A multi-disciplinary perspective on the built environment: Space Syntax and cartography – the communication challenge

8-11 June 2009

Discourse Analysis: varieties and methods

This paper presents and analyses six key approaches to discourse analysis, including political discourse theory, rhetorical political analysis, the discourse historical approach in critical discourse analysis, interpretive policy analysis, discursive psychology and Q methodology. It highlights differences and similarities between the approaches along three distinctive dimensions, namely, ontology, focus and purpose. Our analysis reveals the difficulty of arriving at a fundamental matrix of dimensions which would satisfactorily allow one to organize all approaches in a coherent theoretical framework. However, it does not preclude various theoretical articulations between the different approaches, provided one takes a problem-driven approach to social science as one?s starting-point

Basic Incompatibilities Between Evolutionary and Behavioral Archaeology

Schiffer (1996) recently proposed that, despite some incompatibilities, considerable common ground exists between behavioral archaeology and evolutionary or selectionist, archaeology. He concludes that there is no fundamental reason why the two approaches cannot work in concert to explain human behavioral change. There are, however, several important reasons why the two programs, at least as currently conceived, cannot work together in any thoroughly integrated fashion. Although both programs employ inference, behavioral archaeology conflates the distinct roles of configurational and immanent properties, searches for nomothetic answers to questions about human behavior, overlooks historical contingency when inferring and explaining the nature of past behavior, and in some cases seems to fall back on vitalism as the mechanism of change. Evolutionary archaeology employs immanent properties inferentially, explicitly acknowledges the importance of the historical contingencies of configurational properties, explains human behavior as being time- and spacebound, and calls upon selection and drift (transmission) as the mechanisms of change. Any attempt to integrate the two approaches must begin by addressing these basic differences

Within and beyond the 'fourth generation' of revolutionary theory

Recent years have seen renewed interest in the study of revolutions. Yet the burgeoning interest in revolutionary events has not been matched by a comparable interest in the development of revolutionary theory. For the most part, empirical studies of revolutions remain contained within the parameters established by the ‘fourth generation’ of revolutionary theory. This body of work sees revolutions as conjunctural amalgams of systemic crisis, structural opening, and collective action, which arise from the intersection of international, economic, political, and symbolic factors. Despite the promise of this approach, this article argues that fourth generation scholarship remains an unfulfilled agenda. The aim of this article is to work within – and beyond – fourth generation theory in order to establish the theoretical foundations that can underpin contemporary work on revolutions. It does so in three ways: first, by promoting a shift from an attributional to a processual ontology; second, by advocating a relational rather than substantialist account of social action; and third, by fostering an approach that sees revolutions as inter-societal ‘all the way down’

Turn to Practice Within Working Life Studies

What does practice theory and practice-based studies have to offer working life studies? This is the seminal question this special issue poses. In seven articles, researchers with an affiliation to Nordic working life studies and with a background in practice theory illustrate and reflect on how practice theoretical approaches can help working life studies in better understanding work practices and the material, technological, economic, organizational, and societal conditions that shape and are shaped by these practices. In addition, this issue contains three reviews of recent practice theoretical volumes that strive to theorize (work) practices and assess the merits of practice theoretical perspectives

Turn to Practice Within Working Life Studies

What does practice theory and practice-based studies have to offer working life studies? This is the seminal question this special issue poses. In seven articles, researchers with an affiliation to Nordic working life studies and with a background in practice theory illustrate and reflect on how practice theoretical approaches can help working life studies in better understanding work practices and the material, technological, economic, organizational, and societal conditions that shape and are shaped by these practices. In addition, this issue contains three reviews of recent practice theoretical volumes that strive to theorize (work) practices and assess the merits of practice theoretical perspectives