Editing Discourse (section)

== Social theory==
In the [[humanities]] and [[social science]]s, discourse describes a formal way of thinking that can be expressed through language. Discourse is a social boundary that defines what statements can be said about a topic. Many definitions of discourse are primarily derived from the work of French philosopher [[Michel Foucault]]. In [[sociology]], ''discourse'' is defined as "any practice (found in a wide range of forms) by which individuals imbue reality with meaning".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ruiz|first=Jorge R.|date=2009-05-30|title=Sociological discourse analysis: Methods and logic|url=http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1298/2882|journal=Forum: Qualitative Social Research|volume=10|issue=2|pages=Article 26 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20221210150147/https://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1298/2882 |archive-date= Dec 10, 2022 }}</ref>

[[Political science]] sees discourse as closely linked to politics<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Politics,%20Ideology%20and%20Discourse.pdf |title=Politics, Ideology, and Discourse |first1=T A |last1=van Dijk  |access-date=2019-01-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190127094109/http://www.discourses.org/OldArticles/Politics,%20Ideology%20and%20Discourse.pdf |archive-date= 2019-01-27}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://discourses.org/OldArticles/What%20is%20Political%20Discourse%20Analysis.pdf |title=What is Political Discourse Analysis? |last=van Dijk |first=Teun A. |access-date=2020-03-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200331132441/http://discourses.org/OldArticles/What%20is%20Political%20Discourse%20Analysis.pdf |archive-date= Mar 31, 2020 }}</ref> and policy making.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Does discourse matter? Discourse analysis in environmental policymaking |journal=Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning |volume=7 |issue=3 |pages=161–173 |doi=10.1080/15239080500339638 |year=2005 |last1=Feindt |first1=Peter H.|last2=Oels |first2=Angela|s2cid=143314592 |s2cid-access=free |url=https://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/opus4/frontdoor/index/index/docId/94625 }}</ref> Likewise, different theories among various disciplines understand discourse as linked to [[Power (social and political)|power]] and [[State (polity)|state]], insofar as the control of ''discourses'' is understood as a hold on reality itself (e.g. if a state controls the media, they control the "truth"). In essence, ''discourse'' is inescapable, since any use of language will have an effect on individual perspectives. In other words, the chosen discourse provides the vocabulary, expressions, or [[Stylistics (linguistics)|style]] needed to communicate. For example, two notably distinct discourses can be used about various [[guerrilla]] movements, describing them either as "[[Resistance movement|freedom fighters]]" or "[[terrorists]]".

In [[psychology]], discourses are embedded in different rhetorical genres and meta-genres that constrain and enable them—language talking about language. This is exemplified in the [[American Psychiatric Association|APA]]'s ''[[Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]]'', which tells of the terms that have to be used in speaking about mental health, thereby mediating meanings and dictating practices of professionals in psychology and psychiatry.<ref>Schryer, Catherine F., and Philippa Spoel. 2005. "Genre theory, health-care discourse, and professional identity formation." ''[[Journal of Business and Technical Communication]]'' 19: 249. Retrieved from [http://jbt.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/3/249 SAGE].</ref>

===Modernism===
[[Modernism|Modernist theorists]] focused on achieving progress and believed in natural and social laws that could be used universally to develop knowledge and, thus, a better understanding of society.<ref name=":1">Larrain, Jorge. 1994. ''Ideology and Cultural Identity: Modernity and the Third World Presence''. Cambridge: [[Polity Press]]. {{ISBN|9780745613154}}. Retrieved via [https://books.google.com/books?id=p3C1tAEACAAJ Google Books].</ref> Such theorists would be preoccupied with obtaining the "truth" and "reality", seeking to develop theories which contained certainty and predictability.<ref name="Best & Kellner, 1991">{{Cite book|author=Best|first1=Steven|title=The Postmodern Turn|last2=Kellner|first2=Douglas|publisher=[[The Guilford Press]]|year=1997|isbn=978-1-57230-221-1|location=New York City|author-link=Steven Best|author-link2=Douglas Kellner}}</ref> Modernist theorists therefore understood discourse to be functional.<ref name="Strega, 2005">Strega, Susan. 2005. "The View from the Poststructural Margins: Epistemology and Methodology Reconsidered." Pp. 199–235 in ''Research as Resistance'', edited by L. Brown, & S. Strega. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press.</ref> Discourse and language transformations are ascribed to progress or the need to develop new or more "accurate" words to describe discoveries, understandings, or areas of interest.<ref name="Strega, 2005"/> In modernist theory, language and discourse are dissociated from power and ideology and instead conceptualized as "natural" products of common sense usage or progress.<ref name="Strega, 2005"/> [[Modernism]] further gave rise to the liberal discourses of rights, equality, freedom, and justice; however, this rhetoric masked substantive inequality and failed to account for differences, according to Regnier.<ref>Regnier, 2005</ref><!-- inexact reference -->

===Structuralism (Saussure and Lacan)===
[[Structuralism|Structuralist]] theorists, such as [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] and [[Jacques Lacan]], argue that all human actions and social formations are related to [[language]] and can be understood as systems of related elements.<ref name="Howarth, 2000">{{Cite book|author=Howarth|first=D.|title=Discourse|publisher=[[Open University Press]]|year=2000|isbn=978-0-335-20070-2|location=Philadelphia}}</ref> This means that the "individual elements of a system only have significance when considered about the structure as a whole, and that structures are to be understood as self-contained, self-regulated, and self-transforming entities".<ref name="Howarth, 2000" />{{Rp|17}} In other words, it is the structure itself that determines the significance, meaning, and function of the individual elements of a system. Structuralism has contributed to our understanding of language and social systems.<ref>Sommers, Aaron. 2002. "[http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/preceptorial/Summaries_2002/summary3_2002.html Discourse and Difference]." ''Cosmology and our View of the World, [[University of New Hampshire]]''. Seminar summary.</ref> [[Course in General Linguistics|Saussure's theory of language]] highlights the decisive role of meaning and signification in structuring human life more generally.<ref name="Howarth, 2000"/>

