Discourse Analysis,Foucault and Social Work Research

Abstract

• Summary: This article critically engages with the usage and appropriations of discourse analysis in certain critical social work texts. Through arguing for the importance of a coherent and rigorous foundation to research, one possible methodology based on Foucault’s archaeological approach to discourse is mapped out.

• Findings: While welcoming the turn toward and engagement with discourse, this article argues that limitations in the analytical involvement and detailed methodological treatment with the technical aspects of Foucauldian discourse analysis compromise the value of this social work research. A possible methodology, based on Foucault’s archaeological approach to discourse, is developed to demonstrate the possibilities discourse analysis can bring to social work research. This is contrasted with various misappropriations of Foucault’s conception of discourse within a range of methodological, political and epistemological contexts that have influenced the construction of critical social work.

• Application: Alongside demonstrating the specific merits of archaeological discourse analysis as a tool to enable the scrutiny and investigation of received social work values, practices and policies in terms of their social function, this article highlights the necessity of engaging with the technical aspects of complex social theory in order to maintain robust methodological foundations.

Keywords

critical social work discourse analysis Foucault methodology

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