Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 1 (1): i-ii

Introduction by Editors

Christopher Hart
University of Hertfordshire
Email: c.j.hart@herts.ac.uk
Dominik Lukeš
University of East Anglia
Email: d.lukes@uea.ac.uk

Welcome the inaugural issue of the new journal Critical Approaches to Discourse
Analysis Across Disciplines. In 2006, the University of East Anglia, where research
first began thirty years before into what would become Critical Linguistics, hosted an
international conference CADAAD 06. The conference was a resounding success,
attracting nearly eighty scholars from four continents. The success of CADAAD 06
can perhaps be attributed to two principal factors. Firstly, it having been the only
international event of its kind in Europe in a decade. And secondly, its cross-
disciplinary reach.
An overarching objective of CADAAD 06 was to bring together scholars united by a
critical agenda in discourse research but otherwise separated by arbitrary academic
boundaries. This objective was reflected in the choice of plenary speakers and further
realised in the range of papers delivered, with scholars from analytic disciplines as
diverse as linguistics, communication studies, philosophy, psychology and political
science all presenting critically informed discourse research.
At a more subordinate level, the conference sought to assess and develop the state of
the art in two ways. On the one hand, where Halliday’s systemic functional
linguistics has provided the prevailing methodology in Critical Discourse Analysis,
perhaps the dominating trend on the critical discourse research plane, CADAAD 06
aimed to highlight current critical discourse research in which alternative
methodological perspectives are adopted and, thus, illuminate and assess the wide
range of potential methodologies available to critical discourse researchers, including
cognitive linguistics, argumentation theory, and post-modernist social theory. On the
other hand, where racism, for example, has typically been subject to investigation in
Critical Discourse Analysis, CADAAD 06 aimed to expand the areas targeted by
critical discourse research to include especially applied and professional areas, such as
the environment, health, education, and law.
What became immediately apparent, then, was that the wish to meet the goals set out
by the conference organisers was shared by a large number of scholars. Furthermore,
the need for a permanent stage upon which members of this new ‘community’ could
interact became increasingly obvious. Thus, to this end, www.cadaad.org was born.
In developing this ongoing project, a proper publishing platform was seen as
essential. As part of our commitment to a freely accessible online space serving the
critical discourse research community, we decided that this publishing platform
should take the form a free but formal, peer-reviewed electronic journal, the aims and
scope of which mirror those outlined for CADAAD 06.

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 Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 1 (1): i-ii

We are hoping that Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines fills
a gap in publication opportunities for critical discourse researchers who may have
heretofore found only an uneasy acceptance either in their home applied disciplines or
in the more methodologically restricted journals dealing with one or another
incarnation of (Critical) Discourse Analysis. Disciplinarity provides useful theoretical
frameworks for research and necessary organisational frameworks. In both senses,
however, it can be restrictive, often leading to insularity and even incestuousness.
This journal hopes to take advantage of disciplinarity whilst at the same time
challenging the boundaries autoimposed by it. This inaugural issue is a special
extended issue comprising selected papers presented at CADAAD 06. Papers
applying cognitive linguistic methods in critical discourse research were presented
during a theme session at the conference and will appear in a separate volume
Cognitive Linguistics in Critical Discourse Studies: Application and Theory to be
published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
In accordance with the themes of the journal, great variety is evident in the individual
methodologies employed and explored by the contributors, ranging over relevance
theory and pragma-dialectics (Oswald), cognitive pragmatics (de Saussure),
discursive psychology (Goodman), register theory (Pagani), postmodernist philosophy
(Caborn), and, most predominantly, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Teo,
Macgilchrist, Määttä, Magistro, Lean). However, although CDA provides a banner
for many of the papers in this issue, it should be noted that its canonical analytic
methods are often not applied. Rather, a number of other methodological approaches
are developed or employed within CDA thus enriching it as a discipline. These
include blending theory (Macgilchrist), discourse model theory (Felberg), and
politeness theory (Magistro).
The applied areas subject to investigation are similarly varied. They include
architecture (Caborn), European law (Määttä), higher education (Teo), international
conflict (Felberg, Macgilcrist), European and national identity (Magistro and
Goodman respectively), health (Lean), and local-government communication
(Pagani).
Finally, the editors would like to express their gratitude to all those involved with
CADAAD'06, without whom this whole project would not have received its initial
impetus. Acknowledgment is also due to the eminent scholars who have agreed to act
on the journal's advisory board and who will inevitably bring to the journal an
international and cross-disciplinary perspective. We must also thank the members of
the CADAAD community, whose continuous support and participation will ensure the
project's long-term success. We are hoping that this community will continue to grow
and that the journal will publish critical discourse research exploring the application
of a wide range of methods to a variety of discourses, thus continuing the trend set by
this inaugural issue.

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