Dissecting Diversity A Discursive Analysis of the Use and Meaning of Diversity in two Texts by Ted Cantle

Abstract

This essay purports to investigate the use and meaning of the lexical item, or word, diversity in two texts by British sociologist Ted Cantle. In order to analyse these texts an approach drawing from discourse analysis, as presented by Fairclough, is used. The study consists of two distinct levels of analysis, one based on a quantative investigation of semanto-syntactic features, and the other based on a qualitative investigation of semantically referential relations. By comparing the results from both analyses, the expectation is that a nuanced conclusion of the use and sense of diversity is to be reached; the results indicating a multitude of, not only descriptive, but also ideological, senses enshrined in an ostensibly neutral, or even empty, abstraction of its descriptive references.