Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Work

This chapter focuses on developing the type of ‘language critique’ in critical social work by deploying N. Fairclough’s three-dimensional analysis of discourse. It explores several key concepts of Critical discourse analysis (CDA) initially. Texts as forms of written, visual or spoken language are viewed as produced and consumed in our everyday social and cultural interactions. Genres and styles link to particular forms of acting in social events/interactions and the analyst locates how these align to wider social work discourses. Discourse is constitutive and constituted because, for CDA, it is understood as a form of social practice which both constitutes the social world and is constituted through powerful social practices. The social context is conceptualised by unpacking discourse through the three levels of analysis with the first level called the micro-analysis. This involves a systematic and detailed textual analysis and the other two layers are understood in CDA as the meso and macro level analysis.