This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (1) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Speer, S. A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

On Recruiting Conversation Analysis for Critical Realist Purposes

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY, susan.speer{at}manchester.ac.uk

In this paper I provide a summary and evaluation of some of the key features of Sims-Schouten, Riley and Willig's multi-level, `critical realist' approach to discourse analysis, as exemplified in their study of motherhood, childcare and female employment. I argue that (i) their analyses recruit and depend on arguments and techniques from the very perspectives they criticize, and (ii) those techniques are deployed in a somewhat ad hoc fashion. Consequently, I suggest that the authors fail to provide a distinctive or systematic operationalization of a critical realist discourse analysis. I end by arguing that if critical realists really want to understand what (purportedly extra-discursive) factors account for why participants say what they do, then they need to begin by adopting a more reflexive approach to their data, and pay serious attention to analysing the interview as an interview, and as an occasion for interaction in its own right.

Key Words: constructionism • conversation analysis • critical realism • discourse analysis • interview data • reflexivity

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. C.E. Riley, W. Sims-Schouten, and C. Willig The Case for Critical Realist Discourse Analysis as a Viable Method in Discursive Work Theory Psychology, February 1, 2007; 17(1): 137 - 145. [Abstract] [PDF]