===Poststructuralism (Foucault)===
Following the perceived limitations of the modern era, emerged [[postmodernism|postmodern]] theory.<ref name=":1" /> Postmodern theorists rejected modernist claims that there was one theoretical approach that explained all aspects of society.<ref name="Best & Kellner, 1991"/> Rather, postmodernist theorists were interested in examining the variety of experiences of individuals and groups and emphasized differences over similarities and shared experiences.<ref name="Strega, 2005"/>

In contrast to modernist theory, postmodern theory is pessimistic regarding universal truths and realities.  Hence, it has attempted to be fluid, allowing for individual differences as it rejects the notion of social laws.  Postmodern theorists shifted away from truth-seeking and sought answers to how truths are produced and sustained. Postmodernists contended that truth and knowledge are plural, contextual, and historically produced through discourses. Postmodern researchers, therefore, embarked on analyzing discourses such as texts, language, policies, and practices.<ref name="Strega, 2005"/>

=== Foucault<!--'Discursive formation' redirects here--> ===
In the works of the philosopher [[Michel Foucault]], a ''discourse'' is "an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements (''énoncés'')."<ref name=Foucault1969>{{Cite book| author = M. Foucault| year = 1969| title = L'Archéologie du savoir| location = Paris| publisher = Éditions Gallimard| author-link = M. Foucault}}</ref> The enouncement (''l’énoncé'', "the statement") is a linguistic construct that allows the writer and the speaker to assign meaning to words and to communicate repeatable semantic relations to, between, and among the statements, objects, or subjects of the discourse.<ref name=Foucault1969 /> Internal ties exist between the signs (semiotic sequences). The term '''discursive formation'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> identifies and describes written and spoken statements with semantic relations that produce discourses. As a researcher, Foucault applied the discursive formation to analyses of large bodies of knowledge, e.g. [[political economy]] and [[natural history]].<ref name=Foucault1970>{{Cite book|author= M. Foucault| title=The Order of Things|year=1970| publisher=Pantheon Books|isbn= 0-415-26737-4|author-link= M. Foucault}}</ref>

In ''[[The Archaeology of Knowledge]]'' (1969), a treatise about the [[methodology]] and [[historiography]] of systems of thought ("epistemes") and knowledge ("discursive formations"), [[Michel Foucault]] developed the concepts of discourse. The sociologist Iara Lessa summarizes Foucault's definition of discourse as "systems of thoughts composed of ideas, attitudes, courses of action, beliefs, and practices that systematically construct the subjects and the worlds of which they speak."<ref>{{cite journal | last =Lessa | first = Iara | title=Discursive Struggles within Social Welfare: Restaging Teen Motherhood | journal=The British Journal of Social Work|volume=36|issue=2|pages=283–298|doi=10.1093/bjsw/bch256|date=February 2006}}</ref> Foucault traces the role of discourse in the [[legitimation]] of society's [[Power (social and political)|power]] to construct contemporary truths, to maintain said truths, and to determine what relations of power exist among the constructed truths; therefore discourse is a communications medium through which power relations produce men and women who can speak.<ref name="Strega, 2005" />

The interrelation between power and knowledge renders every human relationship into a power negotiation,<ref>Foucault, Michel. ''Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings, 1972–1977'' (1980) New York City: Pantheon Books.</ref> Because power is always present and so produces and constrains the truth.<ref name="Strega, 2005" /> Power is exercised through rules of exclusion (discourses) that determine what subjects people can discuss; when, where, and how a person may speak; and determines which persons are allowed to speak.<ref name="Foucault1969" /> That knowledge is both the ''creator'' of power and the ''creation'' of power, Foucault coined "''[[power-knowledge|power/knowledge]]"'' to show that it is "an abstract force which determines what will be known, rather than assuming that individual thinkers develop ideas and knowledge."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sellars |first=Maura |title=Educating Students with Refugee and Asylum Seeker Experiences: A Commitment to Humanity |date=2020 |publication-date=2020 |pages=23 |language=en |chapter=Chapter Two: Power: Discourses of Power |doi=10.2307/j.ctv12sdz0r.7 |jstor=j.ctv12sdz0r.7 |chapter-url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv12sdz0r.7}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kłos-Czerwińska |first=Paulina |url=https://wroclaw.pan.pl/images/pliki/Publikacje/Languages_in_Contact_vol.4.pdf |title=Discourse: an introduction to van Dijk, Foucault and Bourdieu |date=2015 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Filologicznej : Komisja Nauk Filologicznych PAN. Oddział ; International Communicology Institute |isbn=978-83-60097-37-3 |series=Languages in Contact |location=Wrocław : Washington |pages=166}}</ref> 

[[Interdiscourse]] studies the external semantic relations among discourses,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Keller |first=Reiner |url=https://methods.sagepub.com/book/doing-discourse-research |title=Doing Discourse Research: An Introduction for Social Scientists |date=2013 |publisher=SAGE Publications Ltd |isbn=978-1-4739-5764-0 |language=en |doi=10.4135/9781473957640}}</ref> as discourses exists in relation to other discourses.<ref name=Foucault1970/>