Foucauldian Discourse Research Articles

Constructing "Burnout": A Critical Discourse Analysis of Burnout in Postgraduate Medical Education.

In 1974, Dr. Herbert Freudenberger coined the term burnout. With the creation of the Maslach Burnout Inventory in 1984, burnout went from a pop psychology term to a highly studied phenomenon in medicine. Exponential growth in studies of burnout culminated in its adoption into the International Classification of Diseases-11 in 2022. Yet, despite increased awareness and efforts aimed at addressing burnout in medicine, many surveys report burnout rates have increased among trainees. The authors aimed to identify different discourses that legitimate or function to mobilize burnout in postgraduate medical education (PGME), to answer the question: Why does burnout persist in PGME despite efforts to ameliorate it? Using a Foucauldian discourse analysis, this study examined the socializing period of PGME as an entry point into burnout's persistence. The archive from which the discourses were constructed included over 500 academic articles, numerous policy documents, autobiographies, videos, documentaries, social media, materials from conferences, and threads in forums including Reddit. This study identified 3 discourses of burnout from 1974-2019: burnout as illness, burnout as occupational stress, and burnout as existentialism. Each discourse was associated with statements of truth, signs and signifiers, roles that individuals play within the discourse, and different institutions that gained visibility as a result of differing discourses. Burnout persists despite effort to ameliorate it because it is a productive construct for organizations. In its current form, it depoliticizes issues of health in favor of wellness and gives voice to the challenge of making meaning from the experience of being a clinician.

Multi-Method Qualitative Text and Discourse Analysis: A Methodological Framework

The growing interest in combining different approaches to qualitative text and discourse analysis has so far not been met with adapted methodological resources. This article aims to address this gap by developing a methodological framework for combining qualitative text and discourse analysis. First, we introduce four traditions that we identify as four families of methods of text/discourse analysis with different logics: Discourse Analysis, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis, Thematic Analysis, and Qualitative Content Analysis. Second, we review the literature to show how these methods have been combined across disciplines and case studies. Third, we build upon existing literature to unpack the benefits and challenges of multi-method text/discourse analysis, and offer strategies to help navigate the problems that may arise. Overall, this article introduces multi-method qualitative text and discourse analysis (MMQTDA) as a methodological framework to provide guidance and offer solid foundations for an emerging methodological conversation in qualitative text research.

Exploring the Discursive Construction of National Identity Through the Building of the New Curriculum for Wales

Wales is currently undergoing its largest ever educational reform in way of a new curriculum, within this reform multiple themes of identity and nationality are raised and used. This article uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore the discursive construction of identity in the building of the new curriculum. Through locating and exploring the subjectification of learners’ identity, this paper discusses the potential for learners’ subject position for identities and belonging within the new curriculum. It locates identity as diverse, fluid, spatial and strategic and explores the potential outcomes for these discursive constructions in regards to the subject positions of learners. It found these discourses to be interacting and in relation with one another, but also with the potential for conflict and contradiction. It notes many complexities and nuances in themes of identities and belonging within the curriculum. The work found potential for belonging as well as barriers such, as alienation and exclusion for learners. Finally, it offers some caution for ensuring these barriers can be overcome for all learners in the implementation of the new curriculum.

Crafting a Foucauldian Archaeology Method: A Critical Analysis of Occupational Therapy Curriculum-as-Discourse, South Africa

South Africa has a colonial and apartheid past of social injustice, epistemological oppression, and exclusion. These mechanisms are historically inscribed in the designs, practices, and content of higher education—including in occupational therapy curriculum. If these historical markers are not consciously interrogated, patterns of reproduction are reified along the fault lines that already exist in society. The focus of this article is to demonstrate how an archaeological Foucauldian method was crafted from foundational Foucauldian archaeology analytics and existing approaches of Foucauldian discourse analysis to unearth the rules of the formation of the occupational therapy profession. These rules pertain to the formation of (a) the ‘ideal occupational therapist’; (b) who had a say about the profession; (c) the ways of preferred reasoning; and (d) underlying theoretical themes and perspectives about the future. Data sources for this archaeology analytics included commemorative documents of universities on the origin of their programmes; historical regulatory documents; and the South African Journal of Occupational Therapy archive from the period 1953–1994. The analysis rendered two subthemes for each of the rules of formation including ‘white exceptionalism’, white male national, and international, regulatory bodies, the profession’s know-how practical knowledge, and its need for recognition within a bio-medical paradigm. Unearthing the historical markers of a curriculum and viewing it as discourse may enable a conscious reconfiguration thereof.

