The Concept of Subject Position in Empirical Social Research

• Published in: Journal for the theory of social behaviour Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 313 - 329
• Main Author: Torronen, J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK and Boston, USA Blackwell Publishers Ltd 01.09.2001; Blackwell
• Subjects: Alcohol Abuse; Alcohol consumption; Communication; Communication Research; Discourse Analysis; Empirical Methods; Empiricism; Finland; Identity; Messages; Philosophy; Philosophy of history. Social and political philosophy. Philosophy of law; Policy Making; Positioning theory; Postmodernism; Social and political philosophy; Social policy; Social Science Research; Social status; Social Theories; Sociological theory; Finland; Group; Relation; Category; Social Sciences; Alcoholism; Interaction; Empiricism; Politics; History; Subject; Communication
• ISSN: 0021-8308; 1468-5914
• DOI: 10.1111/1468-5914.00161

Proposes that, by applying the ideas from positioning theory and from the formulations of Stuart Hall, it is possible to define the subject position as a construction which evolves in specific relation to the audience and to the existing subject positions in a particular context of interaction and which also obtains its meaning by being attached situationally to categories and story lines. According to this definition subject positions evolve in communication as a co-effect of 3 elements: categories, story lines and positionings. The definition of subject position as a positioning in relation to categories and to story lines rends possible a kind of analysis in which the articulation of microprocesses and macroprocesses into each other is opened up for exact and non-reductionistic empirical analyses. Also, in contextualising micropolitics as part of local, national and global processes, a knowledge of historical background and apt political theories is necessary. The analytic power of the approach is demonstrated with a data extract concerning alcohol policy in Finland. (Original abstract)