Analysing discourse as a causal mechanism
| Author | Benjamin Banta |
| DOI | 10.1177/1354066111428970 |
| Published date | 01 June 2013 |
| Date | 01 June 2013 |
European Journal of
International Relations
19(2) 379 –402
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1354066111428970
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E
JR
I
Analysing discourse as a
causal mechanism
Benjamin Banta
University of Delaware, USA
Abstract
Utilising critical realist philosophy of social science, this article contends that discourse
may be studied as a causal mechanism in the generation of events — and one relationally
connected to mechanisms of differing kinds. To do this, it is argued that we should adopt
critical discourse analysis rather than the guidance of poststructuralist discourse theory.
After establishing the key assumptions of poststructuralist discourse theory, some of
the substantive analytical tendencies that secrete are discussed and illustrated through a
look at the treatment of humanitarian discourse in the International Relations literature
on the nature of Western warfare. The article then places discourse within a critical
realist view of the social world. I argue that unlike in poststructuralist discourse theory,
with critical realism, discourse can be differentiated from the realm of extra-discursive
practice, placed in dialectical relation to this wider realm of social relations, and analysed
as a possible causal mechanism in the generation of social phenomena, alongside these
other mechanisms, as a way to better determine discourse’s actual effect on events.
critical discourse analysis is introduced as offering an amenable methodological tool-kit
for studying discourse as conceptualised in this way.
Keywords
critical security studies, discourse, International Relations, methodology, ontology,
poststructuralism
Introduction
This article seeks a way that discourse can be studied as a causal mechanism in the gen-
eration of the macro-social events studied by International Relations (IR) scholars. I do
Corresponding author:
Benjamin Banta, University of Delaware — Political Science and International Relations, 347 Smith Hall,
Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Email: bbanta@udel.edu
428970EJT19210.1177/1354066111428970BantaEuropean Journal of International Relations
2012
Article
380 European Journal of International Relations 19(2)
this because of dissatisfaction not only with how discourse is often studied in IR, but also
because of the avoidance of discourse analysis in the study of empirical puzzles which
clearly involve some significant impact being attributed to a particular discourse or dis-
courses. Of course, to the extent that every social event or act involves some level of
communication, anything can be analysed for the discourses that surround and give
meaning to it. To do so for most IR scholars means to adopt a ‘discourse perspective’ —
specified by the most popular discourse-analytic sub-field in IR, poststructuralist dis-
course theory (PDT) (Torfing, 2005: 3). Within PDT it is contended that to study
discourse one must avoid any pretence to claims of having found some relatively vital
causal relationship within a phenomenon, or any meaningful role for extra-discursive
‘reality’. It is this aspect of PDT that I wish to challenge, with the hope of opening up the
study of discourse to scholars not willing to adopt a discourse perspective on the social
world. To do so I propose a foundation, and some tools, for which discourse might be
studied as but one causal thing among myriad possible others.
It may be questioned whether opening the study of discourse to scholars unwilling to
adopt a PDT perspective on the social world is necessary, or whether it is even feasible.
Maybe causal social science is adequate without integrating discourse within explanatory
narratives? Or maybe attempting to do so means integrating that which cannot be inte-
grated, a world of causal ‘things’ and a world of the non-causal but instead constitutive?
As far as the question of need is concerned, this article presents, as an illustrative
example, the IR literature on the nature of late-modern Western war. Here PDT’s domi-
nance seems to either short-circuit the adequate study of discourse, or causes those who
adopt a poststructuralist or postmodernist perspective to grant certain discourses a ques-
tionable degree of influence. I particularly concentrate on a discourse of humanitarian-
ism said by many to strikingly affect the ‘Western way of war’ since the end of the Cold
War. It is clear that this discourse is an important element in theorizations of the present
and future manifestations of war for the West. There are, however, vastly different posi-
tions on the direction of its effect without any forthright attempt to garner evidence that
would go some way towards reconciliation. In short, some further analysis of the dis-
course is needed. But the nature of existing theoretical frameworks — where significant
play is given to extra-discursive causal elements such as technology, system structure or
post-industrial social conditions — means that in order to resolve disagreements by
building upon existing knowledge, a PDT perspective is inadequate.
To show how this is so, I begin this article with a discussion of the foundational tenets
of PDT. I contend that these give rise to methodological choices which could not offer up
the kind of evidence needed to address empirical puzzles involving competing views on
the impact of a discourse or discourses, and which also involve the operation of extra-
discursive causal ‘things’. PDT is in short too ambiguous on the status of the extra-discur-
sive. While PDT does not deny the reality of a world outside of discourse, there is an
important block thrown up against integrating it meaningfully into analysis. With an inter-
vention assisted by the philosophical position of critical realism (CR) — which it should
be here noted is fundamentally useful for the way it emphasizes ontological reflection
over epistemology — it is contended that poststructuralism’s philosophical ontology
is anti-realist and therefore allows researchers to do no more than offer internally rich
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