Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

Critical Discourse Analysis analyzes analyzes “real and often extended instances of social interaction which take a linguistic form, or a partially linguistic form” (Fairclough and Wodak, 1997, p. 258). The CDA considers discourse as a form of ‘social practice’, whose description implies considerations about a two-way relationship: not only is the discursive event shaped by situations, institutions, and social structures, but it also shapes them. That is, the discourse constitutes the social identities and relationships between people and groups of people and contributes to their change (Fairclough, 1992; Fairclough and Wodak, 1997). According to Van Dijk (1997a,b), language users engaging in discourse accomplish social acts and participate in social interactions.

The ideological loading of particular ways of using language and the relations of power that underlie them, however, are often unclear to people, particularly when the discourse is on scientific results whose understanding and comparative evaluation demands a high level of competence and a significant amount of time. The CDA, therefore, aims at making more visible these opaque aspects of discourse.

CDA has much in common with the ‘analysis of controversies’ which focuses on disputes, which highlight the social contradictions inherent in many decisions about science and technology, in order to describe the special interests, vital concerns, and hidden assumptions of various actors (Nelkin, 1992).

Analysis of the economic, social, and environmental stakes underlying the stakeholders’ discourses is part of critical discourse analysis. A framework that can be used for the analysis of the economic, social, and environmental stakes underlying the stakeholders' discourses is the so-called
‘tetrahedron of the four spheres of sustainability’ (O'Connor, 2006).

This tool, developed for the analysis of sustainability issues, highlights the interdependency between economic, social, and environmental dimensions. The economic sphere, often the principal focus of development policy discourses and indicators, depends for its viability on the vitality of the social and environmental spheres and, at the same time, affects them. Governance for sustainability, therefore, centers on the regulation of the economic sphere in relation to the two other spheres in order to assure the simultaneous respect for quality/performance goals pertaining to each of the three spheres and the
respect of one sphere in relation to another (O'Connor, 2006).

References
Fairclough N, Wodak R. Critical discourse analysis. In: Van Dijk TA, editor. Discourse as structure and process, vol. 2. London: Sage; 1997. p. 258–84.

Nelkin D, editor. Controversy. Politics of technical decisions. Newbury Park: Sage Publications; 1992. 258 pp.

O'Connor M. Building knowledge partnership with ICT? Some lessons from GOUVERNe and VIRTUALIS. Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: Cahier du C3ED, vol. 06-01. 2006. p. 11–2.

Van Dijk TA. Discourse, power and access. In: Caldas-Coulthard CR, Coulthard M, editors. Text and practices. Readings in critical discourse analysis. London: Routledge; 1996. p. 84–104.

Van Dijk TA. The study of discourse. In:Van Dijk TA, editor. Discourse as structure and process, vol. 1. London: Sage; 1997a. p. 1–35.

Van Dijk TA. Discourse as interaction in Society. In: Van Dijk TA, editor. Discourse as social interaction, vol. 2. London: Sage; 1997b. p. 1–37.