Painting the postfoundational picture

Discourse approaches to politics, society and culture, pp. 1–16

Abstract

Abstract This introductory chapter lays the ontological and epistemological groundwork for this book, by providing a review of its key themes and concepts, and outlining the book’s theoretical and methodological position. More specifically, the book’s topic is introduced based on a number of data points from the contributing chapters. These point to the ubiquity of participation, engagement and collaboration, but also to the tension they potentially create, including in the context of newsmaking. To understand the key concepts in this central argument, two bodies of literature are discussed. We first delineate how we understand newsmaking, and focus on a number of recent changes in this domain that are relevant for our central argument, such as that newsmaking is increasingly engaging with a number of communities and professional stakeholders, and that user-generated content and audience feedback have become central. Second, the literature on participation, engagement and collaboration is reviewed, exploring how predominant these concepts have become in many realms of life, and how they are often related to democratic ideals. Subsequently, we argue for the relevance of a postfoundational perspective, and for the value of fieldwork approaches.

Authors 4

1. Jana Declercq

   University of Groningen · Ghent University · Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen

   Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen / Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research / Ghent University

2. Felicitas Macgilchrist

   University of Groningen · Ghent University · Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute

   Affiliation as printed

   Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research

   Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen / Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research / Ghent University

3. Astrid Vandendaele Aachen

   Leiden University · University of Groningen · Ghent University · Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University

   Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen / Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research / Ghent University

4. Geert Jacobs

   University of Groningen · Ghent University · Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute

   Affiliation as printed

   Ghent University

   Center for Language and Cognition, University of Groningen / Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research / Ghent University