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Section News Newsletter Features •Theory Section Mini-Conference •Critical Discourse Analysis •Newsletter Editor Change •Post-Structurationist Potential •Election Results •Theory Development THE ASA July 2003r THEORY SECTION NEWSLETTER Perspectives VOLUME 26, NUMBER 3r Section Officers Theory Section Activities at the CHAIR Atlanta Meetings Linda D. Molm Linda D. Molm, University of Arizona CHAIR-ELECT he 2003 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association will take Michèle Lamont place on August 16-19 in Atlanta, Georgia. Monday, August 18 is Theory PAST CHAIR TSection Day. Most Section activities are scheduled on that day, with one session — the open submission paper session — scheduled the following morning. Gary Alan Fine All Section activities will be held at the Atlanta Hilton. Below is the full schedule of SECRETARY-TREASURER sessions and other Section activities. Please plan to attend as many of these events as possible! Patricia Madoo Lengermann COUNCIL Monday, August 18, Theory Section Day: Kevin Anderson 8:30-10:15 8:30 Theory Section Refereed Roundtables and Council Meeting (1 hr.) 9:30 Theory Section Business Meeting Robert J. Antonio Mathieu Deflem 10:30-12:15 Theory Section Mini-conference. “The Value of Theory: Classical Edward J. Lawler Theory” Cecilia L. Ridgeway See ATLANTA on page 6 Robin Stryker Editorial Change: SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY EDITOR Neil Gross Will Edit Perspectives Jonathan Turner J. David Knottnerus & Jean Van Delinder, Oklahoma State University PERSPECTIVES EDITORS his summer’s publication of Perspectives will be the final issue managed by the J. David Knottnerus & current editors. We would like to thank the ASA Theory Section for the op- Jean Van Delinder Tportunity to serve in this role for the last three years. Our tenure as editors has been a very rewarding and productive one. The main reason it has been such a positive experience is because of the contributions that you, the members of the Submit news and commentary to the theory section, have made to the newsletter. We hope that all of you have also found incoming editor: reading the newsletter to be of value. Neil Gross We would like to express our deepest appreciation to Deborah Sweet who has Department of Sociology handled all of the production of the newsletters for the past three years. Her work University of Southern California on the newsletter greatly contributed to its timely and, we believe, high quality pre- Los Angeles, CA 90089-2539 sentation. Ph: (213) 821-2331 Fax: (213) 740-3535 And we would like to thank the Department of Sociology at Oklahoma State Uni- Email: [email protected] See CHANGE on page 8 Page 2 Perspectives What is Critical Discourse Analysis? and then passed on through teaching, univer- sity research now appears to be closely bound Sharon Harvey, Auckland University of Technology up with technological innovation for private and national economic development. The he ‘cultural turn’ in sociology has raised terests are served. It is the questions per- lexicalisation of ‘research’ in such texts brack- the question of language, text and dis- taining to interests that relate discourse ets out humanities and social science knowl- Tcourse and their instantiations in soci- to relations of power. How is the text edge, focussing instead on the creation of ety as important foci for sociologists. An im- positioned or positioning? Whose in- techno-scientific knowledge (Lyotard 1979). portant methodological approach for engag- terests are served by this positioning? ing with verbal, written and visual language/ Whose interests are negated? What are 2. Patterns of transitivity: transitivity patterns texts is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). the consequences of this positioning? explain the ‘goings on’ of constructions of CDA has developed over the last two decades Where analysis seeks to understand how reality: the doing, saying, sensing, being, be- primarily from within the disciplines of lin- discourse is implicated in relations of having and existing or happening. These ‘go- guistics, applied linguistics, and general lan- power it is called critical discourse analy- ings on’ are expressed through the grammar guage studies. It has spread widely as a re- sis. of the clause and particularly the verb. In her search method in the latter half of the nine- analysis of the transitivity patterns of an ad- ties to a range of social science and humanities Within this understanding, CDA works inter- vertisement for a retirement plan for domestic disciplines (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999). actively over three levels of analysis to yield a workers in post apartheid South Africa, Janks description, interpretation and explanation of (1997) is able to show the very subtle ways in CDA is most commonly associated with the social conditions and practices. Firstly, it works which the racist and paternalistic discourse of work of Norman Fairclough (see, for example, at the level of the text (this may be a verbal/ apartheid continues to work through texts 1995, 2003) whose conceptualisation of CDA written text, visual text or a mixture of both) which at first glance appear to be socially and grew out of what he terms Critical Language where the analytical tools of systemic func- racially ‘enlightened’. In this particular example, Awareness (CLA) (Fairclough 1999). The work tional linguistics (SFL) (Halliday 1985) are em- white employers are asked to consider provid- of CLA was founded around a conviction that ployed to dissect/deconstruct the text, under- ing their black workers with retirement funds with everyday life increasingly mediated and stand how it hangs together and explore how through a plan being offered by the ‘Standard organised through language it was of the ut- it might be related to the other two levels of Bank’. In order to do this, though, the black most importance that people, and especially analysis: the processes of production and in- domestic worker is constructed through pre- children, were taught how to engage critically terpretation (discourse practices) and the so- dominantly mental and relational processes with language in order to become active citi- ciocultural conditions including the situational, while the employer is constructed through zens in a democratic society. Fairclough soon institutional and societal. While there are a mainly material and verbal processes. Thus, shifted his emphasis to the more encompass- number of complicated aspects to SFL, it is the black worker says nothing and appears ing term ‘discourse’ (although CLA remains possible to perform an insightful and com- only to gain agency through her employer, in circulation) in recognition of the multi petent analysis working with the following while the employer acts and speaks indepen- semiotic nature of contemporary society, par- checklist (Janks 1997). The intention here is to dently throughout the text. Through transi- ticularly the increasing prevalence of images give readers a very introductory idea of the tivity and other devices the worker is (Kress & Van Leeuwen 1996). kind of insights CDA can provide: discoursally constructed as a child who needs to be looked after. Doing Analysis 1. Lexicalisation: this refers to the way in which Hilary Janks, in an article entitled Critical Dis- ‘content’ words and word groups, rather than 3. The use of active and passive voice: a fre- course Analysis as a Research Tool (1997), offers ‘grammar’ words such as ‘and’, ‘to’, ‘is’ etc., quently mentioned example of the effect of an explanation of the way in which CDA works are patterned throughout the text1. For ex- ‘voice’ choices is Tony Trew’s (1979, cited in to provide a potentially complex and nuanced ample lexical items such as research, science, in- Mills (1997:148)) analysis of the following analysis. Janks (1997: 329) writes: novation, developing commercial products, knowledge headline: are often chained as interchangeable synonyms Critical Discourse analysis stems from a in science and tertiary education policy docu- Rioting Blacks Shot Dead by Police as critical theory of language which sees the ments. This kind of patterning begins to ANC Leaders Meet. (The Times, 1975, use of language as a form of social prac- change understandings and practices around cited in Trew 1979: 94) tice. All social practices are tied to spe- what research is (particularly academic research). cific historical contexts and are the means Originally conceived as necessary for the devel- Trew (1979) points out that the use of the by which existing social relations are re- opment of disciplinary knowledge and as the passive voice in this instance has the effect of produced or contested and different in- flip side to teaching, i.e. knowledge is created See CDA on page 4 Perspectives is the newsletter of the Theory Section of the American Sociological Association. It is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. The deadline for all submissions is the fifth day of the month before publication. We welcome news and commentary as well as announcements about conferences, journal information, calls for papers, position openings, and any other information of interest to section members. Perspectives Page 3 Technical Advances in General Sociological Theory: The Potential Contribution of Post-Structurationist Sociology Charles Crothers, Auckland University of Technology s there theoretical life in sociology after In addition to their concerns to further de- way of analytical tools to examine the variabil- Bourdieu, Giddens, and Habermas: not velop