Table Of ContentThe Sociology of Knowledge
Approach to Discourse
The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) has reoriented
research into social forms, structuration and processes of meaning con-
struction and reality formation; doing so by linking social constructivist
and pragmatist approaches with post- structuralist thinking in order to
study discourses and create epistemological space for analysing processes
of world- making in culturally diverse environments.
SKAD is anchored in interpretive traditions of inquiry and allows for
broadening – and possibly overcoming – of the epistemological biases and
restrictions still common in theories and approaches of Western- and
Northern- centric social sciences. An innovative volume, this book is exactly
attentive to these empirically based, globally diverse further developments
of approach, with a clear focus on the methodology and its implementa-
tion. Thus, The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse presents itself as
a research program and locates the approach within the context of inter-
pretive social sciences, followed by eleven chapters on different cases from
around the world that highlight certain theoretical questions and meth-
odological challenges.
Presenting outstanding applications of The Sociology of Knowledge
Approach to Discourse across a wide variety of substantive projects and
regional contexts, this text will appeal to postgraduate students and
researchers interested in fields such as Discourse Studies, Sociology, Cul-
tural Studies and Qualitative Methodology and Methods.
Reiner Keller (Dr. phil.) is Professor of Sociology at Augsburg University,
Germany.
Anna-K atharina Hornidge (Dr. phil.) is Professor of Social Sciences at the
University of Bremen and heads Development & Knowledge Sociology at
the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT), Bremen,
Germany.
Wolf J. Schünemann (Dr. phil.) is Junior Professor of Political Science
with a focus on Internet and Politics at Hildesheim University, Germany.
Routledge Advances in Sociology
244 Time and Temporality in Transitional and Post- Conflict Societies
Edited by Natascha Mueller- Hirth, and Sandra Rios Oyola
245 Practicing Art/Science
Experiments in an Emerging Field
Edited by Philippe Sormani, Guelfo Carbone and Priska Gisler
246 The Dark Side of Podemos?
Carl Schmitt’s Shadow in Progressive Populism
Josh Booth and Patrick Baert
247 Intergenerational Family Relations
An Evolutionary Social Science Approach
Antti O. Tanskanen and Mirkka Danielsbacka
248 Performing Fantasy and Reality in Contemporary Culture
Anastasia Seregina
249 The Philosophy of Homelessness
Barely Being
Paul Moran and Frances Atherton
250 The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse
Investigating the Politics of Knowledge and Meaning- making
Edited by Reiner Keller, Anna- Katharina Hornidge and
Wolf J. Schünemann
251 Christianity and Sociological Theory
Reclaiming the Promise
Joseph A. Scimecca
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/
SE0511
The Sociology of Knowledge
Approach to Discourse
Investigating the Politics of Knowledge
and Meaning- making
Edited by Reiner Keller,
Anna-K atharina Hornidge and
Wolf J. Schünemann
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Reiner Keller, Anna-K atharina
Hornidge and Wolf J. Schünemann; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Reiner Keller, Anna- Katharina Hornidge and Wolf J.
Schünemann to be identified as the authors of the editorial matter,
and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in
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British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-138-04872-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-17000-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Baskerville
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors ix
Foreword xiv
ADELE E. CLARKE
1 Introduction: the sociology of knowledge approach to
discourse in an interdependent world 1
ANNA- KATHARINA HORNIDGE, REINER KELLER AND
WOLF J. SCHüNEMANN
2 The sociology of knowledge approach to discourse: an
introduction 16
REINER KELLER
3 Situating SKAD in interpretive inquiry 48
REINER KELLER AND ADELE E. CLARKE
4 The social construction of value: a comparative SKAD
analysis of public discourses on waste in France and
Germany 73
REINER KELLER
5 SKAD analysis of European multi-l evel political debates 91
WOLF J. SCHüNEMANN
6 Legislation and discourse: research on the making of law
by means of discourse analysis 112
ANDREAS STüCKLER
7 A SKAD ethnography of educational knowledge discourses 133
ANNA- KATHARINA HORNIDGE AND HART NADAv FEUER
vi Contents
8 Using SKAD to study Chinese contemporary governance:
