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The Causal Power of Discourse
Author(s) -
ELDERVASS DAVE
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal for the theory of social behaviour
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.615
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5914
pISSN - 0021-8308
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-5914.2010.00449.x
Subject(s) - civil discourse , power (physics) , epistemology , michel foucault , subject (documents) , sociology , discourse analysis , ontology , critical realism (philosophy of perception) , critical discourse analysis , social ontology , linguistics , realism , philosophy , computer science , politics , political science , physics , quantum mechanics , library science , ideology , law
This paper outlines a realist approach to the social ontology of discourse. It seeks to synthesise some elements of the approach to discourse found in the early work of Michel Foucault with a critical realist understanding of the causal power of social structures. It will argue that discursive structures can be causally significant when they are normatively endorsed and enforced by specific groups of people; that it is not discourse as such but these groups— discursive circles —that are causally effective; and that such an account allows us to reconcile the role of discourse with that of the subject.