The discourse of resistance against spoken sexism

Spoken sexism, which remains up to this day a heavily understudied phenomenon, contributes incessantly to the preservation of patriarchy while reinforcing misogyny and sex-based oppression. The present paper focuses on how women discursively construct sexist comments as a cause for reaction, drawing upon a discourse of resistance, while sculpting a combative subject position. The 30 women who participated in the study took part voluntarily in individual semi-structured interviews, in order to share their views and experiences in relation to spoken sexism. For the analyses of the material, post-structuralism was taken as epistemological approach, while a Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) was used for the portrayal of the discourses. Due to the gendered nature of the subject under discussion and in acknowledgement that spoken sexism is discursively constructed within patriarchal structures of power, a feminist perspective was upheld in relation to the interpretation and discussion of the results. The findings reveal not only the resilient nature of sex-based oppression but also an increase in awareness as well as responsibility regarding the issue of spoken sexism.

‘I don’t know how we can stop ragging’: a qualitative study on the perceptions of staff and work-affiliated individuals at a Sri Lankan University, on the phenomena of ragging

ABSTRACT Ragging in Sri Lanka is a longstanding initiation ritual, similar to hazing and bullying. The severe harassment of new students by seniors has led to adverse consequences including depression, university dropouts and suicide. Although, a significant problem, research on ragging is scarce. This research aimed to explore how staff and work-affiliated individuals at Jaffna University resonate around the phenomenon of ragging. Seven focus group discussions and eleven semi-structured interviews were conducted. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis and Bandura’s Moral Disengagement theory were used to interpret the data. Three main discourses reflected the context: ragging as normal and necessary, insecurity and fear of reprisal, and voices of resistance. Participants often felt unsupported and therefore adapted their moral compasses to survive in this insecure environment. These findings demonstrate a fragmented approach to ragging that not only diminished any efforts towards elimination but affected how staff were forced to adjust their behavior to work in this environment. To address ragging, there is a need to adhere to a consistent strategy focusing on increasing awareness and supporting staff by holding accountable those at all levels of the administrative hierarchy in promoting a safe working environment for all.

Inequity is woven into the fabric: a discourse analysis of assessment in pediatric residency training.

Intrinsic inequity in assessment refers to sources of harmful discrimination inherent in the design of assessment tools and systems. This study seeks to understand intrinsic inequity in assessment systems by studying assessment policies and associated procedures in residency training, using general pediatrics as a discourse case study. Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) was conducted on assessment policy and procedure documents. Two authors independently prepared structured analytic notes using guiding questions. Documents and respective analytic notes were subsequently reviewed independently by all authors. Each author prepared further unstructured analytic notes on the documents' discourse. The authors then compared notes and constructed truth statements (i.e., interpretations of what the discourse establishes as true about the construct under study) and sub-strands (i.e., themes) that were repeated and legitimized across the documents via iterative discussion. Based on analysis, the authors constructed two truth statements. These truth statements, "good assessment is equitable assessment," and "everyone is responsible for inequity," conceptualized inequity in assessment as an isolated or individual-level aberration in an otherwise effective or neutral system. Closer examination of the truth statements and sub-strands in the discourse presented an alternative view, suggesting that inequity may in fact not be an aberration but rather an inherent feature of assessment systems.

