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 doesn’t 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?