Discourses

Discourses refers to systems of knowledge, language, and practice that shape how topics are understood and talked about in society. A discourse encompasses statements, vocabularies, genres, and social institutions that together determine what counts as truth, who can speak, and what actions are legitimate. Discourses are not merely reflections of reality; they help construct social reality by organizing perception, power, and identity. The term is used across disciplines such as linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies, with attention to the social and historical contexts in which talking occurs.

Michel Foucault popularized the idea that discourses form "discursive formations" that govern knowledge and practice within a given period. Since then, scholars have examined how discourses constrain or enable political, medical, educational, and media practices, and how they mediate relations of power and difference. Whether approaching language as talk in use or as a system of ideas, discourse studies analyze how statements become accepted as normal, how experts claim authority, and how marginalized voices are included or excluded.

Discourses are studied through methods such as discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis, which investigate how language functions in context, encodes ideologies, and reflects social hierarchies. Researchers may examine texts, spoken interaction, media content, and institutional documents. Distinctions are sometimes drawn between discourse as language above sentence level and discourse as the broader field of talk about a topic. The plural form discourses signals the coexistence of multiple, competing ways of talking about and organizing a domain, such as political, scientific, or religious discourses.