Discourse and social practices
Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth, CDA) is based upon a view of semiosis as an irreducible element of all material social processes (Williams 1977). We can see social life as interconnected networks of social practices of diverse sorts (economic, political, cultural, family etc). The reason for centering the concept of 'social practice' is that it allows an oscillation between the perspective of social structure and the perspective of social action and agency - both necessary perspectives in social research and analysis (Chouliaraki & Fairclough 1999). By 'social practice' I mean a relatively stabilised form of social activity (examples would be classroom teaching, television news, family meals, medical consultations). Every practice is an articulation of diverse social elements within a relatively stable configuration, always including discourse. Let us say that every practice includes the following elements:
Activities
Subjects, and their social relations
Instruments
Objects
Time and place
Forms of consciousness
Values
Discourse
These elements are dialectically related (Harvey 1996). That is to say, they are different elements but not discrete, fully separate, elements. There is a sense in which each 'internalizes' the others without being reducible to them.
The dialectics of discourse Textus XIV.2 2001a, pages 231-242
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