Discourse Analysis

Software as Discourse

The central perspective that underlies most of the articles featured on this blog could be summarised by the notion of ‘software as discourse’. I would like to give an overview of what this concept means to me from a theoretical point of view, on which assumptions it relies, and what it…

Towards a Critical Discursive Analysis of Neuroscientific Accounts of Addiction

I take the liberty of going off-subject a little bit by publishing this essay I wrote recently. Hope some will find it of interest!


Abstract
Neuroscientific discourses about addiction have…

Social science for software developers — Using tools from social science to inform software design: should software developers also be social scientists?

A practical example of the application of Conversation Analytic concepts

The transcript presented below is a classic piece of data that have been used extensively by numerous conversation analysts to illustrate a rather large variety of CA concepts and notions. Below is a short…

Conversation Analysis: a short introduction

Conversation analysis, or CA, focuses on the fine-grain analysis of talk in the framework of actual, day-to-day conversations between social actors. Its aim is to provide practical tools for allowing an understanding of the tacit rules and inherent order…

Applying social scientific concepts to domain definition: a short overview

One of the main issues in the design of most commercial software products is what is commonly called ‘domain definition’. This activity could be roughly understood as the definition of the ‘objects’ and…