The sociology of knowledge approach to discourse

The Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse (SKAD) is a discourse analysis approach suitable for research questions and agendas in sociology and related disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. It has developed a conceptual frame of its research object (discourses, discursive construction and transformation of realities, discursive conflicts), a methodology and a comprehensive range of conceptual tools in order to inquire into that object. It explores the social arenas and processes in which social actors involved in heterogeneous forms of meaning making compete for the symbolic and practical making and unmaking of the world, its objects, actors and practices. SKAD promotes the use of different kinds of empirical data and analytical strategies anchored in qualitative and interpretive social sciences. It points to the urgent need to focus discourse research on the core questions of power/knowledge regimes and the work they do in contemporary societies.