Framing the Threat

3 Discourse Theory

The previous chapters focused on the theoretical assumptions regarding the social construction of the world. The constructivist perspective, including theorizing by Austin and Searle, provided important groundwork for discourse theory to evolve under a new perspective. Today, the role of discourse in constituting the social world is so widely acknowledged in the social sciences that some scholars speak of a ‘discursive turn’ in reference to the ‘linguistic turn’ that set the path towards the ‘radical’ constructivist paradigm. The background to discourse theory, however, is broader and there are also other influences that led to the development of its theoretical approaches. Therefore, this chapter outlines how ‘discourse’ is ...