Discourse Analysis - Part II

This week my generative term is “discourse analysis.”  The reading, The New Work Order: Behind the Language of the New Capitalism, states “a Discourse is composed of ways of talking, listening, reading, writing, acting, interacting, believing, valuing, and using tools and objects, in particular settings and at specific times, so as to display or to recognize a particular social identity.” (Gee, p 10). 

 What I found interesting about this term/concept was the way it was used as an analytical lens to evaluate changes in the workforce from a social cultural approach and more importantly, portend the potential consequences associated with these changes.   In short, the following table reflects my understanding of the authors' emerging demographics of the global workforce: 

Skill–Knowledge Level & Earnings	Percent of Workforce	Gee’s New Discourse (p  26)	Reich’s Categories of Work (p 46)
High	20%	New Bosses (now coaches & leaders)	symbolic-analytic services
Middle	20%	New middle managers (now team leaders)	in-person services
Low	60%	New Workers (now associates or partners or knowledge workers)	routine production services

The authors portend that these new Discourses, and their associated categories of work, will result in a rising highly paid and valued “top fifth” supported by a lowly paid and undervalued bottom four fifths – relegated to this fate due to their “lack of knowledge and education” which results in their inability to “value add[1]” (Gee, p 47).  

I found this same type of dire forecast in book written by Teresa McCarthy, titled Language, Literacy, and Power in Schooling, who used a similar framework to articulate the same concerns as Gee and Reich – but in 2006 --- ten years after The New Work Order book was published.  This incorporation of Gee’s (et al) research in a book published ten years later only reinforced my belief in the power of discourse analysis. 

Skill–Knowledge Level & Earnings	Percent of Workforce	Language, Literacy, and Power in Schooling, McCarty,(2006)
High	20%	symbol analysts
Middle	20%	low level technical workers
Low	60%	service workers

But the Discourse analysis framework also provides hope.  Hope because we can become the catalyst for change – especially those of us who are bi-Discoursal.  In particular, Gee’s states that:

….bi-Discoursal people (people who have or are mastering two contesting or conflicting Discourses) are the ultimate sources of change, (p 14)….and that “The entire history of Discourses is a history of struggle, contestation, and change. Far from always losing, 'non-mainstream' people often win, and sometimes, for better or worse, they become a new 'mainstream', a new center of social power.”

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[1] Possess the knowledge it takes to innovate, design, efficiently produce, market, and transform products and services, (Gee, p 28)