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▪ Abstract  This paper provides a survey of critical discourse analysis (CDA), a recent school of discourse analysis that concerns itself with relations of power and inequality in language. CDA explicitly intends to incorporate social-theoretical insights into discourse analysis and advocates social commitment and interventionism in research. The main programmatic features and domains of enquiry of CDA are discussed, with emphasis on attempts toward theory formation by one of CDA's most prominent scholars, Norman Fairclough. Another section reviews the genesis and disciplinary growth of CDA, mentions some of the recent critical reactions to it, and situates it within the wider picture of a new critical paradigm developing in a number of language-oriented (sub) disciplines. In this critical paradigm, topics such as ideology, inequality, and power figure prominently, and many scholars productively attempt to incorporate social-theoretical insights into the study of language.

In diesem Interview schildert Ruth WODAK die Anfänge ihrer Karriere und was sie in das Feld der Kritischen Diskursanalyse geführt hat. Sie legt dar, was an der Kritischen Diskursanalyse "kritisch" ist, differenziert "Kritik" von "Dogmatismus" und thematisiert die Beziehung zwischen Kritik und einer normativen Position. An Ende des Interviews stellt sie in Aussicht, dass eine "integrative Interdisziplinarität" ein Weg sein kann, um disziplinäre Inkommensurabilität zu überwinden.

This paper proposes a relational and critical sociological perspective on discourse analysis, in particular on so-called "Critical Discourse Analysis" (CDA). The main argument of this paper is that CDA has not yet been able to turn its critical perspective towards its own field. Meanwhile, neither CDA nor other schools of discourse analysis can still pretend not to be integral parts of the system legitimizing social hierarchies in modern societies. The paper argues that discourse analysis can be seen as highly dependent on power relations, both because of its institutional positioning and because of its restricted reflexivity. A call for the development of a critical sociology of discourse analysis based on a relational approach is therefore presented. Its draft programme is largely based on inspiration from the sociology of knowledge, in particular from "the sociology of sociology" of Pierre Bourdieu.

There have been new facets of multilateralism, which have motivated the realignment of traditional power relations established globally, especially regarding the United States and China. This new strategic environment can be observed in changes made to the Brazilian National Defense White Paper (LBDN) of 2020, as well as in the dialectic between white papers of the United States (2017), and China (2019). To investigate these realignments and their possible impacts on the Brazilian defense sector, the analysis was carried out in two phases: (1) analysis of the general characteristics of the Defense White Papers by the USA and China; and (2) comparison of discourses conveyed in chapters on international cooperation in each Defense White Paper. Speech patterns were analyzed according to rationales of Lexical Semantics and Critical Discourse Analysis. As a result, elements of semantic fields, intertextuality and modality in discourse were pointed out as parameters that could contribute to the evaluation of cooperation and deterrence/dissuasion actions to be adopted by the USA and China in the 21st century.

The article is devoted to formation and development of discourse analysis as an effective method to study functional aspects of political communication in global political space. It reports on main theoretical and methodological approaches to critical analysis of political discourse. Mainly, it deals with theoretical and methodological perspectives of three leading schools of critical discourse analysis: discourse analysis of N. Fairclough, that presents a relational approach to considering social problems in their relation to textual analysis; socio-cognitive theory of T.A. van Dijk, oriented to investigating relations between cognitive structures, discourse and social coordination; discourse analysis of R. Wodak, that uses historical approach to discourse and is aimed at description of powerful language of the elite that helps to maintain dominance in society. The paper characterizes some frameworks of critical analysis of political discourse, including the Duisburg School of Critical Discourse Analysis (S. Jäger, F. Maier), System-Functional and Social-Semiotic Theory (M. Halliday, T. van Leeuwen), and Mediated Discourse Analysis (R. Scollon, S. Scollon). It is stated that within its boundaries critical discourse analysis includes a variety of approaches, analytical tools and methodologies. The author underlines that scientific consideration of critical discourse analysis will demonstrate its potential and prospects for integrating this interdisciplinary qualitative methodology into a set of empirical tools of modern political science.

Constructivism today is a popular cognitive theory with important
implications on teaching and education. This paper promotes a form of
critical constructivism with the emphasis on social awareness and democratic
development of society. In this aspect, the paper discusses the basic
features of critical constructivism and its possible application in the
classroom. The aim is to show the characteristics of an open and critical
discourse as a distinctive mark of application of critical constructivism in
teaching and to analyze the practical implications of this theoretical
position on position and role of a teacher who is considered a key factor in
raising the quality of education. It is concluded that careful application of
this theoretical position in teaching process can be extremely fruitful as it
provides a unique incentive for diversity and inventiveness. It is determined
that the critical perspectives in education is especially important in terms
of preparing students for an active role of a citizen who participates in the
further democratization of his own community, as well as in terms of
preparation for life in the world full of uncertainties and diversities.

This article examines the concept of power in the 2016 movie Hidden Figures. This true story portrays the lives of three mathematicians who prevailed over oppressive racial and gender relations (i.e. as African American women) while working at National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the early 1960s. The method driving this analysis is critical discourse analysis (CDA). The ultimate objective of this analysis is to expose the racial and sexist discrimination experienced by the main protagonists in the movie and, more generally, the inequalities that Black women faced in the post-Second World War era. Several key constructs are emphasized: racial discrimination, sexism and discursive power tools such as word connotations, social semiotics and suppression/lexical absence.