Troubling White Women’s Desire for Innocence in Community-Based Social Work Practice: A Foucauldian Discourse Analysis

Understanding the effects of White femininity on social work practice is a worthy endeavour provided the disproportionate numbers of White women that have built and occupied the professional role of social worker from the origins of colonization to present. Mainstream accounts of social work history narrate the profession to be a pursuit of well-intentioned middle- and upper-class White women, concealing the colonial operations that underpin the formation of social work as a White feminine project. While Whiteness and its effects within social work have been a subject of study, the intersection of gender and Whiteness has been minimally addressed, disregarding significant nuances that inform the relationship between the project of colonization and social work. This paper provides a detailed analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight White, woman-identified social workers who have practiced community-based social work for a minimum of two years in Alberta, Canada. Foucauldian discourse analysis is used to trace the ways the participants perform the dominant discourse of White femininity. The findings illuminate the social work profession's ongoing complicity with its colonial origins, which collude with White femininity and ultimately foster practices steeped in racism. A vital need to disentangle social work from its colonial and racist scripts is emphasized.

A Gynocritical Foucauldian Discourse Analysis of Women's Autonomy - Taslima Nasrin's Writing

In 2003, Taslima Nasrin published one of her most renowned novels Shodh. Most of Taslima's work revolves around Radical Feminism. Taslima's writing portrays the plight of surviving in today's society by being a woman. Her writing shows how women oppress their fellow women in the name of tradition and culture. This research investigates the difficulties and conflicts specific to the experience of being a woman in today's culture. Unless we use the language of women writers, it is hard to speak about women's struggles with any degree of precision. The gynocritical study examines feminist literature written by female writers. It is the study of the female's inner consciousness. The field of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis investigates power dynamics in society by analyzing how language is used. Taslima's writing has the autonomy of voicing out boldly on women's issues, religion, how culture and tradition oppress women, and how the women's body acts as an agency. Taslima's writing can be noted under resistance writing.

A Foucauldian discourse analysis of women's resistance against exclusion from a mosque in Johannesburg

Female accessibility to the mosque as a social institution invokes gendered subject positions and power dynamics. In the holy month of Ramadan in 2018, a group of Muslim women in Johannesburg resisted their exclusion from a mosque space, which led to diverse reactions expressed on social media. Facebook posts between May 16 and June 14, 2018 were analysed using Foucauldian discourse analysis to map discursive constructions of the Muslim women's resistance. Subject positions, ranging from women as sexual temptation to women as holistic, spiritual beings, emerged from the analysis. Different action orientations were promoted, ranging from submission to the mosque leadership to equating the women's activism to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Implications for reformative theological scholarship and positionalities of resistance are discussed.

Biopolitics and a right to tourism

ABSTRACT Tourism as a right was officially stated in the Global Code of Ethics for Tourism (1999) and it would be granted normative status once the Framework Convention on Tourism Ethics (2020) is legally binding. As such, the importance of the rights discourse in tourism has been largely acknowledged and its status is increasingly being reinforced. The rights discourse of tourism is particularly important as the world is facing at the Fourth industrial revolution, which can lead to a societal transformation like previous industrial revolutions. However, the position of tourism as a right has still been confronted with an ambivalent conjuncture and it still requires the relevant etudes to provide diverse perspectives for its justification or its discursive construction within a philosophical approach. By applying a Foucauldian discourse analysis for a close reading of international statements and demonstrating the relevance and applicability of biopolitics to the rights discourse in tourism, this article argues that a fuller understanding of the discourses and arguments made regarding a right to tourism is possible through a deeper consideration of biopolitics and that its legitimation needs to take place within the realm of biopolitical production.

“Comply, strategise, or resist?”: Exploring early-career women’s academic identities in Australian higher education using Foucauldian discourse analysis

The becoming of, and being, an early-career academic is a dynamic journey, marked by movement through learning, adapting, and adopting new skills and capacities, being ‘thrown in the deep end’ of academic responsibilities, and beginning to develop an academic identity. We explored how early-career women academics within Australian universities conceptualise their academic identities, and the subject positions (i.e., identities/ways of being) made available through their discourse. Seventeen participants were interviewed, aged between 27 and 62 years, with transcripts of interviews analyzed using Foucauldian Discourse Analysis. Three subject positions were identified—The Compliant Woman (who follows the rules and meets the expectations of the institution); The Strategic Woman (who balances complying and safely challenging the traditional academic ways of being); and The Rebellious Woman (who outrightly challenges the conditions of academia). Discourse surrounding compliance, tolerance, obedience, the patriarchy, and survival, created subjectivities suggesting that the early-career women academics felt unsafe and insecure in academia, as well as having to work harder to prove themselves in a setting that works to exclude them. The key message was that no matter their approach, the early-career women academics felt damned in their navigation of academia.

