ABSTRACTThis paper discusses the role of objectivity and interpretation within Critical Discourse Studies, arguing that the recognized and accepted situatedness of scholars has implications that are underplayed – to detrimental effect. Following Latour, and admitting the essential role of interpretation in all science, this paper encourages those working within CDS to engage more explicitly with their own roles as interpreters. Arguing for the importance and benefits of such a shift, the case is made for a re-appreciation of the role of (...) interpretation in the rigorous and systematic analysis of texts. Drawing upon insights from translation, deconstruction, and hermeneutics, and analysing a recent interview by the feminist, Germaine Greer, and the angry reactions it provoked from within the Trans community, I argue that CDS scholars should embrace the implications that undertaking a sociopolitical committed analysis brings with it. (shrink)

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to trace how the multilingual child has been variably constructed in Norway’s language education policy discourse over time. This will be explored through an in-depth critical discourse analytical reading of two official policy reports targeting specifically the situation of children of non-Norwegian ethnolinguistic heritage in Norway’s educational system. The key analytical concept is intertextuality, connecting the various discursive layers of Norway’s language education policy processes, each replete with a multitude of voices with a stake (...) in shaping the language educational reality of Norway’s young multilinguals. The paper demonstrates that there is a substantial intertextual differential in how the two reports draw on these voices to either challenge or endorse the structural forces of powerful institutions, such as the state, reflecting also the wider social and discursive current of change sweeping through the traditionally egalitarian welfare states of Northern Europe, such as Norway. (shrink)

Crime scene investigation reports, like other kids of official bureaucratic documents, serve an important purpose in the functioning of modern states. This article examines crime scene investigation reports from a city in southeastern Mexico pseudonymously called La Ciudad. The article combines textual discourse analysis of police suicide investigation reports with ethnographic analysis of police investigative practices to ask, how do law enforcement documents showcase the interactions between law enforcement agents and citizens? In what way can ethnographic analysis highlight and supplement (...) the strengths and limitations of law enforcement documents as prisms of social reality? The complex and contested relationship between representatives of a Mexican law enforcement agency and the citizenry it claims to protect is visible in the documents it produces. The ethnographic material further deepens the reader's understanding of the ways in which law enforcement agents and common citizens form relationships based on negotiation and distrust. (shrink)