Liberal discourse - An invisible hand in free trade research? - An investigation into how global trade discourse is created through discourse interaction within research. COURSE: Globala studier 61-90, 30 hp PROGRAM: International work - global studies AUTHORS: John Bohman, Henrik Malmrot EXAMINATOR: Karl Hedman SEMESTER: VT17 JÖNKÖPING UNIVERSITY Bachelor Thesis School of Education and Communication Global Studies International Work Spring semester 2017 ABSTRACT _____________________________________________________________ John Bohman & Henrik Malmrot Pages: 30 Liberal discourse – An invisible hand in free trade research? An investigation into how global trade discourse is created through discourse interaction within research. _______________________________________________________________________ This paper uses a quantitative content analysis informed by a critical realist framework to study the patterns of international political economy discourse prevalence within research articles concerning free trade. Once categorized, there are observable differences in the extent to which articles in the different categories address other discourses. Analyzing these patterns using concepts from discourse theory, we suggest that the liberal discourse constitutes a regime of truth to which the other discourses must relate. It is also found that articles published in higher ranking journals are less likely to address other discourses. We argue that this could be explained as being an effect of the larger readership of those journals. Keywords: Free trade, discourse, critical realism, content analysis, SJR Mailing Address Address Telephone Högskolan för lärande Gjuterigatan 5 036–101000 och kommunikation (HLK) Box 1026 551 11 JÖNKÖPING Table of contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Purpose and research questions ................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Purpose ................................................................................................................ 1 1.1.2 Research questions .............................................................................................. 1 2. Background ............................................................................................................... 2 2.1 Free trade and institutions ......................................................................................... 2 2.2 Journals and SJR ....................................................................................................... 2 3. Theory ....................................................................................................................... 3 3.1 Critical realist theoretical model ............................................................................... 3 3.1.1 Critical realism .................................................................................................... 3 3.1.2 Overview of model application ........................................................................... 4 3.2 International political economy ................................................................................. 4 3.2.1 The main perspectives ......................................................................................... 4 3.3 Discourse ................................................................................................................... 7 3.3.1 Discourse theory ........................................................................................... 7 3.3.2 Political economy perspectives as ideologies? ............................................. 8 4. Earlier research ......................................................................................................... 9 4.1 Hegemony ................................................................................................................. 9 4.2 Impact of research on policy ................................................................................... 10 4.2.1 Instrumental and symbolic use of research ....................................................... 10 4.3 Critical realism in the study of discourse ................................................................ 10 4.3.1 Critical realism and ideology ............................................................................ 10 4.3.2 Critical realism and discourse ........................................................................... 11 4.4 Research on the Scimago Journal Ranking system (SJR) ....................................... 11 4.4.1 Ranking systems and quality............................................................................. 11 4.4.2 Ranking systems and researchers ...................................................................... 12 5. Method .................................................................................................................... 12 5.1 Critical realism empirical procedure ....................................................................... 12 5.2 Delimitations ........................................................................................................... 13 5.3 Content analysis ...................................................................................................... 13 5.3.1 Content analysis and critical realism ................................................................ 13 5.3.2 Content analysis research design ...................................................................... 14 6. Results..................................................................................................................... 20 7. Analysis .................................................................................................................. 23 7.1 Discourse ................................................................................................................. 23 7.1.2 Regime of truth ................................................................................................. 23 7.1.3 Subjugated knowledge ...................................................................................... 24 7.2 Norm Circle ............................................................................................................. 26 8. Discussion ............................................................................................................... 27 8.1 Further research ....................................................................................................... 29 9. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 30 References ......................................................................................................................... 31 List of Tables: Table 1. Arguments used in coding Table 2. Cross tabulation of article categories with SJR categories Table 3. Number of articles for perspective categories and SJR-categories in which another perspective was re-presented and coherence values for all categories Table 4. Number of re-presentations of different categories occurring in articles belonging to the different discourses at the different SJR-categories Table 5. Comparison between the number of re-presentations of perspectives in the high category 1 1. Introduction Trade has large effects on societies all over the world and the development process. How trade is conducted is to a large part mediated through powerful institutions (O‘Brien and Williams, 2016). Today, free trade is the most prevalent framework for development of the large trade and economic institutions (World Trade organization [WTO], n.d.-a; International Monetary Fund [IMF], 2017; World Bank, n.d.). Practitioners and policy makers in trade are influenced by and draw on research to support their positions. This makes research an important factor in determining development. Research on free trade is suggested to be dominated by a liberal economic perspective (O‘Brien and Williams, 2016). However, there is no consensus regarding the benefits of free trade and the liberal framework is challenged by other perspectives. Understanding the process whereby different perspectives interact to form a global trade discourse, especially among more influential research journals, is therefore important to understand the shaping of policy. The goal of this study is to investigate the extent of the liberal perspective in research articles on free trade. This will be done through a quantitative content analysis by which we will be able both to categorize articles as belonging to different perspectives and investigate patterns regarding which other perspectives they reproduce. Using discourse theory, we will analyze why we may see certain patterns emerge. Also, we take in consideration that not all research has the same impact, and we will therefore study how these patterns are manifest at different levels of journal rankings. 1.1 Purpose and research questions 1.1.1 Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the prevalence of the liberal discourse in free trade research and to interpret and analyze patterns of how articles in different categories may address the other perspectives, and how differences of such patterns may coincide with differences in journal rankings. 1.1.2 Research questions ● What patterns of discourse presence can be found within research articles concerning free trade? ● How can these patterns be explained