Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Moving Beyond a Social Constructionist Analytic
Although social constructionism (SC) and Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) are well established constructionist analytical methods, this article propose that Foucauldian discourse analysis is more useful for qualitative data analysis as it examines social legitimacy. While the SC is able to illuminate how the “meaning” of our social action is constructed through our everyday interaction in socio-cultural and political contexts, questions emerge that are beyond the scope of the SC. These questions are concerned with understanding how the construction of “meaning” is connected to the power imbalance in our society, as well as how a particular version of reality comes to us as truth, having excluded other versions. Moreover, SC does not distinguish between successful and unsuccessful/marginalized claims. This article reflects on how using FDA addresses weaknesses in SC when used in qualitative data analysis, using specific examples from different literature.
Keywords: social constructionism, Foucauldian discourse analysis, qualitative data analysis, poststructuralism, power/knowledge
Qualitative data analysis is shaped by the presence of researchers’ own insights and experiences in terms of his or her class, gender, sex, race, ethnicity, and other identities, regardless of analytical method. Although some researchers view the researcher’s presence as a pressing challenge (Kahlke, 2014; Staller, 2013), this article argue that this contributes to the beauty and strength of qualitative inquiry because qualitative researchers analyze how people interpret their social world or reality, which is a meaning-making process (Nowell et al., 2017). The purpose of qualitative research is to analyze how people understand, experience, interpret, and construct the social world (Bhatasara et al., 2013). Qualitative research is thus interpretative and grounded in the living experiences of people (Erlingsson & Brysiewicz, 2013, 2017; Marshall & Rossman, 2014; Yilmaz, 2013). Instead of analyzing a fixed, pre-established, and pre-determined social reality, qualitative researchers observe the social world, knowledge, meanings, and notions of reality as contingent and dynamic in order to understand the socio-culturally constructed meaning of the individuals’ experiences. As people experience themselves through the mediation of language, culture, symbols, and networks of meaning, this complexity of human lives or experiences must be navigated by the qualitative researcher at different stages of research, including data analysis (Nowell et al., 2017). Brinkmann (2014) used the term, “dilemma” for interpretive enquiry which is driven by astonishment, mystery, and breakdowns in one’s understanding, as well as “black holes” in understanding of phenomena (St. Pierre & Jackson, 2014). As noted by Teman, who embarked on qualitative research methods after a long period of working with quantitative methods, “It was a beautiful moment. I felt freed, liberated, and unshackled” (Teman & Lahman, 2019, p. 57). Lastly, but not least, qualitative research produces knowledge obtained from self-reflection rather than casual analysis, inferences from numerical data, measurement, and techniques (Agger, 1991; Khan, 2018; Khan & Raby, 2020). As a consequence of the researcher’s interpretive role, data analysis in qualitative research is intertwined with varied ontological, epistemological, and methodological issues and contexts (James, 2013; Mykhalovskiy et al., 2018; Nowell et al., 2017). The decision of choosing a qualitative data analytic (e.g., thematic analysis, thematic decomposition analysis (DA), content analysis, grounded theory, discourse/critical discourse analysis, constant comparative method or analysis) is also influenced by how data are socially produced and collected, as well as the purposes and context of the study. Whatever the design, purposes, and analytic of qualitative research, it heralds scholarship that can move beyond “bare bone” descriptions and conventional assumptions of a problem under study (Mykhalovskiy et al., 2018). Social constructionist approaches (hereafter SC), as an analytical method, can uproot dominant or established structures by calling attention to subjective processes. However, they generally do not distinguish between successful claims (e.g., made by powerful/successful people) and unsuccessful/marginalized claims (e.g., the voice of heterosexual versus homosexual people). In contrast, Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (hereafter FDA) takes “power” into consideration in data analysis and can promote inaudible speakers as legitimate claimants (Cheek, 2004). The FDA approach also recognizes alternative forms of knowledge as legitimate and allows for consideration of power as circuitous with multiple sources and relations, rather than as something that is possessed. Thus, this approach promotes qualitative researchers to look for difference, absence, and local contexts rather than for similarity, presence, and universal contexts (Kaufmann, 2011). This article also argues that qualitative research using FDA could be an effective way in order to revisit “social legitimacy” (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008), by promoting questions about the establishment and structure of social conditions. This paper argues that compared with SC analysis, Foucauldian discourse analysis is a relatively useful analytical method for qualitative data analysis because it allows for the examination of social legitimacy and that this approach is particularly useful for policy analysis. The following sections of the paper provide a detailed overview of the historical origins and epistemological developments of SC and FDA. This article then reflects on the use of FDA in qualitative data analysis, drawing on examples in the literature.
