Approaching religion through linguistics: methodological thoughts on a linguistic analysis of 'religion' in political communication
Garling, Stephen (2013)
Garling, Stephen
The Donner Institute, Åbo Akademi
2013
Kuvaus
Stephanie Garling is currently working at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg, Germany. In 2000–7 she studied political science, law and economics at the University of Leipzig. Her PhD thesis dealt with the construction of religion in foreign aid. In addition to this, her main research interests are questions of identity, critical development theory and discourse analysis. Her last publication was a volume edited together with Simon W. Fuchs entitled Religion in Diktatur und Demokratie. Zur Bedeutung religiöser Werte, Praktiken und Institutionen in politischen Transformationsprozessen [Religion in Dictatorship and Democracy: Religious Values, Practices and Institution in Political Transformation Processes] (Münster 2011).
Tiivistelmä
The constructions of ‘religion’ in general language are seldom themselves in the focus of empirical research. Aiming to retrieve the inherent knowledge that lies within these constructions, this article suggests a term-based textual analysis to focus on the linguistic use of ‘religion’. This method invites us to question the unity of texts through an analysis of textual semantics. It offers the chance to ask about the formation of the concept. The article initially shows how this approach differs from comparative and policy-oriented studies by differentiating between criticism and critique. It then develops the idea of a term-based textual analysis. Using examples from the policy field of foreign aid, the text illustrates how much inherent knowledge there is in the usage of ‘religion’ in political communication and calls for a general reconsideration of the way ‘religion’ is approached in empirical research.
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