Archaeological, Alethurgical, and Dispositif Analysis: Discourse Studies on Higher Education in Poland from a Post-Foucauldian Perspective

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.17.1.8

Keywords:

Discourse Studies, Archaeological Discourse Analysis, Alethurgical Discourse Analysis, Dispositif Discourse Analysis, Higher Education, Michel Foucault

Abstract

At the present stage of the reception of Foucault’s ideas, various theoretical and methodological trends coexist, within which the concepts of Michel Foucault are used fruitfully in empirical research. One of them is discourse studies understood as an inter- and transdisciplinary research area. This article distinguishes and describes three post-Foucauldian strategies of discourse analysis, the combined use of which in one research project is a proposal to integrate concepts scattered in Foucault’s various works. The strategies distinguished (archaeological, alethurgical, and dispositif) are characterized by the different analytical categories, understanding of discourse, and its relations with knowledge and power. The article presents selected results of the complementary use of concepts such as knowledge formation, alethurgy, confession, or the dispositif in the empirical research on the reform of higher education in Poland.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Helena Ostrowicka, Kazimierz Wielki University, Poland

Helena Ostrowicka is a PhD, Hab., Associate Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Pedagogy, and Head of the Department of Research Methodology and Discourse Studies at Kazimierz Wielki University in Bydgoszcz, Poland. Her research areas are: policy and educational discourse analysis, reception of Foucauldian ideas in educational research, science and higher education policy, discourses on the youth and citizenship. She is the author of five monographs (i.a., Regulating Social Life: Discourses on the Youth and the Dispositif of Age 2019, Palgrave Macmillan; co-author: The Dispositif of the University Reform. The Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland, 2020, Routledge) and many articles published, among others, in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Philosophy and Theory, Higher Education Research & Development, European Educational Research Journal.

References

Angermüller, Johannes. 2001. “Diskursanalyse: Strömungen, Tendenzen, Perspektiven. Eine Einführung [Discourse Analysis: Currents, Tendencies, Perspectives. An Introduction].” Pp. 7-22 in Diskursanalyse: Theorien, Methoden, Anwendungen [Discourse Analysis: Theories, Methods, Applications], edited by J. Angermüller, K. Bunzmann, and M. Nonhoff. Hamburg: Argument.
Google Scholar

Angermüller, Johannes and Silke van Dyk. 2010. Diskursanalyse meets Gouvernementalitätsforschung. Perspektiven auf das Verhältnis von Subjekt, Sprache, Macht und Wissen [Discourse Analysis Meets Governmentality Research. Perspectives on the Relationship between Subject, Language, Power, and Knowledge]. Frankfurt, New York: Campus.
Google Scholar

Angermuller, Johannes, Dominique Maingueneau, and Ruth Wodak, eds. 2014. The Discourse Studies Reader. Main Currents in Theory and Analysis. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/z.184

Angermuller, Johannes et al. 2019. “The Academic Dispositif: Towards a Context-Centred Discourse Analysis.” Pp. 51-87 in Quantifying Approaches to Discourse for Social Scientists, edited by R. Scholz. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97370-8_3

Antonowicz, Dominik. 2015. Między siłą globalnych procesów a lokalną tradycją. Polskie szkolnictwo wyższe w dobie przemian [Between Global Processes and Local Tradition: Higher Education in Poland in the Times of Change]. Torun: UMK.
Google Scholar

Antonowicz, Dominik and Bartłomiej Gorlewski. 2011. Demograficzne tsunami. Raport Instytutu Sokratesa na temat wpływu zmian demograficznych na szkolnictwo wyższe do 2020 roku [The Demographic Tsunami. The Socrates Institute Report on the Impact of Demographic Change on Higher Education until 2020]. Warsaw: Instytut Sokratesa.
Google Scholar

Åkerstrøm Andersen, Niels. 2003. Discursive Analytical Strategies. Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau, Luhmann. Glasgow: The Policy Press.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1t898nd

Bacchi, Carol and Jennifer Bonham. 2014. “Reclaiming Discursive Practices as an Analytic Focus: Political Implications.” Foucault Studies 17:173-192.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i17.4298

Baker, Bernadette. 2007. “Normalizing Foucault? A Rhizomatic Approach to Plateaus in Anglophone Educational Research.” Foucault Studies 4:78-119.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i4.895

Ball, Stephen J. 1990. Politics and Policy Making in Education: Explorations in Policy Sociology. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Berger, Peter and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The Social Construction of Society. New York: Doubleday.
Google Scholar

