<p><strong>"This book is of interest for anthropologists, for researchers interested in discursive analysis of (shifting) power relations, the application of SFL and for methodologists who wish to be inspired by a very creative interplay of distinctive methods of discursive analysis in dialog with social theory. The author, throughout, demonstrates a genuine interest and respect for and commitment to the participants’ contributions to this research. This is evident through the detailed and careful analyses of their discourses as well as the author’s personal contact with those who trusted the data to him."</strong>—<i>Nicolina Montesano Montessori in Critical Discourse Studies</i></p>
In this study, Bartlett presents a theoretical and descriptive development in the discipline of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) extending the recent trend away from critiques of hegemonic practices and towards the description of alternative and minority practices that has been labelled Positive Discourse Analysis (PDA). Through an in-depth case study of intercultural development discourse, the book goes beyond the top-down model of power in CDA and the oppositional approach of PDA to develop a model of power in language as multifaceted and potentially collaborative. This model is used to analyse the particular circumstances of the case study, but is primarily presented as a framework for practical applied linguistic contributions within a wide range of sociocultural contexts. Drawing on social and linguistic theory and methods from a range of functional and applied approaches to language, the book explores the connections between language form and social function, the contextual constraints on discursive action and the potential for the renegotiation of existing discourses and social practices.
This book frames an in-depth analysis of institutional discourse between indigenous communities and government and non-government groups in Guyana with an account of the sociocultural setting, challenging assumptions around the top-down nature of power in language.
1. Bucking the System: The Revoicing of Hegemonic Discourse 2. Background 3. Participatory Voice in Development Discourse 4. Local Prestige, Local Power 5. Taking Control 6. Interdiscursivity, Capital and Empathy 7. Positive Discourse Analysis: Spaces of Collaboration and Resistance Appendices