Social Constructionism (SC): Theoretical Origins and Development
Social constructionism tells us about how we construct our knowledge or reality through our experiences derived from stories, histories or narratives what we deal with in our everyday lives. It is important to first distinguish between social constructivism and social constructionism, as the two terms are used sometimes interchangeably. Unlike social constructivism, which stresses individuals’ mind reflecting and representing the reality (e.g., radical or psychological constructivism), social constructionism focuses on individuals’ roles (e.g., interactions) (Galbin, 2014; Gubrium & Holstein, 2014). SC emerged from the collective influence of a number of North American, British, and continental writers approximately 30 years ago (Burr, 1995). It is derived from several intellectual or epistemological roots, such as existential phenomenological psychology, social history, hermeneutics, and social psychology (Galbin, 2014). In the early stages, the ideas of Gimbasttista Vico, Karl Marx, and Immanuel Kant reflected both social constructionist and constructivist constructs that included both individualistic (e.g., psychology) and collective (e.g., sociology) assumptions. Similarly, SC was also echoed in early sociologists’ writings, such as those of Emile Durkheim, Karl Mannheim, and W.I. Thomas (Conrad & Barker, 2010; Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005; Vance, 1991). Gradually, SC was then developed at the hand of Herbert Mead’s (1934) symbolic interactionism, Harold Garfinkel’s (1950s to 1960s) ethnomethodology, symbolic interactionists (e.g., Erving Goffman), and Blumer and Schutz’s phenomenology (Galbin, 2014; Gubrium & Holstein, 2014; Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005; Vance, 1991).Later, major contributions to SC were heralded by Berger and Luckmann (1966), “The Social Construction of Reality,” implying that human beings produce and sustain social phenomena together with the help of their social practices. This version of social reality that we can see is constructed through a system of socio-cultural and interpersonal interactions in our everyday life (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). According to Berger and Luckmann (1966), this happens through three levels of processes: externalization, objectivation, and internalization.In terms of externalization, people express words or actions, which in turn create artifacts or practices. For example, Bangladeshi people have the idea that sexuality outside of marriage is not normal, and externalize it by means such as telling stories, or writing books (Khan, 2018). Then, these expressions enter into the social world: other people retell the story, read the books, and reproduce the ideas (Burr, 1995). These expressions of ideas become an object of consciousness (objectivation)for people in that society and turned into a kind of factual existence of truth, as a natural, objective feature of the world (Burr, 1995). Finally, they internalize or make it part of their everyday practices and future generations are born into a world where these ideas already exist (Burr, 1995). Thus, Berger and Luckmann (1966) were concerned with the subjective and objective construction of meaning (Segre, 2016). For example, it is now natural for a Bangladeshi to think that that sex out of marriage is abnormal behavior. Thus, the world is socially constructed by people’s social practices and, at the same time, by peoples’ experiences by them as if the nature of their world is pre-given and fixed (Galbin, 2014). Essentially, knowledge is historically structured and embedded in cultural values and practices. As well, meanings are socially constructed via the interaction of people in their various encounters, so are always fluid and dynamic. In this context, the epistemology of social constructionism can be analyzed two ways: procedurally and reflexively. The procedural version underlines the interpretation and saturated meaning that constructs the world itself; the reflexive version recognizes the fuzziness of social interaction and considers reordering of knowledge of social world (Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005). In Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg’s analysis, they centralized “intentionality,” which denotes a close and active relationship between subject and object. In this framework, “meaning” is product of interaction, not merely created by the subject or object (Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005). Thus, self (e.g., individual identity) is the by-product of this interaction, which is socio-culturally, historically, and politically produced in a given context (e.g., society, social institutions). This is a relational self, therefore “individuals are relational beings that create constantly changing meanings in interaction with others” (Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005, p. 693).Berger and Luckmann’s project was followed by a German American sociologist, Burkart Holzner (1972), who received relatively less attention when he published a similar tone detailing “the social construction of reality.” He agreed with Berger and Luckmann (1966), as both were concerned with processes of reality construction (Conrad & Barker, 2010; Vance, 1991) and inspired by similar theoretical sources. Holzner (1972) shed light on the individuals’ experiences and interpretation of past and present reality, and anticipation of future reality, dealing with the shared symbolic and cognitive universe of meaning. However, Holzner differed from Berger and Luckmann (1966) in terms of his theoretical pursuits. While Berger and Luckmann (1966) ideas are focused on the construction of shared symbolic world, which is endowed with both objective and subjective reality, Holzner (1972) dealt with the social distribution and control of reality construction (Segre, 2016).SC has gained incredible popularity among the qualitative researchers (Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005; Kaufmann, 2011) because of its epistemological strengths, including its capacity of application and explanation of human being’s complex social experiences and actions. However, it has some pragmatic pitfalls, which we argue, create room for FDA approaches. Although SC embraces constructed realities, some have argued that it is still a modernist approach because it, in fact, rearticulates Enlightenment perspectives on knowledge, rationality, and truth to render these as relative (or perspectival), instead of facilitating an outright rejection of Enlightenment ideas (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2016). Another challenge is that SC does not solicit unsuccessful, marginalized, untold, and unspoken voices/silences. Even though this approach challenges taken-for-granted ideas, it does not resist established power relations or structures, which we argue should be the heart of qualitative data analysis. It is argued that SC approaches merely analyze the surface meanings of action or text, such as simple cataloging and observation of patterns or categories, and miss critical dimensions of the reality (Lupton, 1992). In terms of meaning-making through interaction between an interviewer and participant in qualitative interview, for example, Gubrium and Koro-Ljungberg (2005) argue that during interviews, some “constructions” are produced, which help to maintain some patterns of social actions/practices and exclude other patterns. This inclusion/exclusion is reproduced in social constructionism.In contrast, FDA uses a “power lens” that may resist or disrupt the established constructions and inclusion/exclusion processes (Frost et al., 2010; Khan, 2017, 2018). Additionally, when using SC, the final product of an interview is an understanding of meaning. However, FDA allows room for further analysis because this perspective considers that meaning making processes cannot be suspended with the end of an interview. This process continues through different readings of the presented document in various socio-cultural contexts (Gubrium and Koro-Ljungberg, 2005). In relation to definitions and key roles of SC in qualitative data analysis, Burr (1995, pp. 2, 3) provided comprehensive, but precise explanations of how it can be utilized in qualitative data analysis. According to Burr (1995), social constructionism has still compelling appeal in qualitative data analysis because it is a critical stance toward taken-for-granted knowledge, and it challenges phenomena as taken-for-granted, implying that alleged objective facts are neither objectively knowable nor inevitable. It further explains the way we understand our world in terms of historical and cultural specification, and stresses that knowledge is produced and sustained through social processes, in which knowledge and social action also go together. Thus, SC approaches focus on how we make meaning about our everyday lives or knowledge production, in the context of symbols and institutions.