Knowing your place: the role of occupational status in fathers’ flexible working

ABSTRACT This study explored how fathers’ occupational status shapes their constructions, experiences, and negotiations of Flexible Working. In particular, we examined whether occupational status impacted men’s access to, and the acceptability of using FWAs for the purposes of care. Data from semi-structured interviews with 43 working fathers from diverse occupational roles within the Australian financial sector were analysed using Foucauldian discourse analysis. Findings suggest that fathers’ access to flexibility is contingent upon and shaped by their position in the organisational hierarchy. Fathers in ‘higher-status’ roles reported significant power and agency in their access to and adoption of FWAs. However, a major barrier to their use of flexibility was the discursively constructed expectation that men in these positions should be dedicated to their paid work role and career progression rather than caring for their child(ren). In contrast, men in ‘lower-status’ roles lacked autonomy, agency, and power in relation to accessing flexibility for caring purposes. These fathers reported being closely monitored in their paid working roles, having little flexibility available to them in these roles, and felt trepidatious about even requesting FWAs for caring for their child(ren).

Pushing too far? Negotiations of non‐compliance and resistance to the COVID‐19 cabin ban in Norway

AbstractMany societies experienced pushback against governmental COVID‐19 measures. When the Norwegian government made it a punishable offence to spend the night at privately owned cabins in the first phase of the pandemic, this resulted in discussions and pushback. Basing our research on in‐depth interviews at three different time points during the pandemic, we ask how Norwegian participants discursively explain why the cabin ban was the first measure that evoked pushback in Norway. We conducted a Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA), exploring three overarching explanations provided by the interview participants. In the first explanation, the pushback was presented as a result of the cultural importance of the cabin. Here, participants partly legitimised the pushback when constructing it as a predictable reaction in this cultural context. In the second explanation, participants constructed the pushback as an expression of ‘cabin people’ in particular and Norwegians in general being ‘too privileged’ to acknowledge the measure's necessity. Here, the pushback was constructed as an illegitimate reaction. In the third explanation, participants explained the pushback as a result of people seeing the measure as meaningless. This interpretation constructs pushback as a legitimate response to an illogical measure. These different constructions illustrate the complexity of compliance with COVID measures, where people negotiated individual freedom against solidarity, and compliance against critical thinking. The article contributes to the understanding of people's negotiations of resistance and pushback against restrictive measures. We argue that social psychological theory and research need to acknowledge the temporal, contextual and ideological specificities in understanding compliance and non‐compliance.

In(k)scribed Identities: A Sociological Analysis of Catholic Croat Tattoos

For centuries, a number of Catholic Croat women from the territory of modern day Bosnia and Herzegovina have participated in a traditional form of tattooing. Rooted in the socio-political context marked by the rule of the Ottoman Empire (16th–19th century), it was believed that the symbols would offer protection against kidnapping by the Turks. While the practice carried on, outliving the context of its creation, it entered into a slow decline; today not more than a handful of people still bear these markings. Using interviews collected by Ilinčić (2016) as secondary data, I apply Foucauldian discourse analysis to follow the construction of meaning associated to tattoos along the interpersonal-intergroup continuum. Drawing upon structuralism and feminist theories about the body and social identity theory, I focus on how tattooing is used as a communicative signifier of social and or self-identity.
 
 Article received: December 10, 2018; Article accepted: January 23, 2019; Published online: April 15, 2019; Original scholarly paper
 How to cite this article: Barabas, Timea. "In(k)scribed Identities: A Sociological Analysis of Catholic Croat Tattoos." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 18 (2019): 33–50. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i18.297

Using Paratextualization to Build a Cultural Scheme of Brands for the Entertainment In-dustry

Media product franchises often play the role of brands based on the elaboration of cultural schemes. They use complementary contents to their products’ narratives – called paratexts – to keep a long-lasting relationship with their consumers. Thus, the aim of the current study is to investigate how the paratextualization of franchise products of the entertainment industry generates cultural schemes for their brands. To do so, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis was applied to news reports and information published at the official websites of three emblematic entertainment industry franchises: Game of Thrones, Star Wars and Wizarding World. Results have indicated franchises’ focus on maintaining and expanding fans’ experience with these sagas, evidencing the existence of a cultural scheme to build experiential brands.