reflections on our research process 150
SHAOYING ZHANG AND DEREK McGHEE
9 Using SKAD to analyse classification practices in public
health: methodological reflections on the research process 169
HELLA vON UNGER, PENELOPE SCOTT AND
DENNIS ODUKOYA
10 Self- positioning of semi-s killed workers: analysing
subjectification processes with SKAD 186
SAšA Bosančić
11 Dangerous or endangered? Using the sociology of
knowledge approach to discourse to uncover subject
positions of sex workers in South African media discourse 202
CAROLIN KüPPERS
12 Guidance on transitions: reconstructing the rationalities of
the European discourse on career guidance services using
the sociology of knowledge approach 223
INGA TRUSCHKAT AND CLAUDIA MUCHE
13 Using SKAD to investigate cooperation and conflict over
water resources 237
TOBIAS IDE
14 Studying discourses ethnographically: a sociology of
knowledge approach to analysing macro- level forces in
micro-s ettings 254
FLORIAN ELLIKER
15 From analysis to visualisation: synoptical tools from SKAD
studies and the entity mapper 274
ANNE LUTHER AND WOLF J. SCHüNEMANN
Illustrations
Figures
5.1 Discourse Map – French referendum on the EU
Constitutional Treaty 2005 98
5.2 Structural Scheme for the Dutch debate on the
Constitutional Treaty in 2005 106
7.1 SKAD’s discursive hierarchy 138
9.1 Arena map of social worlds focused on ethnicity
classification in the health arena in the UK 174
9.2 Comparative study design: exploring four discourses
over time 175
15.1 Policy publics on trash and recycling in Germany 279
15.2 Discourse map for the first Irish referendum debate on
the Lisbon Treaty in 2008 282
15.3 Structural Scheme for the Dutch debate on the
Constitutional Treaty in 2005 284
15.4 The public discourse arena (policy- specific) in
Germany 285
15.5 Emerging Knowledge Age 286
15.6 Node- Link Network of data structure developed in
Atlas.ti 287
15.7 Display of all entities 289
15.8 Display of codes and code families 290
15.9 Hovering over entities 292
15.10 Access to quotations 293
15.11 Paradigm Map 294
Tables
4.1 Example: phenomenal structure, French hegemonic
discourse “socio- technological modernisation” 84
5.1 Arguments in EU referendum debates 100
viii Illustrations
5.2 Cumulative argumentatives yes-/no- discourse Ireland
2008 (selected arguments) 108
11.1 Number of published articles on sex work in South
African print media 2010 209
13.1 Examples of open questions (narrative elements) in the
guidelines for the semi- structured interviews 243
13.2 Example from the coding process 246
Contributors
Saša Bosančić (Dr. phil.) is Senior Researcher at Augsburg University. His
fields of research are the Sociology of Knowledge and the Interpretative
Paradigm of Sociology, Sociology of Work and Inequality, Discourse
Analysis and Qualitative Methods. He authored several articles on sub-
jectification processes and the discursive situatedness of human subject-
ivity. He is editor of the Journal for Discourses Studies.
Adele E. Clarke (PhD) is Professor Emerita of Sociology and Adjunct Pro-
fessor Emerita of History of Health Sciences at University of Califor-
nia, San Francisco (UCSF ). She grew up in New York, received a B.A.
in sociology in 1966 from Barnard College and an MA in sociology
in 1970 from New York University. She then taught women’s studies
at Sonoma State University (CA). In 1980, she selected the sociology
program at the University of California, San Francisco for her PhD. She
worked there with Anselm Strauss and virginia Olesen, among others,
and returned to UCSF as an Assistant Professor in 1989 after a Postdoc-
toral Fellowship at Stanford University. She was tenured in 1992 and
promoted to Full Professor in 1998. Her research centres on social, cul-
tural and historical studies of science, technology and medicine with
emphases on biomedicalisation and common medical technologies for
women such as contraception and the Pap smear.
Florian Elliker (PhD) is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University
of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and Research Fellow at the Department of
Sociology, University of the Free State (South Africa). His publications
deal with populism, experiences of precarity and marginalisation in eth-
nically diverse societies, a sociology of knowledge approach to discourse
and ethnography, and qualitative methods and methodology. He has
recently co- edited a thematic issue of the Journal for Discourse Studies on
“discourse ethnography” (3/2017).
Hart Nadav Feuer (Dr. agr.) is a junior associate professor in the Graduate
School of Agriculture, Kyoto University. His current work encompasses
broadly the importance of creativity and embeddedness in education