A Passage to Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Origin and Development
Regardless of whether Foucauldian discourse analysis is conceptualized as poststructuralist or postmodernist, it is a constructionist approach because it focuses construction of meaning of social actions, practices, and a text using a lens of power relations (Agger, 1991; Burr, 1995; Hodges et al., 2008; Sharp et al., 2017). Scholars have argued that the epistemological roots of the FDA are derived from structuralism (Smith, 2010). In this section, the origins and development of structuralism and post-structuralism are highlighted in order to provide a historical and intellectual background for FDA. Against a backdrop of social movements and historical incidences in the West and beyond, including the May 1968 historical student movement at the Sorbonne in Paris, the second wave of feminism, the Vietnam war, and the American civil rights movement, poststructuralism emerged as an intellectual movement out of France in 1960s (Mann, 1994; Norris, 2002; Khan, 2018). This incidence challenged the historical legacy of a popular school of thought, that is, structuralism or structuralist reductionism, and introduced an understanding of the world through a lens of deconstruction (Khan, 2018; Khan & Raby, 2020). This transition from structuralism to poststructuralism had a profound influence on social thought and brought forward counterarguments against key aspects of humanism and the Enlightenment legacy (Agger, 1991).The idea of structuralism derived from the two leading scholars, linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (Khan, 2018), who asserted that language and culture follow the same structural relation between subject and object (Han, 2013; Mann, 1994). This is a scientific view of language and culture, which suggests that a “center” or underlying system organizes and sustains a whole structure (Khan, 2018). It sees the overarching systems of structure organized around laws, rules, principles, individuals’ behavior, and practices (Norris, 2002). Thus, every system, such as culture, health, illness, language, and sexuality, has a structure governed by consistent rules and determining elements. In this sense, structures are real things that lie beneath appearances and that regulate and construct meaning. Epistemologically, therefore, structuralism sees the truth “behind” or “within” a text (Khan, 2018). By contrast, poststructuralism emphasizes the interaction between a reader and a text in terms of a context, implying that a text is not passive, but active in the production of meaning (Han, 2013). This notion is echoed in Roland Barthes (1967) expression: “the death of the author,” suggesting that a text is able to produce different meaning in view of different readers’ interpretations (Han, 2013). Thus, poststructuralism stresses critiques of the classical Cartesian conception of the unitary subject with mastery and control over language depending on a reader’s experiences (Mann, 1994) which may vary over time and across individuals because different individuals experience meaning differently in relation to their own knowledge (Agger, 1991).Through deconstruction, one of the pioneer ideas of poststructuralism, Derrida challenged the idea that one can determine the definite meaning of a text, having refused to accept the claim of a generalized and absolute conclusion. According to Derrida (1997), all texts lead to different and multiple interpretations. As well, meanings of texts are diffused rather than fixed or settled, and there is no absolute interpretation or truth. Thus, textuality always provides a surplus of possibilities (Khan, 2018). In this sense, we cannot stand outside of textuality to find objectivity because there is no “outside of the text” (Derrida, 1997, p. 158). Therefore, deconstruction raises the question of whether everything is depthless, loosely attached to concepts but not really proven. It brings out the hidden mechanisms behind systems to create transparency in order to harness awareness and deeper understanding for certain processes. In terms of analyzing texts or cultural practices, poststructuralist approaches assert that the author is destabilized or decentered, and the interpreters or readers are the focal point. Philosophically, this approach does not accept the totalizing (e.g., will of God), essentialist (e.g., there is reality or truth), and foundationalist (e.g., stable system) ideas. Instead, it holds that subjects (people, such as men or women) are culturally and discursively created and structured. So, in this view, reality is fragmented, diverse, multiple, tenuous, and culturally specific.Unlike modern enlightenment thoughts (e.g., Western humanism and reasons), poststructuralists assert that there is not a point of reference, no single truth, and no ultimate reality, but subjective, relative, and is a creation of human minds (Agger, 1991). Similarly, postmodernism provides nuance as well as basic and far-reaching critiques of the myth and illusions around modern thought, including the obsession in research with the scientific method, measurement, and generalizability (Smith, 2010). Historically and epistemologically, both—poststructuralism and postmodernism boarded in the same boat when French philosopher Jean François Lyotard (1979/1984) used the term in his book, entitled “The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge” (Agger, 1991). However, their geographical roots are different because postmodernism originated in America in the 1950s (Mann, 1994).Initially, Foucault was interested in the “analysis of systems,” such as health systems, sexuality, and governance (Mills, 2003). However, socio-political changes in Europe (the 1960s–1970s) directed his thinking from philosophical and psychological analysis (pre 1960s) to historical analysis (post-1960s). As a result, he was concerned with analyses of the production of knowledge and discourses, such now called Foucauldian archaeological analysis. This type of analysis is concerned with examining, based on history, the relations between different statements, the ways these systems are grouped together, and the conditions under which they emerge. Therefore, archaeological analysis does not offer an explanation of what happens in the past. Rather, it looks at the discursive conditions in which it happens. Foucault’s archaeology of knowledge is important in order to understand the later method of analysis: genealogy. After the 1960s, Foucault moved his attention to analysis of the internal structure of knowledge and discourses in terms of the processes of power relations (“power/knowledge”), and their impact on individuals or society as a whole. “The History of Sexuality” (1978) is a vivid example of Foucault’s genealogical analysis where he was concerned with functions of power and describing the “history of the present,” including the processes of how truth is formed and the conditions under which some utterances, statements, propositions, and a particular version of knowledge come to be seen as truth, rather than merely analyzing of truth. Accordingly, this truth-making process is a discursive process, in which power relations are embedded, and an individual engages in constructing his/her subjectivity (Waitt, 2005). In this context, Foucault sheds light on the “ontology