Discourse Theory in European Politics: Identity, Policy and Governance
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This collection of essays is accompanied by a series of ambitions: to underline the relevance of discourse theory to empirical research; to establish its applicability to the core topics of social and political science as well as the ‘softer’ topics of gender, ethnicity et al.; and to demonstrate that, while rejecting positivist definitions of good method, discourse theorists by no means abandon the pursuit of rigour. Under the heading ‘European Politics’, David Howarth and Jacob Torfing have assembled a rich and immensely diverse set of essays. While readers with an interest in European politics may find a certain lack of coherence in the book, readers whose interest is in discourse theory — and who do not fetishize the coherence of texts — will find a lively and convincing presentation of what the discourse theoretical approach can do. Recent decades have seen the unfolding of the so-called ‘linguistic turn’ in the social and political sciences, inspired in continental Europe by German hermeneutics and French post-structuralism. Discourse theory has been one of the most successful variants of this turn in the Anglo tradition, developing a stronghold at Essex under Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and achieving gradual acceptance at many universities in Britain and Denmark. Torfing’s excellent introductory chapter to this volume charts the emergence of discourse theory as an alternative to mainstream objectivist and rationalist approaches to the study of politics and society. He sketches the various schools that attach themselves to the discourse framework and engages with the major criticisms generally made of the approach: its silence on the ontological status of the ‘real world’; its alleged weak explanatory power; the denial of a neutral vantagepoint from which to criticize its subject matter (leading supposedly to a ‘relativist’ drift); and the problem of accepting authority claims made by a text which is avowedly anti-essentialist. As a summary of the discipline and a statement of purpose, Torfing’s chapter is a strong and accessible introduction to the field. David Howarth’s concluding piece is likewise extensive, distilling the methodological questions which run through the book into practical proposals on strategies for research. These serve as a reminder that discourse Journal of International Relations and Development, 2006, 9, (196–199) r 2006 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd 1408-6980/06 $30.00
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Book Review
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theory should be seen not as a closed system of rules for the application of rules, but rather as a set of ontological commitments which, when carefully adhered to, can support a wide range of methods, chosen pragmatically with the concerns of the research question in mind. Pegged tightly at the corners like this, the book’s main canvas can flutter in the breeze. The 12 empirical studies are only loosely connected to European politics. Just a few essays adopt an explicitly transnational focus: Ole Waever examines how historically evolving discourses of ‘state’, ‘nation’
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