Diskursteori

Diskursteori is the study of how language, talk and texts shape and are shaped by social structures, power relations and knowledge production. It treats discourse as a form of social practice that constructs reality, legitimizes norms, and mediates identity, politics and policy. The tradition includes several strands with different emphases.

Michel Foucault's approach analyzes discourses as organized by historical formations and rules—discursive formations—that govern what can be said and thought at a given time. Concepts such as power-knowledge, regimes of truth, and the genealogy of ideas highlight how truth claims emerge through institutions and practices.

Jürgen Habermas emphasizes the normative potential of discourse, arguing that legitimate norms arise from rational-critical discussion under ideal conditions of communication (the ideal speech situation) and universalizable validity claims, with attention to power imbalances.

Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), associated with Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, treats discourse as a social practice that reproduces or challenges social inequalities; it combines linguistic analysis with social and political context to reveal ideologies and power relations in texts.

Related approaches in sociolinguistics explore intertextuality, stance, indexing, and the discursive construction of identities.

Diskursteori has wide application in political and media analysis, education, and policy debates, often employing qualitative textual analysis complemented by contextual data.

Critiques concern risks of determinism, limited empirical testability, and balancing discourse with material conditions. Nevertheless diskursteori remains influential for examining how language both reflects and shapes social order.