Convened by Farhad Mukhtarov, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and Nicolina Montesano Montessori, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht

The focus of the 2026 EADI conference is on “recognizing, comprehending, and dissecting” varied visions of sustainable production, distribution and consumption of resources. In this panel, we explore the role of discourse analytical approaches in shaping and distorting imaginaries of sustainable and resilient future. We seek to bring together scholars who apply critical discourse analytical approaches in development policy topics. We are particularly interested to highlight the role of discourse analytical approaches in informing the following topics:

 how development policies are constituted and contested, with a focus on power 

 how complexity informs development policy making and analysis 

 how ideology shapes development policy making and analysis

 how methodological and theoretical approaches related to discourse theory and post-structuralism inform each other 

 how to understand and challenge existing hegemonic approaches to development policy (Mukhtarov er al., 2022; Montesano Montessori and Lautensach, 2024)

Critical Policy Discourse Analysis (CPDA) combines critical discourse analysis with critical policy studies by establishing theoretical and methodological synergies between these two fields. It does so by bringing the rigorous and systematic analysis of texts, informed by linguistic theory, into transdisciplinary dialogue with theoretical frameworks capable of recognising the socially structuring potential of discourse in development policies and practices, but which alone tend to overlook the micro-textual processes (Fairclough 2013; Wodak and Meyer, 2016). In this panel, we explore how CPDA contributes to development policy research and practice with a special focus on sustainability topics. This builds on some pioneering work which laid the foundation of critical discourse research in development studies (e.g. Gasper, 2021; Montesano Montessori et al, 2021). 

References

Gasper, D., 2022. ‘Making Strange’: Discourse Analysis Tools for Teaching Critical Development Studies. Progress in Development Studies, 22(3), pp.288–304.

Fairclough, N., 2013. Critical Discourse Analysis and Critical Policy Studies. Critical Policy Studies, 7(2), pp.177–197.

Montesano Montessori, N. and Lautensach, A., 2025. A blueprint for what? From a critical policy discursive analysis of UN’s sustainable development goals to a constructive rearticulation for their application. Critical Policy Studies, 19(2), pp.222–241.

Montesano Montessori, N., Farrelly, M. and Mulderrig, J. (eds.), 2019. Critical Policy Discourse Analysis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

Mukhtarov, F., Gasper, D., Alta, A., Gautam, N., Duhita, M.S. and Hernández Morales, D., 2022. From ‘merchants and ministers’ to ‘neutral brokers’? Water diplomacy aspirations by the Netherlands – a discourse analysis of the 2011 commissioned advisory report. International Journal of Water Resources Development, 38(6), pp.1009–1031.

Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (eds.), 2016. Methods of Critical Discourse Studies. 3rd ed. London: Sage.