Faculty
Jason Glynos and David Howarth

Course Coordinator
Ester Barinaga

Some familiarity with, and interest in, questions of social and political identity and discourse. No in-depth knowledge will be assumed, but it should be noted that this is an intensive course so that a readiness to engage with theoretical texts is essential. The participants are expected to be familiar with poststructuralistic research tradition and conditions, Ernesto Laclau & Chantal Mouffe's ‘Discourse theory’ and have read Laclau & Mouffe's: “Hegemony and Socialist Strategy” (1985) and Howarth & Glynos's “Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory” (2007). The course will depart from Howarth & Glynos’s reflection upon applied discourse theory through their concept of logic.

The participant will have to submit a paper showing how the participant is operating or reflecting upon how to apply discourse theory. It is a precondition for receiving the course diploma, that the participants attend the hole course and submit and present a paper.

This course addresses the question of ‘applying’ discourse theory to empirical cases and social phenomena in the name of understanding, explanation, and critique. It will serve as a forum to discuss research strategies that are consonant with the emerging field of discourse theory, and outlines the methods, techniques and logics that can be employed in the analysis of concrete discourses. The course focuses on the definition of research objects and problems; the construction of appropriate theoretical frameworks; the requisite character and collection of empirical data; the logics of discursive analysis; and the different modes of argumentation and presentation within the discursive approach.

More precisely, the course puts forward a logic of critical explanation, which comprises five basic elements: problematization; retroduction; logics; articulation; and critique. In so doing, it examines the philosophical underpinnings of a poststructuralist approach to social and political analysis, and also concentrates on actual instances of discursive research. With respect to the theoretical aspects, attention is focused on Michel Foucault’s method of problematisation; Laclau and Mouffe’s logics of discourse analysis; as well as certain psychoanalytical themes explored by Lacan and Zizek. The concrete illustrations of discourse analysis will draw on research on apartheid and popular democratic discourse in South Africa; New Right discourses on race and sexuality in Britain; the changing governance of airports in the UK, and the ensuing logics of popular protest; the transformation of (UK) universities; the politics and ideology of workplace practices; and various instances of community economies and populist politics. Participants will also be encouraged to discuss their own ongoing research or research proposals/plans.

At the conclusion of this course, participants will have acquired a solid grounding in discourse theoretical approaches to social and political analysis and critique. Participants will finish with a keen sense of the critical role that discourse plays both in theory and in social and political practice.

Lecture plan

Time/period	Faculty	Title
Wednesday 30 September
9.00-12.00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	Discourse Theory as a problem driven approach
12.00-13.00		Lunch
13:00-16:00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	Logics of critical explanation
Thursday 1 October
9.00-12.00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	How to do critique of social phenomena and how to construct research strategies
12.00-13.00		Lunch
13:00-16:00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	Paper presentation
Friday 2 October
9.00-12.00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	How to apply the logics of critical explanation in empirical analysis
12.00-13.00		Lunch
13:00-16:00	Jason Glynos, David Howarth, Ester Barinaga	Paper presentation

M. Foucault, ‘Orders of Discourse’, Social Science Information, 10, 1971, pp. 7-30.

M. Foucault, ‘Nietzsche, Genealogy, History’, in M. Foucault, Language, Counter-Memory and Practice (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977). (Also published in P. Rabinow, The Foucault Reader, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1984).

Laclau, E. and C. Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, Chapter 3 [available in library].

D. Howarth and Y. Stavrakakis, ‘Introducing Discourse Theory and Political Analysis’, in Howarth, D., A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds), Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000), Introduction.

J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Chapters 4-6.

J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Introduction and Chapters 2 & 3.

S. Benhabib, Critique, Norm and Utopia (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), Preface, Introduction.

R. Bernstein, The New Constellation (Cambridge: Polity, 1991), Chapters 1, 5, 10

J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Chapter 1.

I. Shapiro, ‘Problems, Methods, and Theories in the Study of Politics, or: What’s Wrong with Political Science and What to do About it’, in I. Shapiro, R. M. Smith, and T. E. Masoud (eds) (2004) Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (Cambridge: CUP, 2004).

W. Connolly, ‘Method, Problem, Faith’ in I. Shapiro, R. M. Smith, and T. E. Masoud (eds) (2004) Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (Cambridge: CUP, 2004).

E. Laclau and C. Mouffe, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy (London: Verso, 1985), Chapter 4.

J. Glynos, ‘The Grip of Ideology’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 6(2): 191-214.

Y. Stavrakakis, The Lacanian Left (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

G. Boucher, J. Glynos, and M. Sharpe (eds) (2005) Traversing the Fantasy, Ashgate.

J. Glynos and D. Howarth, Logics of Critical Explanation (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), Chapter 6.

D. Howarth, ‘Complexities of Identity/Difference: Black Consciousness Ideology in South Africa’, Journal of Political Ideologies, Vol. 2 (1), 1997 [available on-line via library].

D. Howarth, ‘The Difficult Emergence of a Democratic Imaginary: Black Consciousness and Non-Racial Democracy in South Africa’, in D. Howarth, A. J. Norval and Y. Stavrakakis (eds) Discourse Theory and Political Analysis: Identities, Hegemonies and Social Change, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000.

A. J. Norval, 'Social ambiguity and the crisis of apartheid' in Laclau, E. (ed.) The Making of Political Identities, Chapter 5.

S. F. Griggs and D. Howarth, ‘A Transformative Political Campaign? The New Rhetoric of Protest Against Airport Expansion in the UK’, Journal of Political Ideologies, (2004), Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 167-87 [available on-line via library].

J. Glynos (2008) ‘Ideological Fantasy at Work’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 13(3):

275-296.

Y. Stavrakakis, The Lacanian Left (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007).

G. Boucher, J. Glynos, and M. Sharpe (eds) (2005) Traversing the Fantasy, Ashgate.

K. Marx, Grundrisse (Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1973), Introduction.

M. Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences (New York, Free Press, 1949)

J. Glynos, and Howarth, D. (2008) ‘Critical Explanation in Social Science: A Logics

Approach’, Swiss Journal of Sociology, 34(1): 5-35.

D. Howarth, ‘Populism or Popular Democracy? The UDF, Workerism and the Struggle

for Radical Democracy in South Africa’, in F. Panizza (ed) Populism and the Mirror of

Please send your application to Anja Dupont ( ad.lpf@cbs.dk) no later than 28 August 2009