Qualitative Data

Analysis: An introduction
Carol Grbich Chapter 13:
Structuralism and post
structuralism

Structuralism: Principles

the world comprises systems of centralised logic and formal

structures that accessible through processes of scientific reason.

Individual objects were viewed as being part of a greater whole..

Nothing was seen to be of itself, more as a representative of an

style based in a specific culture and reflecting identifiable values.

People become seen as objects/products of cultural networks,

perceptions and values. - mechanical organisms produced by
systems, and with defined needs, predictable behaviours and
actions

the underlying forms, structures and processes of construction

and transmission of meaning, rather than content, became the
main focus.

Structuralism: Language,
signs and meaning
language is a key process in the
creation and communication of meaning.
Language is a self-referential system - all
perceptions and understandings are
framed by words.
Meaning lies within the text, a coherent
and unified structure derived from
pattern and order,
analysis involves uncovering these
patterns and their meanings

Structuralism : texts

The focus is on signs, signifiers, codes (the

frameworks in which signs make sense), and
order and meaning through repetitions of
patterned relationships,

The privileging of binary opposites is integral.

Everything is text, both the author and the
reader are also viewed as social constructions.

each literary work, is part of the broader

institution of literature (langue) which is
intricately intertwined in the cultural system.

Structuralist writers
1.

2.

Jacques Lacan : binary oppositions of the

subject and other to examine the
development of the structure of the unconscious
Roland Barthes : analysis of objects in terms of
a search for their functioning rules

Claude Levi-Strauss : myths and universal myths

the bricoleur (the odd job man) who re- uses
the bits and pieces at his disposal in devious
and creative ways)
the engineer (who can access scientific
thought, concepts and theories).
Both need to order and structure in the creation of
knowledge.
3.

Criticisms of structuralism

Is there meaning beyond the text?

The problems of binary opposites

Signs and signifiers and the problem

of desire

The position of the individual

cultural concepts and the individual

Post structuralism:

a rejection of the existence of deep structure or form

Acceptance that meanings signified by signs are conventions signifiers dance in an endless play of meaning with no relation
to any integrated centre.

Discourses structure and limit the way we think, read and

write, the language we use and the discourses and tropes
(metaphors) within which we think prevent us from seeing the
genesis and development of ideas as the power-laden
discourses that they really are.

Knowledge is unreliable if it comes solely from language.

There is no absolute truth beyond or beneath the text.

Reality is fragmented and diverse,

Meaning is fluid. There is constant referral of meaning,

All that we can know is textual and related to discourses.

Criticisms of Post Structuralism

its tendency toward nihilism

the lack of finite conclusions though the constant deferral of

meaning presents difficulties in terms of evaluation and policy
decisions.

the decentering of the author doesnt take into account the fact
that the author still composes the structure of the text, has
selected the voices and manipulated the direction of
interpretation.

the difference between deconstruction and good critique is unclear.

is deconstruction any more than an older authorial desire to

appropriate a text?).

how will the contradictions between culture and science be

explained without recourse to the language claims of
structuralism?