of ourselves,” which brings “analytic gaze to the condition under which we, as individuals, exist and what causes us to exist in the way that we do” (Mills, 2003, p. 25). This analytic gaze of self-construction is a historical product in terms of ethical, political, and cultural values. In fact, Foucault combined historical analysis with psychological and philosophical analysis through the transition of archaeology to genealogy. He examines disciplinary knowledge in terms of its historicity, and via this epistemological and ontological trajectory, Foucault moved from a structuralist to poststructuralist approach.A number of discourse analysis methods have been used in empirical qualitative and textual data analysis, such as discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, post structural discourse analysis, linguistic discourse analysis (Cheek, 2004). Graham (2011) distinguished Foucauldian discourse analysis from critical discourse analysis: the former focuses less on the micro (the structural/grammatical/linguistic/semiotic figures) aspects that make up the text, and more on the macro that is what is made up by the text itself. Of the three roots of discourse analysis (Cheek, 2004), such as linguistic, social theoretical, and post-structural roots, we are interested in post-structural FDA, which constructs objects in the context of power relations (Parker, 1992).In order to understand FDA, it is necessary to be clear about how Foucault defined “discourse (Foucault, 1972, 1981).” He defined discourse in many ways throughout “The Archaeology of Knowledge” (1972) and “The Order of Discourses” (1981). In the chapter related to “statement” (1972), which is a central concept in defining discourse, he used this term to refer to the general domain of all statements encompassing all utterances and statements which have been constructed to provide meaning and which have some effects in society. Then, discourse is defined as an individualizable set of statements, including all statements and utterances which seem to form a grouping (e.g., child sexuality, heterosexuality, disability) (1972). Finally, discourse is sometimes defined as a regulated practice, implying the unwritten rules, regulations, cultural and value structures that produce particular utterances and statements (e.g., socially and culturally prescribed rules for sexual relations) (1972). Thus, instead of thinking of discourse as a set of statements which have some coherence, according to Foucault (1981), discourse is a complex set of practices which try to keep statements and utterances in circulation or try to seclude them from others and “exclude” those statements from circulation (Mills, 2003). There is a power relationship embedded in the inclusion/exclusion process, which is discussed below.Foucauldian discourse can be further distinguished through mutually supplementary ideas, including power/knowledge, resistance, normalization, and truth/common sense truth. Foucault asserts that power is everywhere. Unlike traditional views of power that position it as something people use to oppress or control individuals or force individuals to do something (e.g., through the military), Michel Foucault (1978) positions power as relational. He notes that power is also productive (Foucault, 1978), in that it produces the way we construct ourselves and each other in society. According to Foucault (1978), this is how power, including both disciplinary power (e.g., via school, religion) and bio-power (e.g., via the subjugated physical body), produce “discursive practices” or “discursive knowledge” in which individuals are expected to behave in certain ways bolstered by common sense truths. As a result, an individual is judged by how closely he/she fits into the expected norms. Therefore, power is what makes us what we are through the processes of normalization. Simply put, Foucauldian power is omnipresent, productive (not just destructive), circulating, diffused, enacted, discursive, embedded in discourse, knowledge, and regimes of truth, constituting (the subject), embodied, and consensual rather than coercive. As power is relational, according to Foucault (1978), resistance is an integral component of power relations and overlaps with it. Since power is diffusive, Foucault illustrates that resistance to power must then be diffused across social systems and incorporated into the everyday. Both domination and resistance power are “fragmented and inconsistent, with each always containing elements of each other” (Raby, 2005, p. 161). Thus, resistance is about local struggles that challenge institutions and normalizations rather than revolutionary attacks to the state. Therefore, in modern societies, self-surveillance and self-regulation, rather than force, are a mechanism of social control. Discipline becomes the technique (or an instrument) of power and body becomes the object of and target of disciplinary power (Foucault, 1978).
Implications of FDA in Qualitative Data Analysis: A Reflection
Even though both SC and FDA are social constructionist analytics (Sharp & Richardson, 2001), poststructuralist/Foucauldian discourse analysis is a particularly necessary or useful way for qualitative data analysis (Cheek, 2004). Simply put, SC can be criticized because it “fails to deal adequately with power-laden political context in which presumably open dialogue occurs and genuine understanding is constructed” (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2016, p. 14). Even though SC is a critical analytic approach, in our view it is a relatively “bare bones” project that examines meanings given to events and the ways in which discourses (e.g., mental health) are constructed (Winges-Yanez, 2014). In contrast, the main tenants of discourse analysis are that our social actions are intertwined with socio-cultural, historical, and political contexts, and our social relations are produced, reproduced, and resisted (Janks, 1997). Understanding meaning only in an interactional context is insufficient for dismantling existing reality or truth, which is why Foucault was not interested in reducing discourse to merely “meaning” (1972). A Foucauldian discourse analyst is concerned with how “games of truth” are played out in socio-political contexts, instead of focusing on how meaning is constructed in interactional settings (Arribas-Ayllon & Walkerdine, 2008). For example, what are the underlying questions (and embedded power relations) we may consider if we want to conduct a discourse analysis of occupational health and safety policy of a given country. Therefore, we may ask: how are the discursive formation of occupational health, safety, regulations are constructed? Which perspectives of workplace safety are legitimized, and which are silenced? Who produces the knowledge and which knowledge? And who can exercise their power in relation to this regulation and with which strategies? In short, when a discourse analysis is consistent with Foucauldian insights, it does not reveal a true meaning in terms of what is said or not said. It looks at statements in terms of what they do, not what they say because “discourses are not objects but rules and procedures that make objects thinkable and governable, and they do not “determine” things but intervene in the relations of what can be known, said, or practiced” (Arribas-Ayllon & Walkerdine, 2008, p. 120). The bottom line is that it is that FDA allows for understanding of political or constitutive effects of social actions (Graham, 2011). Thus, Foucauldian discourse analysis is concerned with power, which investigates how particular discourse systematically constructs a version of the social world (Hodges et al., 2008; Talja, 1999).FDA helps us to understand “how people think, what they know and how they speak about the world around us, and how their knowledge is culturally embedded” (Raby, 2002, p. 30). For instance, Hodges et al. (2008) detail how, in his study of madness, Foucault revealed three different discourses, which constructed three different types of madness in terms of three different historical epoch and places: madness as spiritual possession, madness as social deviancy, and madness as mental illness (Hodges et al., 2008). Likewise, Speed (2006) illustrated how different discourses of “mental health services” construct three different types of people’s identity: patients, consumers, and survivors. Thus, FDA helps us to unveil the multiple ways to define a discourse, or multiple discourses, to construct reality, which is linked to the power and objectives of particular institutions.FDA does not position methodology simply as a set of technical procedures in order to manipulate data (Kamberelis & Dimitriadis, 2016). Rather, it enables us to consider the hidden motivations behind the choice of a particular method of research to interpret particular texts or social actions. This is a Foucauldian genealogical analytic (gaze), which considers the ontological and epistemological assumptions behind a project, a statement, a text, and participants’ talk (Hallett et al., 2000). It can open up a window of understanding about what individuals, organizations, and even whole societies really think, rather than what they show with their manifested meaning.In qualitative data analysis, coding, as well as thematic analysis is a popular undertaking. However, it does not allow for the representation of socially produced silences because it underlines the presence over absence and spoken voice over silence (Rosiek & Heffernan, 2014). In this context, that which is not expressed or expressed with gestures and postures becomes meaningless (Rosiek & Heffernan, 2014). Silence is often seen as resistance or an impediment in qualitative data analysis (MacLure et al., 2010). However, silence is full of people’s untold and unspoken chronicles and can be a strength for qualitative data analysis (Bengtsson & Fynbo, 2018; Khan, 2017). In addition, silence can create something new, instead of merely reproducing pre-existing structures (Bengtsson & Fynbo, 2018). Thus, silence in an interview may be a resource in qualitative data analysis as it creates diverse possibilities for forming diverse expressions. In a study using FDA, Hamed et al. (2017) were able to consider women’s narratives on obstetric Fistula via non-verbal communication, as well as the use of space, body language, and silent moments in their qualitative data analysis. Thus, FDA may enable us to listen to socio-culturally produced silence in qualitative data analysis.FDA has been a growing analytical method in policy research, across fields of study, including environmental policy and planning (Hajer, 1995; Jensen, 1997; Mazza & Rydin, 1997; Sharp & Richardson, 2001), public health (Lupton, 1992; Teghtsoonian, 2009), occupational health and safety policy (Zoller, 2003), education policy (Rogers et al., 2005; Stevens, 2003; Thomas, 2002). The popularity of this method in policy lies in its ability to solicit critical assumptions regarding how policy formation and reformation are intertwined with broader social changes and stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, consumers or benefited people, and implementing agencies), which are complex and messy interactions that construct the policy processes in which the stakeholders are actively engaged (Liz Sharp & Richardson, 2001). It is applied as a way of understanding the dynamics of political processes, socio-economic and environmental lives, which are immanently embedded in public or social policies (Hewitt, 2009). In fact, these processes of policy formation are “the production of discourses,” which question the practices of government and how public policy is formed, shaped and reshaped, having refuted to institutional histories or taken for granted ideas (Hewitt, 2009). Thus, FDA promotes us to ask, in relation to a policy instrument, how, why, and by whom the reality is attributed in a context of power-relations (or arguments) rather than just asking about the reality, having excluded other arguments (Sharp & Richardson, 2001). This approach deconstructs and therefore denaturalizes and critiques, what forms a particular embedded social reality, compelling us to question it as truth or reality (Winges-Yanez, 2014).In addition to “power/knowledge” as an analytical framework in FDA, policy analysis has also leaned on “Foucauldian Governmentality” lens in order to understand policy critically. By governmentality, Michel Foucault (1977) drew on the metaphor of the “panopticon,” implying that way of self-surveillance and self-regulation, rather than force, are mechanisms of social control. Thus, discipline becomes the technique of power and body becomes the object of and target of disciplinary power. Using this FDA lens, for example, Zoller (2003) analyzed critically how workers consent to occupational health hazards, and how they regulate themselves in relation to the regulatory mechanism (e.g., occupational health and safety policy) through produced and reproduced the common identity norms and values by the employers. She argued that occupational health and safety is a political discourse at both policy and everyday organizational levels and provides insight on the suppression of conflicts at each level of organization. This study also revealed that one of the reasons why employees do not report work-related injury and illness is “disciplinary norms” (discursive and ideological construction of social reality) created by the organization through their policies related to workplace health and safety. Hence, employees themselves subjugated their physical body (e.g., self-surveillance) and normalized their illness and hazards related to work, which reduced reporting and produced consent to existing protection systems that exclude their experiences (Zoller, 2003). Another example is hegemonic masculinity ideals, such as self-reliance, autonomy, and an emphasis on agency (Sloan et al., 2010). A culture of healthism encourages people to monitor themselves to present as healthy, which, in turn, functions to discipline their potentially rebellious minds and bodies. In this context, Sloan et al. (2010) did not merely analyze how healthy masculinities were constructed; using FDA, they also revealed how these construction processes are shaped by the discourses of self-surveillance and Western neo-liberal politics/policies. Thus, FDA helps us to gain a (re)view of the problem from the “outside” and think (differently) about the present by taking up a position outside of our current regimes of truths, in order to recognize the hidden assumptions and practices that form the rules of discourse formation (Arribas-Ayllon & Walkerdine, 2008; Hewitt, 2009).
