“This world demands our attention.”: Ian Parker in conversation with Dimitris Papadopoulos and Ernst Schraube

This conversation deals with the social role, epistemological presuppositions, and meth­od­ological questions of critical psychology and discourse analysis. The first part of the conver­sation touches on the social and epistemic conditions for the turn to the concept of discourse, the current status and functions of critical psychol­ogy, and methodological principles of the empirical research practice of critical discourse analysis. The second part focuses on the methodological and epistemological background of discourse anal­ysis, particularly the challenge of discourse anal­ysis for mainstream/positivist models of research and the problem of a realist vs. constructionist approach to psychological inquiry. The last part illuminates the relation of critical psychology with various major social theories and movements, specifically Marxism, feminism, and psycho­anal­ysis in the context of contemporary postmodern conditions.