Laclau & Mouffe - Discursive Dicensus
The group have been looking at discussing the ideas within the concepts of "Discursive Documents" and how the work of Habermas (1981), and his "The Theory of Communicative Action", which is a two-volume book by Jürgen Habermas can play out in the "Discursive Documents" exhibition by Dr Liam Devlin. Starting with Habermas's position help to explain the ideas of discourse through consensus shaping society, in terms of how we think and behave within communities and society at large.
In Habermas's theories, his aim is in finding a position of "the social sciences in a theory of language" Habermas (1988, p. xiv), that he had written about earlier in 'On the Logic of the Social Sciences' Habermas (1967, (p39, preface)).
The original 1981 book has its contents divided into two large volumes of which, part 1 is 'Reason and the Rationalization of Society', (1987, p7, Translated by McArthy ), in which Habermas establishes the idea of 'communicative rationality' (1981) ; and the second volume, which he called "Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason" (1981) (1987, translated by McArthy), provides a detailed account in which Habermas attempts to define his ideas of 'a two level concept of society'. The works provide a critical theory for modernity in sociological terms, with it's roots in the emergence of new societal paradigms developing through the 19th and 20th centuries.
(However, it should be noted here that in German, the conjunction of words such as 'Lifeworld' is a regular feature of the language, yet it does not always translate purely, into the English language).
Habermas built upon the foundation of his earlier works, 'The Theory of Communicative Action' (1981), in selecting it as a launching point for further theorisation on society, with regards to Law, morality, and democracy; Fultner (2011, p54).
It could be critically evaluated that, at the opposite end of the spectrum of social theories, by turning now to considering the works of Laclau and Mouffe, who tend to like the label of 'Radical Constructivists' or Radical Democratists, according to some. Both these thinkers provide an alternative, yet effective framework for achieving a discourse analysis of media.
This is built upon the notions of Felix Guattari and Giles Deleuze, in their assertion that 'alloplastic strata' (which is the third strata, the first two being Geology (Inorganic) and Biological (Organic)). Massumi (1987). Guattari and Deleuze stated;
"There is a third major grouping of strata, defined less by a human essence than, once again, by a new distribution of content and expression. Form of content becomes “alloplastic” rather than “homoplastic”; in other words, it brings about modification in the external world. Form of expression becomes linguistic rather than genetic; in other words, it operates with symbols that are comprehensible, transmittable, and modifiable from outside" Massumi (1987).
In-terms-of alloplastic strata (that is, the 'social' strata)- this which contains at least two articulations of content and expression, - this, to a certain extent, Laclau and Mouffe can help in analysing the expressive components of alloplastic strata, providing the second articulation as a 'discourse'.
We can assume that this second articulation in alloplastic strata terms, can be seen as the second reading of a deconstructionist reading where this second reading is unfaithful, attempting to find what is excluded, neglected, and repressed within the text. Laclau and Mouffe’s aim of deconstructionist discourse analysis is to reveal the dominant discourse in a discursive field (first reading) and identify what is excluded in the articulations of these dominant discourses (second reading). However, the second articulation is not always in-the-form-of a discourse. It is at this point that Laclau and Mouffe’s ideas of articulation become ineffective and limited in comparison to Deleuze and Guattari’s defining articulation as (at least) a double articulation process.
In conjunction, Laclau and Mouffe are unhelpful for understanding the content (first articulation) of alloplastic strata. Their language-centred discourse analysis fails to provide a method for analysing (media) technology and how it literally constructs the world from focusing on the messages and not the (material) mediums (eg. the symbiotic relationships/assemblages formed with technology).
References:
Deluze, G. & Guatari, F. (1980) A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia,Originally published as Mille Plateaux, volume 2 of Capitalisme et Schizophrenic © 1980 by Les Editions de Minuit, Paris.
Massumi, B,(1987), "A Thousand Plateaus; Capitalism & Schizophrenia" (translated by Massumi, B.) The University of Minnesota Press, Michigan, USA.
Fultner, B. (2011), "Introduction; Communicative action and formal pragmatics", in Fultner, B, "Jürgen Habermas: Key Concepts". Acumen Books, Durham, United Kingdom: ISBN 978-1-84465-237-2
Habermas, J. (1988). On the Logic of the Social Sciences. (Translated by Shierry Weber Nicholson and Jerry A. Stark). The MIT Press, Massachusetts, USA. ISBN 0262581043.
Habermas, J. (1984). Theory of Communicative Action, Volume One: Reason and the Rationalization of Society (Book). (Translated by Thomas A. McCarthy). Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ISBN 978-0-8070-1507-0.
Habermas, J. (1987). Theory of Communicative Action, Volume Two: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason (Translated by Thomas A. McCarthy). Beacon Press, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. ISBN 0-8070-1401-X.