Bernard, Alan and Jonathan Spencer, eds. 2010. The Routledge Encyclopedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Second Edition. New York, London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Besley, Tina A. C. 2005. “Self-Denial or Self-Mastery? Foucault’s Genealogy of the Confessional Self.” British Journal of Guidance & Counselling 33(3):365-382.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03069880500179582

Bröckling, Urlich, Susanne Krasmann, and Thomas Lemke, eds. 2011. Governmentality: Current Issues and Future Challenges. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203846476

Bührmann, Andrea D. and Werner Schneider. 2008. Vom Diskurs zum Dispositiv: Eine Einführung in die Dispositivanalyse [From Discourse to Dispositive: An Introduction to Dispositive Analysis]. Bielefeld: Transcript.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839408186

Bytniewski, Paweł. 2017. “Foucaulta pojęcie dyskursu – ryzyko użycia [Foucault’s Concept of Discourse—The Risk of Use].” Roczniki Historii Socjologii VII:57-71.
Google Scholar

Cannizzo, Fabian. 2015. “Academic Subjectivities: Governmentality and Self-Development in Higher Education.” Foucault Studies 20:199-217.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.v0i0.4937

Chomik, Dominik and Helena Ostrowicka. 2019. “The Status Quo, Imponderables of Change, and Evaluation: Between Higher Education Policy and Academic Discourse.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 20(1): Art. 11.
Google Scholar

Czachur, Waldemar. 2011. “Dyskursywny obraz świata. Kilka refleksji [The Discursive Image of the World. A Few Reflections].” Tekst i Dyskurs 4:79-97.
Google Scholar

Dean, Mitchel. 2010. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society. London: Sage.
Google Scholar

Diaz-Bone, Rainer. 2005. “Zur Methodologisierung der Foucaultschen Diskursanalyse [On the Methodology of Foucault’s Discourse Analysis].” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 7(1): Art. 6.
Google Scholar

Diaz-Bone, Rainer et al. 2007. “The Field of Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Structures, Developments and Perspectives.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 8(2): Art. 30.
Google Scholar

Dziedziczak-Foltyn, Agnieszka. 2017. Reforma szkolnictwa wyższego w Polsce w debacie publicznej [The Reform of Higher Education in Poland in the Public Debate]. Lodz: Wydawnictwo UŁ.
Google Scholar

Falkowski, Tomasz and Helena Ostrowicka. 2020. “Ethicalisation of Higher Education Reform: The Strategic Integration of Academic Discourse on Scholarly Ethos.” Educational Philosophy and Theory. Retrieved January 18, 2021 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1740684
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1740684

Fejes, Andreas and Magnus Dahlstedt. 2013. The Confessing Society: Foucault, Confession and Practices of Lifelong Learning. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203818176

Fejes, Andreas and Katherine Nicoll, eds. 2015. Foucault and a Politics of Confession in Education. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315763057

Filipowicz, Stanisław. 2012. “Krytyka. Imponderabilia i strategia. [Criticism. Imponderabilia and Strategy].” Nauka (2):33-42.
Google Scholar

Fleck, Ludwik. 1986. Powstanie i rozwój faktu naukowego. Wprowadzenie do nauki o stylu i kolektywie myślowym [The Emergence and Development of a Scientific Fact. An Introduction to Research into Style and Thought Collective]. Lublin: UMCS.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1977. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1978. The History of Sexuality. New York: Pantheon Books.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1981. “The Order of Discourse.” Pp. 51-78 in Untying the Text: A Post-Structuralist Reader, edited by R. Young. Boston, London, Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 1982. “The Subject and Power.” Pp. 208-228 in Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, 2nd ed., edited by H. L. Dreyfus and P. Rabinow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 2005. The Hermeneutics of the Subject: Lectures at the Collège de France 1981-1982. Reprint Edition. New York: Picador.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 2008. The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1978-1979 (A. I. Davidson, ed.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 2009. Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978 (A. I. Davidson, ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel. 2014. On the Government of the Living. Lectures at the Collège de France, 1979-1980 (A. I. Davidson, ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Foucault, Michel et al. 1994. “Le jeu de Michel Foucault [Michel Foucault’s Game].” Pp. 298-329 in M. Foucault Dits et écris III [Words and Writings III]. Paris: Gallimard.
Google Scholar

Holstein, James A. and Jaber F. Gubrium. 2005. “Interpretive Practice and Social Action.” Pp. 483-505 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Jessop, Bob. 2002. The Future of the Capitalist State. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Google Scholar

