Power matters: Foucault’s pouvoir/savoir as a conceptual lens in information research and practice

© the author, 2015. Introduction. This paper advocates Foucault's notion of pouvoir/savoir (power/knowledge) as a conceptual lens that information researchers might fruitfully use to develop a richer understanding of the relationship between knowledge and power. Methods. Three of the authors’ earlier studies are employed to illustrate the use of this conceptual lens. Methodologically, the studies are closely related: they adopted a qualitative research design and made use of semi-structured and/or conversational, in-depth interviews as their primary method of data collection. The data were analysed using an inductive, discourse analytic approach. Analysis. The paper provides a brief introduction to Foucault’s concept before examining the information practices of academic, professional and artistic communities. Through concrete empirical examples, the authors aim to demonstrate how a Foucauldian lens will provide a more in-depth understanding of how particular information practices exert authority in a discourse community while other such practices may be construed as ineffectual. Conclusion. The paper offers a radically different conceptual lens through which researchers can study information practices, not in individual or acultural terms but as a social construct, both a product and a generator of power/knowledge

The single currency and European citizenship

We could expect that the introduction of the single currency had been accompanied by a significant share of studies and researches about the implications and impacts of such a watershed event on European citizenship. On the contrary, we soon discover to be facing a paradox, which could be phrased as follows: while the purpose of building European citizenship is the very rationale for the project of the single currency, the Scholars – but also the policy community – have mostly underestimated if not neglected this relation, both in terms of public policy making and discourse and of interpretation and forecasting. As a consequence of all of that, relevant features of the single currency happened to remain hidden, poorly considered and almost not thematized. In order to fill this gap, the first part of this article will present the main findings emerged from a documentary research conducted by FONDACA between 2010 and 2011, aimed at mapping the existing academic and policy thematizations about the hidden dimensions of the euro. The second part will be devoted to define “the other side of the coin” as an empirical phenomenon

08. Culture in Leadership

This module will be an exploration in cultural theory, practical issues in culture, and many of their implications in leadership. We first give students the necessary vernacular to engage in intelligent discourse on the subject, then move to the higher level content. The module then looks at multiculturalism, pluralism, and assimilation through real world examples. This is followed with a simulation that will make students question their core beliefs through the introduction of cultural relativism. The module will then make explicit leadership connections through empirical evidence with GLOBE studies, and finish with conversation on the highly relevant topic of IMSA culture

What is Discourse Analysis?

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. What is Discourse Analysis? is an accessible introduction to an empirical research approach which is widely used in the social sciences and related disciplines. This book explores the idea of how meaning is socially constructed and how 'talk' and text can be interpreted. The challenges of discourse analysis are outlined as well as helpful ways to approach them - from finding the right starting point, processing and interpreting data through to building an argument. Discourse analysts work with language data, including talk, documents and broadcast material. Researchers in different traditions study interactions and social practices, meaning-making and larger meaning systems, and contests and conflicts around collective identities, social norms and subjectification. What is Discourse Analysis? addresses new researchers and other academics interested in language and its associated practices. The book outlines the history of discourse analysis, its key concepts and theorists and its uses and challenges. Discussions of published studies illustrate the use of the approach to investigate a range of research topics, such as gender, health and national identities. The book also addresses the practical aspects of discourse analysis, providing clear guidance on data collection and data processing, including transcription and selection. Covering important topics,What is Discourse Analysis? draws from recent articles to show how discourse analysis works in action. Common questions about discourse analysis are presented in a lively and accessible Q&A format. This book will be an essential resource for all researchers working with discourse analysis

Environmental management as situated practice

We propose an analysis of environmental management (EM) as work and as practical activity. This approach enables empirical studies of the diverse ways in which professionals, scientists, NGO staffers, and activists achieve the partial manageability of specific “environments”. In this introduction, we sketch the debates in Human Geography, Management Studies, Science and Technology Studies to which this special issue contributes. We identify the limits of understanding EM though the framework of ecological modernization, and show how political ecology and work- place studies provide important departures towards a more critical approach. Developing these further, into a cosmopolitical direction, we propose studying EM as sets of socially and materially situated practices. This enables a shift away from established approaches which treat EM either as a toolbox whose efficiency has to be assessed, or as simply the implementation of dominant projects and the materialisation of hegemonic discourse. Such a shift renders EM as always messy practices of engagement, critique and improvisation. We conclude that studying the distributed and situated managing agencies, actors and their practices allows to imagine new forms of critical interventions

What is Discourse Analysis?

