Texts and Practices Revisited

Over a quarter of a century has passed since the first path-breaking volume entitled Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. That volume charted the emergence of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a radical new field in the study of language in social life, with the editors and the contributors being key players in the definition of the field, and developing new lines of theory-building and of research practice. The publication of this new volume, Texts and Practices Revisited, represents another significant landmark in the CDA field. It showcases the strengths of the early work, alongside new lines of critical inquiry that have been developed and consolidated by different generations of CDA scholars, in different regions of the world. Both volumes will be read together by future scholars. Together, they provide a unique overview of the powerful conceptual compasses that have been designed and recalibrated within the field. They also provide invaluable insights into the ways in which these analytic approaches have been applied in research that is committed to the unveiling of the role of discourse and ideologies in the construction, and reproduction, of asymmetries of power and social inequalities.

-- Marilyn Martin-Jones, University of Birmingham, UK

Like the publication of the ground-breaking first edition of Texts and Practices, Texts and Practices Revisited marks another key moment in the development of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). It features new and revised contributions by many of the original contributors to the first edition—all still leading figures in CDA—and combines these with cutting-edge work by younger scholars of CDA. The collection expands the geopolitical breadth of the original edition and broadens the range of data examined: multimodal ‘texts’ figure prominently as do texts facilitated by new media technologies. The collection provides a state-of-art treatment of current issues and analytic concepts in CDA and is essential reading for anyone interested in the role of discourse in the perpetuation of social inequalities.

-- Susan Ehrlich, York University, Canada

'Over a quarter of a century has passed since the first path-breaking volume entitled Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis. That volume charted the emergence of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) as a radical new field in the study of language in social life, with the editors and the contributors being key players in the definition of the field, and developing new lines of theory-building and of research practice. The publication of this new volume, Texts and Practices Revisited, represents another significant landmark in the CDA field. It showcases the strengths of the early work, alongside new lines of critical inquiry that have been developed and consolidated by different generations of CDA scholars, in different regions of the world. Both volumes will be read together by future scholars. Together, they provide a unique overview of the powerful conceptual compasses that have been designed and recalibrated within the field. They also provide invaluable insights into the ways in which these analytic approaches have been applied in research that is committed to the unveiling of the role of discourse and ideologies in the construction, and reproduction, of asymmetries of power and social inequalities.'

Marilyn Martin-Jones, University of Birmingham, UK