This struck me as a very insightful study of the policy making process in the EU which constitutes a convincing demonstration of the contribution which discourse analysis can make to researching that process. There are several aspects of this work which are I think particularly rich. First, the operationalisation of the theoretical concept of recontextualisation (developed especially by Bernstein) as a powerful analytical tool in tracing the development of policy making. Second, the analysis of globalisation as a rhetoric, and of how globalisation rhetoric figures within the policy making process particularly within the CAG, and its relationship to neoliberalism within the EU. Thirdly, the thematisation within a discourse analytical per! spective of problems of democracy and the public space. The book is a powerful synthesis of sociological, discoursal and linguistic analysis, and I think it will do much to enhance the claims of discourse analysts to have a substantive contribution to make to social scientific research.
- Norman Fairclough,
This book shows, that discourse analysis, when used in a careful and rigorous way, can contribute with convincing analysis to an area where hypercomplexity bars the way for more traditional political science methods.
- Sven Bislev, Copenhagen Business School, in the Journal of Language and Politics Vol. 3:2 (2004),