Jessop, Bob. 2008. “Kulturowa ekonomia polityczna a analiza dyskursu [Cultural Political Economy and Discourse Analysis].” Pp. 121-148 in Krytyczna Analiza Dyskursu. Interdyscyplinarne podejście do komunikacji społecznej [Critical Discourse Analysis: Interdisciplinary Approach to Social Communication], edited by A. Duszak and N. Faircloug. Cracow: Universitas.
Google Scholar

Keller, Rainer. 2011. Wissenssoziologische Diskursanalyse: Grundlegung eines Forschungsprogramms [The Sociology of Knowledge Discourse Analysis: Laying the Foundations for a Research Program]. Wiesbaden: VS-Verlag.
Google Scholar

Klemm, Jana and Georg Glasze. 2005. “Methodische Probleme Foucault-inspirierter Diskursanalysen in den Sozialwissenschaften [Methodological Problems of Foucault-Inspired Discourse Analyses in the Social Sciences].” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 6(2): Art. 24.
Google Scholar

Kwiek, Marek. 2009. “The Two Decades of Privatization in Polish Higher Education. Cost-Sharing, Equity, and Access.” Pp. 149-168 in Financing Access and Equity in Higher Education, edited by J. Knight. Rotterdam, Boston, Taipei: Sense Publishers.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789087907686_010

Leipold, Sina and Georg Winkel. 2013. “Discursive Agency: Towards an Actor-Centered Analysis of Political Discourses.” Paper presented at the 1st International Conference on Public Policy (ICPP 2013). Grenoble, France.
Google Scholar

Liesner, Andrea. 2007. “Governmentality, European Politics and the Neo-Liberal Reconstruction of German Universities.” Policy Futures in Education 5(4):449-459.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2007.5.4.449

McIlvenny, Paul, Julia Zhukova Klausen, and Laura Bang Lindegaard, eds. 2016. Studies of Discourse and Governmentality: New Perspectives and Methods. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.66

McKee, Kim. 2009. “Post-Foucauldian Governmentality: What Does It Offer Critical Social Policy Analysis?” Critical Social Policy 29(3):465-486.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0261018309105180

Nowicka, Magdalena. 2016. “O użyteczności kategorii dyspozytywu w badaniach społecznych [On the Usefulness of the Category of Dispositif in Social Research].” Przegląd Socjologii Jakościowej 12(1):170-191.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8069.12.1.10

Nowicka-Franczak, Magdalena. 2017. “Postfoucauldian Analysis of the Discourse on Education. Workshop Remarks.” Culture – Society – Education 2(12):171-198.
Google Scholar

O’Rourke, Brendan K. and Martyn Pitt. 2007. “Using the Technology of the Confessional as an Analytical Resource: Four Analytical Stances Towards Research Interviews in Discourse Analysis.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research 8(2): Art. 3.
Google Scholar

Ostrowicka, Helena. 2017. “The Educational Discourse, Veredictions and Pedagogies—From the Constellations of the Relations between Discourse and Education to the Alethurgic Analysis of the Educational Practice.” Culture – Society – Education 2(12):124-142.
Google Scholar

Ostrowicka, Helena, ed. 2018. Analiza dyskursu w badaniach szkolnictwa wyższego [Discourse Analysis in Higher Education Research]. Warsaw: Academic Publishing House SEDNO.
Google Scholar

Ostrowicka, Helena. 2019. Regulating Social Life: Discourses on the Youth and the Dispositif of Age. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16888-9

Ostrowicka, Helena. 2020. “Economization of Discourse on Education and Pedagogization of Economic Problems: Media Debate on Higher Education Reform in Poland.” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education. Retrieved January 18, 2021 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01596306.2020.1811957?journalCode=cdis20
Google Scholar

Ostrowicka, Helena and Justyna Spychalska-Stasiak. 2018. “Disciplining the Disciplined? ‘Culture of Confession’ in Academic Discourse in Poland.” Filosofija. Sociologija 4(29):314-326.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.6001/fil-soc.v29i4.3858

Ostrowicka, Helena and Justyna Spychalska-Stasiak. 2020. “The Responsibilized University. The Power of Parametrization.” Pp. 89-114 in The Dispositif of the University Reform. The Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland by H. Ostrowicka, J. Spychalska-Stasiak, and Ł. Stankiewicz. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429199639-4

Ostrowicka, Helena and Łukasz Stankiewicz. 2019. “The Truths of Business and the Lies of Academia: The Order of Discourse on Higher Education in Poland.” Higher Education Research & Development 38(3):609-622.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2018.1545746

Raffnsøe, Sverre, Marius S. Gudmand-Høyer, and Morten S. Thaning. 2014. “Foucault’s Dispositive: The Perspicacity of Dispositive Analytics in Organizational Research.” Organization 23(2):272-298.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508414549885

Rose, Nikolas. 1990. Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Saari, Antti. 2017. “Wandering along the Moebius Strip: Radical Reflexivity in the Archaeology of Educational Research.” Culture – Society – Education 2(12):129-151.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/kse.2017.12.6.

