Entering Discourses

A New Agenda for Qualitative Research and Sociology of Knowledge

Datos Bibliográficos

ID7105002
AutoresR Keller (0000-0002-6083-0458, University of Augsburg, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen8
Número2
Páginas46-75
Fecha de publicación2012-08-30
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQualitative Sociology Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1733-8077 • E-ISSN: 1733-8077
EditorialUniversity of Lodz Press (PUBLISHER • PL)
DOI10.18778/1733-8077.8.2.04
OpenAlexW4297068890
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas13

The article argues for a new agenda in qualitative research and sociology of knowledge. It starts with the assumption that meaning-making activities which lie at the heart of sociology’s interpretative paradigm today are widely embedded in expert proceedings and organized or institutionalized work on symbolic ordering. This holds true for the sciences or other specialized discourse realms (like religion), but it also counts for public discourses/public arenas. While interpretative traditions in sociology have addressed issues of discourse research, they did not succeed in establishing a proper sociological approach to discourse. Therefore, the article proposes a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse (SKAD), located in the social constructivist tradition of Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. Such an approach is able to account for discourses as processes of symbolic ordering and to take up questions of discourse research raised by French philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault indeed insisted on discourses as “truth games” and activities which set up knowledge claims. But, this interest in politics of knowledge has not so far been taken up in today’s arenas of discourse research. Therefore, SKAD proposes concepts and procedures for a new agenda of sociology of knowledge, deeply committed to qualitative and interpretative research traditions in sociology

Civil discourse · Discourse analysis · Epistemology · Historical sociology · Linguistics · Meaning (existential · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of knowledge · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Symbolic interactionism · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Rhetoric and Communication Studies · Social and Cultural Dynamics