Discourses of Danger and Dangerous Discourses: Patrolling the Borders of Science, Nature and Society
- 1 January 1991
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Discourse & Society
- Vol. 2 (1) , 5-28
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926591002001001
Abstract
Two broad themes are covered in this paper. Firstly, the mutual delimitation in discourse of `science', `lay society' and `nature' is explored in relation to people's talk about ionizing radiation. The discursive configurations into which these fall are linked to the perception of danger. For example, in some discourses danger is located in a `bad science' that injudiciously exploits an otherwise amenable nature. Secondly, the analysis of these discourses is conducted with the aid of Weber's ideal type technique. Through this, some of the epistemological and methodological issues that cohere around the contingency of interpretation in discourse analysis are addressed.Keywords
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