Is SC Necessary When FDA Is Applied?
In this penultimate section, we move from theory to application by providing a specific example of the use of FDA analysis derived from the lead author’s study (Khan, 2018) of sex education gaps in Bangladesh. Using the lens of SC and FDA, this study addressed the research questions: How do Bangladeshi young men receive sex education during adolescence? How do they interpret their experiences? How do their narratives reproduce and/or disrupt dominant discourses related to sex education, including discourses around sexuality, masculinity, and manhood? This study identified dominant discourses around sex education, which were intertwined with social institutions, including schools; it also illustrated instances that reproduced and disrupted these dominant discourses. Some participants embraced dominant discourses while others disrupted them, and some contradicted themselves. In this case, SC provided insights into the ways that the participants interpreted their experiences. However, this interpretation lacked critical engagement by not informing how the young men’s construction (production or reproduction) of experiences had been shaped by power-relations, where knowledgeable authorities (such as schools, religion) played a pivotal role in forming their experiences. It is the participants who are the product of discourses. As well, the analyst or qualitative researcher is also a product of discourses. As such, the meaning-making or construction process of experiences, which is the final contribution of SC, is the first step of FDA. This step is then further examined using different Foucauldian lenses, such as power/knowledge, resistance, truth games, and genealogy. Given these analytic conditions, the lead author published a paper (Khan & Raby, 2020) using only FDA, showing how Bangladeshi young men constructed, produced and /or reproduced, and contradicted their experiences (discourses) around sex education. This analysis is one example of how SC is unnecessary, if we use FDA. In addition, the two approaches are philosophically distinct. SC favors a conventional humanist qualitative methodology, while FDA favors post qualitative methodology (St. Pierre, 2020); as such, they cannot go hand by hand, as realized by St. Pierre (St. Pierre, 2018):I realized those two structures could not be thought together, that their ontologies and epistemologies were incompatible because of their very different descriptions of human being, language, discourse, power, agency, resistance, freedom, and so on. (p. 603)
This article has explored opportunities provided to qualitative researchers in FDA, which allow for an understanding of the “complexity” of human experiences, ranging from basic human communication to the internal functioning systems of power-relations, and which provide us with a version of the truth or reality about the problems encountered by researchers. This article proposes that it is imperative to develop and promote a sound analytic that can capture the important and implicit components/assumptions of that complexity. Against this backdrop, FDA may be a fairer analytic than SC because it not only analyzes what participants have said as well as the way they said it, by looking not only at how they interpret their experiences, but also how their experiences reproduce and/or disrupt dominant discourses around the problems under study. Though FDA plays pivotal roles in problematizing intellectual traditions, it has some drawbacks in that it is more concerned with theory than method. The absence of an explicit technique for researchers to follow is a striking constraint for new researchers. Finally, as FDA ideas are full of cryptic philosophies, novice researchers might struggle to apply the concepts to qualitative data analysis.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: SSHRC/CIHR Healthy Productive Workforce Partnership Grant and Mitacs Globalink Research Award.
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Tauhid Hossain Khan, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada, ON N2L 3G1. Email: [email protected]
Khan TH, MacEachen E. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Moving Beyond a Social Constructionist Analytic. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. January 2021. doi:10.1177/16094069211018009
- Title: “Foucauldian Discourse Analysis: Moving Beyond a Social Constructionist Analytic”
- Authors: “Tauhid Hossain Khan and Ellen MacEachen”
- Source: “https://journals.sagepub.com/”
- License: “CC BY-NC 4.0”


An invaluable resource for all who are, or will be, involved in the church's ministry of mercy. Includes chapters on the nature and history of the diaconal office, concrete advice regarding budget and finances, suggestions for enlisting congregational participation in diaconal service, and thought-provoking perspectives on giving and stewardship. Profoundly Christ-centered, solidly based on Scripture, lucid in presentation and down-to-earth in application.
Let your loins by girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home for the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truely, I say to you, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!
Peter said, 'Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?' And the Lord said, 'Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is the servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing' (Luke 12:35-38; 41-43)


Victoria is the organizer of the Blue Pen Writers’ Conference. She is a fiction author, book editor, and speaker based in East Tennessee. Her short fiction has appeared in more than forty publications, and she is represented by Sandy Lu of Book Wyrm Literary Agency.
She is the founder and owner of Blue Pen, which provides editing and book design services for authors. Her team at Blue Pen has supported the development of more than a hundred books.
Victoria spends her free time backpacking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hanging out with her husky, and practicing leathercraft. She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association, the Knoxville Writers’ Guild, and the Appalachian Studies Association.
|Offering Critiques without Session


Book Recommendations for Valentine’s Day on Elderly Love
Happy Valentine’s Day! Whether you are in a relationship, single, divorced or widowed, these ten reading recommendations for seniors are full of romance, dating tips and the best relationship advice. Enjoy!
1. Late Life Love: Romance and New Relationships in Later Years
This amazing book by Connie Goldman will make you believe in true love again! Connie interviewed twenty-two older couples and shares their romances and later in life relationships. A must read!
2. Naked at Our Age: Talking Out Loud About Senior Sex
Aging should not interfere with sensuality and sexuality. Joan Price gives some valuable information and advice for senior men and women (straight and gay). It encourages you to explore, continue and reclaim your sexuality!
3. Autumn Romance: Stories and Portraits of Love After 50
If you are interested in reading a sweet and heart touching book, then this one is for you! It contains twenty-nine stories of older couples that proves romance is ageless. It’s a beautiful book that also includes black and white portraits. Truly inspiring!
