International Conference in Ideology and Discourse Analysis 2019

Logics, Critical Explanation and the Future of Critical Political Theory: Applying Discourse Analysis in Multiple Contexts University of Essex May 31 - June 1 2019

The publication of Hegemony and Socialist Strategy in 1985 stimulated the emergence of a new post-Marxist approach to social and political analysis. It also presented a radical challenge to both the mainstream methods of social science and our styles of critical and political engagement. In synthesizing key aspects of continental philosophy, Marxist political economy, political theory, structural linguistics and psychoanalysis, Laclau & Mouffe’s text captured the mood of the times. But this ‘originary text’ of the Essex School of Discourse Theory also embodies a dramatic provocation for scholars, citizens and political projects alike. Indeed, Hegemony and Socialist Strategy produces just as many challenges and invitations as it does clear solutions. At the same time, much has changed since the 1980s: the fall of communism, the rise of neoliberal globalization and its various discontents, not to mention the ‘populist moment’ and the threat of catastrophic climate change. Yet the relevance of this intervention and its productive reception is still pressing today.

This conference marks the 12th anniversary of the publication of another key text associated with the Essex School of Discourse Theory: Jason Glynos and David Howarth’s Logics of Critical Explanation in Social and Political Theory. The ‘logics approach’ addresses important issues of method and critique by operationalizing key insights of Laclau and Mouffe’s work - and poststructuralism more generally - for the conduct of critical empirical research. This text has also served to inspire and provoke a new generation of scholars across the globe in a wide range of disciplines. It has disclosed new research puzzles and questions, while also inviting further inquiry into its founding assumptions and empirical applications.