Scheurich, James J. and Kathryn B. McKenzie. 2008. “Foucault’s Methodologies: Archaeology and Genealogy.” Pp. 841- 869 in Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative Materials, edited by N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Google Scholar

Sen, Vicheth. 2019. “Hybrid Governmentality: Higher Education Policymaking in Post-Conflict Cambodia.” Studies in Higher Education 44(3):513-525.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2017.1379985

Sethy, Satya S., ed. 2018. Higher Education and Professional Ethics: Roles and Responsibilities of Teachers. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351173803

Silverman, David. 2001. Interpreting Qualitative Data. Methods for Analyzing Talk, Text and Interaction. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Google Scholar

Silverman, David. 2005. Doing Qualitative Research. London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi: Sage Publications.
Google Scholar

Simons, Marten. 2006. “Learning as Investment: Notes on Governmentality and Biopolitics.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 38(4):523-540.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-5812.2006.00209.x

Sousa, Sofia B. and Antonio Magalhaes. 2013. “Discourse Analysis in Higher Education Research.” Pp. 81-96 in Theory and Method in Higher Education Research, edited by J. Huisman and M. Tight. Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-3628(2013)0000009008

Spychalska-Stasiak, Justyna. 2019. “Universitas studiorum? Analiza formacji wiedzy na temat relacji nauczyciel akademicki – student [Universitas studiorum? An Analysis of the Formation of Knowledge about the Academic Teacher-Student Relationship].” Pp. 109-127 in Dyskursywny obraz reform szkolnictwa wyższego w Polsce 2011-2014 [The Discursive Image of the Reform of Higher Education in Poland 2011-2014] by H. Ostrowicka et al. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Google Scholar

Spychalska-Stasiak, Justyna and Helena Ostrowicka. 2020. “Academic Discourse: Formations of Knowledge about the Reform.” Pp. 24-58 in The Dispositif of the University Reform. Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland by H. Ostrowicka, J. Spychalska-Stasiak, and Ł. Stankiewicz. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429199639-2

Stankiewicz, Łukasz and Helena Ostrowicka. 2020a. “The Dispositif of Discipline and the Neoliberal Governance of Students.” Pp. 114-148 in The Dispositif of the University Reform. Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland by H. Ostrowicka, J. Spychalska-Stasiak, and Ł. Stankiewicz. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429199639-5

Stankiewicz, Łukasz and Helena Ostrowicka. 2020b. “The Dispositif of Law: The Juridification of the Higher Education System in Poland.” Pp. 59-88 in The Dispositif of the University Reform. Higher Education Policy Discourse in Poland by H. Ostrowicka, J. Spychalska-Stasiak, and Ł. Stankiewicz. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429199639-3

Tanesini, Alessandra. 1994. “Whose Language?” Pp. 203-216 in Knowing the Difference: Feminist Perspectives in Epistemology, edited by K. Lennon and M. Whitford. New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Taylor, Dianna, ed. 2010. Michel Foucault. Key Concepts. London, New York: Routledge.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/UPO9781844654734

Thiel, Jonas. 2019. “The UK National Student Survey: An Amalgam of Discipline and Neo-Liberal Governmentality.” British Educational Research Journal 45(3):538-553.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3512

Truschkat, Inga. 2008. Kompetenzdiskurs und Bewerbungsgespräche. Eine Dispositivanalyse (neuer) Rationalitäten sozialer Differenzierung [Competence Discourse and Job Interviews. A Dispositive Analysis of (New) Rationalities of Social Differentiation]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Google Scholar

Wengler, Joannah C., Britta Hoffarth, and Łukasz Kumięga, eds. 2013. Verortungen des Dispositiv-Begriffs. Analytische Einsätze zu Raum, Bildung, Politik [Locations of the Dispositive Concept. Analytical Assignments to Space, Education, Politics]. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-94260-5

Downloads

Published

2021-02-08

How to Cite

Ostrowicka, H. (2021). Archaeological, Alethurgical, and Dispositif Analysis: Discourse Studies on Higher Education in Poland from a Post-Foucauldian Perspective. Qualitative Sociology Review, 17(1), 110–132. https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.17.1.8