Facebook and Twitter as Platforms for Human Good: A Case of Egypt Uprising, 2011

Through wider and rapid dissemination of information, social media sites (Facebook and Twitter in this article) influence the psychology of the users, making them ready for the collective action. This article analyses the role played by Facebook and Twitter in bringing about political change in Egypt during the Egyptian Uprising of 2011. Drawing insights from social media studies and Foucauldian discourse of power, this article exposes the tussle between the autocratic Egyptian government led by the then president Hosni Mubarak and Egyptian citizens and scrutinizes the horizontal connectivity and dissemination of information, citizen journalism, pervasive nature of power, and multiple resistance sites. It concludes that in materializing their aspirations of right, liberation, and justice along with the economic, social, and political revamp, Egyptian civilians took recourse in digital technologies and freed themselves from thirty-years long dictatorship of Mubarak.

Men who have sex with robot dolls: A Foucauldian discourse analysis

Sextech involves technology aimed at enhancing sexual experience and human sexuality. Part of this technology includes digisexuality which concerns sexual and emotional engagement with a sex robot. Research investigating both the positive and negative roles sex that robots may play in emotional and physical well-being remains limited. The present study therefore examined the motivation for men having intimate relationships with lifelike sex robots and revealed an in-depth understanding of the role that sex robots play in that motivation. Existing content was gathered through online platforms including documentaries and video interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of the aspects that lead individuals to develop sexual relationships with sex robots. A summative content analysis and Foucauldian discourse was conducted via an inductive and exploratory analysis based on the reports of eight men on their emotional and sexual relationship with sex robots. As a result, four major discourses emerged from the data that encapsulated differing drives of human-robotic sexual relationships. These were 1) the male power fantasy 2) powerlessness 3) cognitive dissonance and 4) power dynamics. It was found that all elements were co-related and interconnected whereby power-over and power-to constructs were identified throughout the discourse. The rationalizations attributed to engaging in robot sex are discussed using a critical discursive stance.

Learning technology as contested terrain: Insights from teaching academics and learning designers in Australian higher education

Learning and teaching is no longer the exclusive domain of teaching academics and is increasingly reliant on third-space professionals, in particular learning designers. The sharing of the design of the learning and teaching space is underlined by the increasing collaboration between teaching academics and learning designers. This qualitative study explores how these two key stakeholders understand learning technology, which is critical to shaping the teaching and learning process in contemporary higher education. Foucauldian discourse and power were employed as the theoretical lens to analyse semi-structured interviews with 12 teaching academics and 5 learning designers at a large Australian university. Although learning designers and teaching academics share a mutual interest in improving the learning and teaching process, the findings also revealed five discourses where practice was contested: centralisation, surveillance, institutional homogenisation, responsibility, and efficiency. This article calls for a new focus on the collaborative aspect of the learning design and teaching process that is constantly (re)negotiated between these two main stakeholders. Implications for practice or policy: Teaching academics and learning designers should develop practices that recognise the collaborative nature of learning technology in higher education. Universities should develop practices and policies that reduce tensions within the five identified discourses of learning technology to ensure a more collaborative teaching academic-learning designer relationship.

How do adolescent autistic girls construct self-concept and social identity? A discourse analysis

ABSTRACT A recent UK study found that 28% of autistic children were diagnosed with autism after starting secondary school, a stage where self-concept and social identity are the main developmental tasks. This study uses Foucauldian Discourse Analysis to explore the discourses ten girls with a diagnosis of autism use in their constructions of self-concept and social identity in interviews and written journals. The actions that are made possible through the discourses employed are considered. Three discourses which participants draw upon are: a diagnostic discourse; an individualistic discourse; and a normativity discourse. These discourses were used to construct the self as a “legitimised autistic”, as “a person with support needs”, as “uniquely individual”, as a person “in the process of becoming” and as a “self in hiding from a hostile world”. Social identities based around constructs of “fitting in” and “sticking out” were identified. Implications for practice are suggested.