Identifying Values Through Discourse Analysis

Abstract

AbstractThe aim of this chapter is to show how values can be identified through discourse analysis. To elaborate on this, we describe what discourse analysis is by drawing on theoretical contributions and earlier writings on the approach. Discourse analysis is presented here by three traditions with different theoretical and methodological connotations. The three approaches are structural-semantic discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis and discursive psychology. The different approaches are analysed and presented through an example text discussing the managerial model of trust-based leadership within the public sector in Scandinavia. The description of the approaches to discourse analysis gives the reader an understanding of the available choices of approaches within discourse analysis and how the different theoretical groundings make way for identifying values differently. In this chapter, readers are offered a framework for placing their own research projects within the three traditions of discourse analysis.