Discursive Psychology ─ Classic and Contemporary Issues

Over the past twenty five years discursive psychology has become an influential field in its home discipline of psychology, as well as in many other academic disciplines, with national and international impact. This will be the first collection to systematically and critically appraise its foundational, classic studies, exploring central concepts in social psychology such as prejudice, attitudes, gender, cognition, memory, and ideology and discussing how discursive psychology has influenced the development of these fields.

International contributors look back at the innovations made in classic papers under discussion, and consider the impact on, trajectory of, and contribution to subsequent work. The book questions how discursive psychology has accommodated and responded to assumptions contained in classic studies and discusses what can still be gained from a ‘dialogue’ with these classic studies, and which epistemological and methodological debates are still running, or are worth ‘resurrecting’.

Each chapter summarizes a classic paper on the subject and locates it in its academic context - identifying the concerns that motivated the author and the particular perspective that informed their thinking. Each chapter goes on to identify the main empirical, theoretical or methodological contribution of the paper and its impact on subsequent work in discursive psychology, including the contributors own work. It concludes with a critical consideration of how discursive psychology can continue to develop.

This book will make a timely contribution and advance discursive psychology by fostering critical perspectives upon its intellectual and empirical agenda. It will appeal to those working in the area of discursive psychology, discourse analysis and social interaction, including researchers, social psychologists and students.

Cristian Tileaga is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology at the University of Loughborough, UK.

Elizabeth Stokoe is Professor of social interaction and Loughborough University, UK, and is acting editor of the British journal of social psychology