Discourse Analysis in Risk and Crisis Research. From Theory to Method with Resilience as an Example
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7557/8.8993Keywords:
discourse analysis, resilience, total defenceAbstract
This paper provides a selective introduction to discourse analysis for research on risk, crisis and related fields. It reviews key theoretical and methodological foundations across social-constructionist and poststructuralist traditions, while placing particular emphasis on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model. The discussion addresses how discourses can be defined and delimited, how meanings are constructed and contested, how discourse relates to power and social practice, and how intertextuality, interdiscursivity and genealogy can be used analytically. The concept of resilience serves as a recurring example through which these concepts are illustrated. The paper then translates the discussion into a practical research workflow, culminating in an illustrative CDA design concerning resilience in Norwegian total preparedness and total defence. The purpose is not to present discourse analysis as a single or privileged method, but as one possible approach to critically oriented qualitative research. Its value arises when language, meaning and their relationship to social practice are themselves central to the research problem.
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