Cultural Discourse Studies

Abstract

Mainstream discourse analysis, as well as communication studies, is basically Western and in many respects Westcentric. As such it is not only unhelpful to multicultural humanity in the process of accelerated globalization, but also counterproductive to human intellectual growth and prosperity. It is against the backdrop of such cultural-intellectual crisis, as well as wider human cultural alienation at the beginning of the twenty-first century, that a new paradigm in discourse and communication research is emerging: cultural discourse studies (CDS). This is manifested in the forms of (a) participation by researchers from the (under)developing world in significant proportions, (b) growing cultural consciousness in the discipline, and (c) development of locally grounded, globally minded research frameworks. The new breed of scholarship, inspired by non-Western, Third/Fourth World experiences, aspirations and approaches, proceeds from the assumption that human discourses are sites of cultural contestation, cooperation and transformation and, accordingly, strives to deconstruct ethnocentrism in discourse research, construct culturally diversified modes of research and propel intercultural dialogue and debate, all with a view to enhancing human cultural coexistence, harmony and prosperity (Shi-xu 2005). CDS has yielded deeper, novel and practicable insights into culture-specific realities on the one hand and broadened and enriched international scholarly understanding on the other.