fst=0.

  • Ostermann, Falk. 2015. French Security and Defense Policy under Sarkozy and Chirac. The Discursive Reconstruction of Autonomy, Integration, and Identity, PhD diss. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rear, David, and Alan. Jones. 2013. “Discursive Struggle and Contested Signifiers in the Arenas of Education Policy and Work Skills in Japan.” Critical Policy Studies 7(4): 375–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sjostedt, Roxanna. 2007. “The Discursive Origins of a Doctrine Norms, Identity, and Securitization under Harry S. Truman and George W. Bush.” Foreign Policy Analysis 3: 233–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torfing, Jacob. 1999. New Theories of Discourse: Laclau, Mouffe, and Zizek. Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torfing, Jacob. 2005. “Discourse Theory: Achievements, Arguments and Challenges.” In Discourse Theory in European Politics: Politics, Identity, Policy and Governance, ed. David Howarth and Jacob Torfing, 1–31. London: Palgrave.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wodak, Ruth, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl, and Karin Liebhart. 2009. The Discursive Construction of National Identity, Second Edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Birsen Erdogan

Authors
  1. Birsen Erdogan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Erdogan, B. (2017). What Is Discourse?. In: Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47683-4_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation