Hi Bo,
I used a basic form of discourse analysis (roughly a foucauldian version) when teaching textile design studies. The aim was for students to investigate how textiles are experienced in particular social and cultural contexts. We then used this to develop conceptual frameworks for design. Students also produced mood boards of their ‘findings’, some of which could have been classed as trend analysis.
Briefly, the process was as below
Firstly students chose a textile object that had some meaning for them (often an item of clothing) and explored how it worked as a text. Secondly, we worked through a model I adapted from Paula Saukko’s (2003) Doing Research in Cultural Studies. Sage (p.95), eg
1. Write a short description of your own or someone else’s lived experience of a textile (based for example on an interview).
2. Collect ‘popular’ and ‘scientific’ texts that represent the same or similar lived experience. Analyse the commonalities and differences between the real lived experience and the texts. To what extent is the lived experience guided by the popular and scientific discourses? Does the experience challenge or criticize the discourses?
3. If you have interviewed other people, ask them to analyse the discourses that you have found in the cultural texts and to reflect how they have impacted their lives. If you are discussing your own experience, introspectively explore the role that the discourses have played in shaping your sense of the experience.
4. As a last step, discuss the personal and political implications of the discourses that shape the lived experience of the textile you are studying. What kinds of effects do these discourses have on a personal level? What types of social or political ideologies or regimes do they support? Think carefully through the contradictions of the discourses on both personal and political levels......
Many of the students found this an enlightening project - especially in regard to their own 'search and purchase' behaviour!
cheers,
Amanda
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design on behalf of Bo Tsang
Sent: Tue 1/15/2008 6:13 AM
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Subject: Discourse analysis
Dear Colleagues,
My PhD topic is to develop a toolkit for the fashion professions, to
investigate trend information through means of identifying changes in
perceived meaning and message in clothing.
As most might agree, clothing has a communicative capability. Clothing
semantic can be defined as the messages communicated about the identity
and intentions of the individual by their clothes and adornments. The
meanings of these semantic messages are no different from the meanings
of other signs, such as text and visual images, which are not inevitably
fixed. They are continually challenged and changed by various forces in
social practice. It is proposed that these changes influence individuals
'search and purchase' perception and behaviour.
The present route forward for me is to deploy discourse analysis to
identify the changing messages within the clothing context, first by
analysing narratives of 'storylines' elicited of respondents search and
purchase intent.
I would like to hear other people's views as to whether discourse
analysis would be an effective approach in this context? I also wonder
if any similar research is known to be being undertaken using discourse
analysis, any experience that can be shared.
Kind regards
Bo
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