Critical discourse analysis and identity: why bother?

Abstract

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) and other forms of discourse analysis are regularly used to study identity, but rarely do researchers systematically compare and contrast them with other theories to identify exactly what a discursive approach contributes. In this paper, we take the example of a particular identity – the older worker – and systematically compare the contribution of CDA with other approaches, including economics, labour market research, gerontology and cultural studies. In so doing, we show the kinds of research questions that CDA can address, which other theories grappling with identity cannot. In this way, we hope to delineate more clearly what CDA is, to identify specifically how it contributes to the study of identity, and to show what it can do, compared to other theories. Cynthia Hardy has been Professor of Management at the University of Melbourne since 1998. Previously, she was a professor in the Faculty of Management at McGill University in Canada. Her main research interests revolve around the study of power and politics in organizations, organizational discourse theory and critical discourse analysis, and she is particularly interested in how power and politics occur within a larger discursive context. She recently published Discourse Analysis: Investigating Processes of Social Construction with Nelson Phillips, as well as co-editing a special issue of Organization Studies on organizational discourse and the Sage Handbook of Organizational Discourse. In total, she has published 12 books and edited volumes, including the Handbook of Organization Studies, published by Sage, which won the George R. Terry Book Award at the 1997 Academy of Management. She has written over 60 journal articles and book chapters, and her work has appeared in many leading international journals, including the Academy of Management Journal, Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Organization Science and California Management. Susan Ainsworth is currently a lecturer in work and organizational studies at the University of Sidney. Her research interests include gender and employment, older workers, critical organization studies, discourse analysis, the social construction of identity, the impact of information and communication technologies on work and organizations and public policy. She has published in Organization Studies (2003), Gender, Work & Organization (2002) and Tamara: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science (2001) and has a joint chapter (with Cynthia Hardy) on discourse and identity in the Sage Handbook on Organizational Discourse Analysis (2004).