Discourse Analysis: Varieties and Methods

Abstract

This paper presents and analyses six key approaches to discourse analysis, including
political discourse theory, rhetorical political analysis, the discourse historical approach in
critical discourse analysis, interpretive policy analysis, discursive psychology and Q
methodology. It highlights differences and similarities between the approaches along three
distinctive dimensions, namely, ontology, focus and purpose. Our analysis reveals the
difficulty of arriving at a fundamental matrix of dimensions which would satisfactorily allow
one to organize all approaches in a coherent theoretical framework. However, it does not
preclude various theoretical articulations between the different approaches, provided one
takes a problem-driven approach to social science as ones starting-point.