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. What is Discourse Analysis? is an accessible introduction to an empirical research approach which is widely used in the social sciences and related disciplines. This book explores the idea of how meaning is socially constructed and how 'talk' and text can be interpreted. The challenges of discourse analysis are outlined as well as helpful ways to approach them - from finding the right starting point, processing and interpreting data through to building an argument. Discourse analysts work with language data, including talk, documents and broadcast material. Researchers in different traditions study interactions and social practices, meaning-making and larger meaning systems, and contests and conflicts around collective identities, social norms and subjectification. What is Discourse Analysis? addresses new researchers and other academics interested in language and its associated practices. The book outlines the history of discourse analysis, its key concepts and theorists and its uses and challenges. Discussions of published studies illustrate the use of the approach to investigate a range of research topics, such as gender, health and national identities. The book also addresses the practical aspects of discourse analysis, providing clear guidance on data collection and data processing, including transcription and selection. Covering important topics,What is Discourse Analysis? draws from recent articles to show how discourse analysis works in action. Common questions about discourse analysis are presented in a lively and accessible Q&A format. This book will be an essential resource for all researchers working with discourse analysis

insights from empirical research on the Europeanization of public spheres

1\. Introduction 5 2\. The Europeanization of Public Spheres 7 2.1 European Public Sphere: Concepts, Indicators, and Empirical Findings 7 2.2 Two Case Studies: “Haider” and “Eastern Enlargement” 9 3\. Public Sphere as Polity: European Identity and an Emerging Community of Communication 16 3.1 Public Spheres and the Emergence of Collective Identities 16 3.2 A European Community of Communication? 17 4\. Conclusions: An Emerging Public Sphere in the European Union 22 Literature 24 Appendix 26A European public sphere emerges out of Europeanized national public spheres if the following two phenomena are verified. First, if and when the same (European) themes are discussed at the same time with similar frames of reference, meaning structures, and patterns of interpretation across the various media sources. Second, if and when a transnational community of communication emerges in which speakers and listeners recognize each other as legitimate participants in a discourse that frames the issues at stake as common European problems. We present empirical evidence from other scholars and two case studies of our own, namely Eastern enlargement and the sanctions against the Austrian ÖVP/FPÖ-government. The main finding is that at least when European issues are discussed, that a European public sphere is constituted and re-constituted through the discursive connections and debates across borders

The organization of organizational discourse

Discourse, as Fairclough, Graham, Lemke, and Wodak (2004) noted in the introduction to their new journal, Critical Discourse Studies, is now well established as a category in social sciences. And yet, as they also note, we find significant differences as to what discourse and discourse analysis refer. These differences are, they argue, because of different theoretical, academic, and cultural traditions and how these traditions "push discourse in different directions" (2004:4). In this review essay I sketch out the key direction that discourse has been pushed or pulled in organization studies. To set the scene, I review two books that seek to advance our understanding of discourse and language analysis in organization studies. Each has its strengths, but both are relatively disengaged from the journal literature in the same field. In response to this weakness, I present a brief, citation-based examination of discourse analysis in the management and organization studies field. This analysis brings to light eight different streams of work that are underway

Lacan’s discourse theory in the age of evidence-based practice

Deze lezing vergelijkt de hedendaagse empirisch-kwantitatieve benadering omtrent effectiviteit van psychotherapieën met een bestudering van de effecten van psychotherapie aan de hand van de Lacaniaanse discourstheorie. Eerst preciseren we een aantal vooronderstellingen van hedendaagse effectenstudies, daarna gaan we dieper in op een aantal limiteringen van kwantificatie in de klinische psychologie, vervolgens gaan we dieper in op Lacans discourstheorie als een theorie die effecten van psychotherapie formaliseert, vertrekkende vanuit de interne dynamiek van verschillende vormen waarop mensen een talige dialoog met een ander kunnen aangaan

The false promise of the better argument

Effective argumentation in international politics is widely conceived as a matter of persuasion. In particular, the ‘logic of arguing’ ascribes explanatory power to the ‘better argument’ and promises to illuminate the conditions of legitimate normative change. This article exposes the self-defeating implications of the Habermasian symbiosis between the normative and the empirical force of arguments. Since genuine persuasion is neither observable nor knowable, its analysis critically depends on what scholars consider to be the better argument. Seemingly, objective criteria such as universality only camouflage such moral reification. The paradoxical consequence of an explanatory concept of arguing is that moral discourse is no longer conceptualized as an open-ended process of contestation and normative change, but has recently been recast as a governance mechanism ensuring the compliance of international actors with pre-defined norms. This dilemma can be avoided through a positivist reification of valid norms, as in socialization research, or by adopting a critical and emancipatory focus on the obstacles to true persuasion. Still, both solutions remain dependent on the ‘persuasion vs. coercion’ problem that forestalls an insight into successful justificatory practices other than rational communication. The conclusion therefore pleas for a pragmatic abstention from better arguments and points to the insights to be gained from pragmatist norms research in sociology