Reflexivity in the transdisciplinary field of critical discourse studies

Bibliographic Data

ID5779312
AuthorsJan Zienkowski (0000-0001-8240-3695, Universidad de Navarra, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume3
Issue1
Publication date2017-02-21
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePalgrave Communications (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2055-1045 • E-ISSN: 2055-1045
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1057/palcomms.2017.7
OpenAlexW2590432997
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited73

This article outlines an agenda for critical discourse studies that reserves a place of honour for the notion of reflexivity. It draws on four concepts of reflexivity developed in the social sciences: reflexivity as a general feature of interaction and subjectivity; as a methodological praxis; as a property of discursive and non-discursive systems; and as a key feature of late modernity. Reflexivity is considered in terms of acts of interpretive movement. Social actors, organizations and systems throw reflexive loops around themselves, around others, as well as around spatial, temporal, linguistic, cognitive, social and historical dimensions of contextual reality. All social entities engage in the Sisyphean task of fixing social reality, trying to grasp it with a porous and amorphous semiotic net, shaping interpretive reality in the process. Reflexive loops can leave ripples on the surface of language and communication for others to pick up and engage with. Through metadiscursive acts, interlocutors can then engage with the meanings that fix who and what they are in an unequal and power-infused world whose boundaries can only be imagined through interpretive and critical praxis. Reflexivity is a precondition for the articulation of critique and should be considered as a key concept in the field of discourse studies. This paper is published as part of a collection on discourse studies

Articulation (sociology · Late modernity · Praxis · Reflexivity · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Management and Organizational Studies

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access