Speer2007
Speer2007 | |
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BibType | ARTICLE |
Key | Speer2007 |
Author(s) | Susan A. Speer |
Title | On recruiting conversation analysis for critical realist purposes |
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Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Discourse Analysis, Critical discourse analysis |
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Year | 2007 |
Language | English |
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Journal | Theory & Psychology |
Volume | 17 |
Number | 1 |
Pages | 125–135 |
URL | Link |
DOI | 10.1177/0959354307073155 |
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Abstract
In this paper I provide a summary and evaluation of some of the key features of Sims-Schouten, Riley and Willig's multi-level, `critical realist' approach to discourse analysis, as exemplified in their study of motherhood, childcare and female employment. I argue that (i) their analyses recruit and depend on arguments and techniques from the very perspectives they criticize, and (ii) those techniques are deployed in a somewhat ad hoc fashion. Consequently, I suggest that the authors fail to provide a distinctive or systematic operationalization of a critical realist discourse analysis. I end by arguing that if critical realists really want to understand what (purportedly extra-discursive) factors account for why participants say what they do, then they need to begin by adopting a more reflexive approach to their data, and pay serious attention to analysing the interview as an interview, and as an occasion for interaction in its own right.
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