A structurational approach to discourse

Abstract

A s noted in chapter 1, interpretive and functional conceptions of discourse tend to privilege the action level of analysis, whereas critical approaches tend to privilege the structural level, each conception illuminating certain aspects of discourse but potentially downplaying other dimensions of the fundamental social processes involved. As a basis for a more encompassing understanding of organizational discourse, this chapter draws on the work of Anthony Giddens to propose a structurational conceptualization. In this approach, discourse is viewed as a duality of communicative actions and deep structures, recursively linked through the modality of actors' interpretive schemes. The chapter concludes by exploring some of the implications of this conceptualization for theory and for the methodology of organizational discourse analysis. Giddens's Theoretical Project and its Use in Organizational Research Giddens's structuration theory has had a significant and growing influence in organizational research (e.g. Barley and Tolbert, 1997; Heracleous, 2006; Weaver and Gioia, 1994; Whittington, 1992). Giddens's work aims to transcend persistent dualisms in social theory, especially that of structure and action, proposing among other influential concepts, the notion of “duality of structure,” fostering a view of structure as inherent in agents' (recursive) actions rather than as a distant, external, determining factor. From the perspective of the duality of structure, daily practices (including communicative actions) are manifestations of deeper structures of signification, domination, and legitimation. These structures are not seen as separate from action but are instantiated, reproduced, and can thus potentially be changed through daily practices (Giddens, 1984: 36).