4. How 50 Couples Found Love After 50
If you are single, divorced or widowed, we suggest you read this book. Tom Blake shares the stories of fifty couples who found love later in life. It’s sincere and encouraging. A true manifest that it’s never too late to find a new love or to love again.
5. All Night Long: How to Make Love to a Man Over 50
It is true that certain things change with age, but sexuality does not have to be one of them! More than a guide, this book is full of positive information. It contains exercises for both men and women to improve their libido and lovemaking in a supportive relationship.
6. Apples Should Be Red
If you prefer reading a romance novel, then this one is for you! Apples Should Be Red is the story of two seniors, a woman in her late fifties and a man in his late sixties, that fall for each other under the most awkward circumstances. It is fun, delightful and a short read! We love it and hope to find more books with seniors as main characters.
7. Free Fall: A Late-in-Life Love Affair
In her memoir, Rae Padilla Francoeur, shares her story of finding a new love at fifty-eight. Her writing is authentic, provocative and erotic. It might make you blush, but you will appreciate her passion and honesty.
8. Getting Naked Again: Dating, Romance, Sex, and Love When You’ve Been Divorced, Widowed, Dumped, or Distracted
Clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Judith Sills, PhD, writes with humour, eloquence and wit. Even though the cover of her book and title might imply that it is only about intimacy, it discusses everything to do with getting back into the dating scene later in life.
9. The Winning Dating Formula For Women Over 50: 7 Steps To Attracting Quality Men
Here is another perfect book for single, divorced and widowed women over fifty who would like to find love again. Lisa Copeland, a dating coach for women over fifty, gives you the tools, skills and confidence you need to start dating again.
10. 99 Things Women Wish They Knew Before Dating After 40, 50, & Yes, 60!
If you are looking for a fun, quick read, full of good dating advice, we recommend this book. It contains detailed explanations, dating suggestions and wonderful stories that will inspire you!


By Lucy Piper, Senior MedWire Reporter
Patients with low back pain (LBP) undergoing chiropractic treatment who respond to treatment are likely to improve very quickly, study findings show.
This appears to be true for those with acute (3 months) pain.
The researchers found that treatment response on the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) scale 1 week after treatment was a good indicator of outcome.
Indeed, patients with chronic and acute LBP who were “much better” or “better” on the PGIC scale at 1 week were four to five times more likely to be improved at both 1 and 3 months after treatment than patients who had not improved at 1 week.
The team also points out that “an important and unique finding in this current study is that although 123 (23%) of the patients with acute LBP and 71 (24%) of the patients with chronic LBP were diagnosed by their chiropractors as having radiculopathy, this finding was not a negative predictor of improvement.”
Cynthia Peterson (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and colleagues investigated the outcomes of 523 patients with acute LBP and 293 with chronic LBP receiving chiropractic treatment.
After 1 week of treatment, 65% of patients with acute pain and 32% of patient with chronic pain reported that they were either “much better” or “better.” The respective rates were 81% and 59% at 1 month and 88% and 69% at 3 months.
The most consistent factor predicting outcome was self-reported improvement at 1 week, which was independently associated with improvement at 1 month (odds ratio [OR]=2.4 for acute LBP and 5.0 for chronic LBP) and 3 months (OR=2.9 and 3.3, respectively).
Among the patients with chronic pain, other prognostic factors included trauma onset as the reason for LBP, a history of LBP episodes, and the Oswestry baseline score for every 1-point increase in the baseline Oswestry score, patients with chronic pain were 6% less likely to improve at 1 month.
These findings could help practicing chiropractors “make more confident decisions about patient prognosis based on how quickly individual patients respond to their treatment,” the researchers report in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics.
“Chiropractors can also expect most of their patients with acute and chronic pain to continue to improve at least up to 3 months after the start of treatment, even if they are no longer being treated.”


My Exit Plan: Getting My House In Order (Audiobook)
The author, Rhonda Green is a person whose calling in life, from a very young age, has been to compassionately walk with people and their loved ones as they transition out of this life. Her emphasis in this book is to encourage and guide everyone to prepare for their eventual transition by completing what she calls an “Exit Plan” in order to save them much practical and emotional heartache.
This will be an extremely helpful book for all who are interested in “getting their house in order.” It also might well cultivate such an interest in those who haven’t yet thought about how to prepare for their own death.
Green has done a superb job of creating a handbook for the process of dying through her life-giving stories and guidance. She somehow manages to companion the reader into the nitty gritty of the “business” of death and dying while keeping a wonderful energy flowing throughout. Her focus on death is for the purpose of helping people live well and be fully present both in death and life.
This book is well written with strong logical flow and transitions in general. It’s obvious that the writer knows what she’s talking about from a lifetime of experience; her roots go deep. The author is to be highly commended for sharing her lifetime of wisdom through this effective book.


Everything that happens in the mind is part of a causal chain. Meditation is the simple practice of watching the activity of the mind honestly and witnessing their results. Skillfulness is choosing to cultivate what brings benefit and letting go of what increases suffering. Simple common sense. And though tedious on the surface, much less tedious and much less painful that not training the mind.
Taking an interest in the breath is taking an interest in the present moment. Being on good terms with the breath is being on good terms with yourself and therefore with the whole world.
Life is shaped by the friends we choose. Meditation, in allowing us to be comfortable with ourselves, give us great strength to choose our friends and our way in the world.
Secure in solitude.
"A Sangha is a community of resistance, resisting the speed, violence and unwholesome ways of living that are prevalent in our society. Mindfulness is to protect ourselves and others. A good Sangha will lead us in the direction of harmony and awareness. The substance of the practice is most important. The forms can be adapted." ~ Thich Nhat Hahn


“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.
For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever’”.
– Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)


A MLA book citation follows a specific format that allows the reader to quickly and accurately identify key information. Here’s everything you need to know how MLA cite book works.
Standard MLA Format Book Citation Format
Citing a book is important for several reasons. First of all, it gives the original author credit because books are intellectual properties. When you fail to cite a source, you commit plagiarism and intellectual dishonesty. On the other hand, if you added the correct citation, you display yourself as scholarly with proof of research conducted.
Core Elements of a MLA Book Citation
So, how do you create a book citation for MLA? Actually, it depends on the book. For example, the citation looks differently if it is written by two authors rather than one author. Also, an anthology citation contains more information than a novel.
Even though this is true, all book citations contain specific basic information that is common to all books.
- The name of the author listed last name first.
- The title of book in italics.
- The name of the publisher.
- The year of publication
- The city of publication is optional unless called for by rare situations.
Properly formatted, it will look like this:
Author last name, First name. Book Title. Publisher, Year.
MLA Citation for A Book Chapter
If you are citing a chapter of a book, you will need to include more information. Along with the name of the author of the chapter, you will have to add the name of the editor/s. The page ranges within the book for the chapter you are citing should be cited as well.
For One Author/Editor
Now would be a good time for an example. So, let’s start with something simple like a citation for a book chapter with one author/editor.
Here is the proper MLA format for citing a chapter of a book with one author/editor:
Author(s) of Chapter. "Title of Chapter: Subtitle of Chapter." Title of Book, edited by Editor of Book, Publisher, Publication Date, page numbers.
And, here is an example:
Kang-Brown, Jason, et al. “Zero-Tolerance Policies Do Not Make Schools Safer.” School Safety, edited by Noah Berlatsky, Greenhaven Press, 2016, pp. 50-52.
For Multiple Authors/Editors
Sometimes, a book may have two or more authors. So, let’s take a look at a citation for each situation.
For a book with two authors use the following format:
1st Author's Last Name, First Name, and 2nd Author's First Name Last Name. Title of the Book. Publisher, Year published.
Hawkins, Stan, and Sarah Niblock. Prince: the Making of a Pop Music Phenomenon. Ashgate, 2011.
For 3 or more authors, this is where it changes significantly. So, again here is the format:
1st Author's Last Name, First Name, et al. Title of the Book. Publisher, Year published.
Interestingly, et al. simply means “and all” in Latin.
So, how does it look with real book information?
Bear, Donald R., et. al. Words Their Way: Word Study for Phonics, Vocabulary, and Spelling Instruction. 6th ed., Pearson Education, 2015.
For Missing Author/Editor
A book can also have no author. Well, technically, it would be called a missing author. Basically, the author hasn’t been given credit for the book. This happens with reference books like an encyclopedia.
So, if there’s no author how do you cite the book? You start with the title.
And, it the citation looks like this:
Book Title: Subtitle. [Edition information], Publisher, Year.
Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed, Merriam-Webster, 2014.
MLA Citation for Whole Collection
So that’s how you cite a single book. But, what if you want to cite a whole collection? Don’t worry. There’s a format for that, as well.
And here it is:
Author's last name, First name. Title of Book. Year of publication for the Title cited. Title of the multi volume publication, volume number, Publisher, Year of publication for the collection.
Damrosch, David, et al. The Longman Anthology of World Literature. 2nd ed., vol. C, Pearson Education, 2009.
MLA Citation for Book Editions
What if you want to cite a book that’s a specific edition? Of course, you have to include the edition number. But how do you format the citation? Your citation will look like this:
Author last name, First name. Book Title. Edition. Publisher, Year.
Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP, 2007.
MLA Book Citation for Ebooks
Of course, books aren’t only found in print anymore. You have to also consider ebooks. So, this is how you cite ebooks:
Author’s last name, First name. Title of the e-Book. E-book ed., Publisher, Year published. Name of e-reader device.
O’Brien, T. (1990). The things they carried [Kindle Fire version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com
MLA Citation for Translated Books
Another special type of book is a translation. Therefore, it has a special citation:
Author’s Last name, First name. Title of the Book. Translated by First name Last name, Publisher, Year published.
Hammesfahr, Petra. The Sinner. Translated by John Brownjohn. Bitter Lemon Press, 2007.
As you can see, there are many different MLA book citations. Which one you use depends upon the information included on the book’s publication page. For your citation to be accurate, you must be sure that you have included all of the relevant information provided.


Friday, February 10, 2012
Life Of Joseph Smith The Prophet By George Q. Cannon
In the fall of 1842, young George Q. Cannon, a convert to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, arrived in Nauvoo, Illinois, where the Saints were headquartered. There he met the Prophet Joseph Smith. He writes:
“The author sought with a boy’s curiosity and eagerness, to discover those whom he knew, and especially to get sight of the Prophet and his brother Hyrum, neither of whom he had ever met. When his eyes fell upon the Prophet, without a word from anyone to point him out, or any reason to separate him form others who stood around, he knew him instantly. He would have known him among ten thousand. There was that about him, which to the author’s eyes, distinguished him from all the men he had ever seen.”
From that moment, George Q. Cannon bore strong testimony of the divine calling and the accomplishments of the Prophet and the gospel that had been restored to the earth through him.
In Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, the author presents firsthand, accounts, letters, and memories of those who knew and loved the Prophet. The story follows the life of Joseph, from his birth in Vermont in 1805 through his martyrdom at Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. In concluding the book with the Prophet’s death, President Cannon writes:
“The enemies of truth were sure that they had now destroyed the work. And yet it lives, greater and stronger after the lapse of year! It is indestructible for it is the work of God. And knowing that it is eternal work of God, we know that Joseph Smith, who established it, was a Prophet, pure and holy.”


Fables Books, Goshen – Meet the Authors | February First Fridays
Meet the Authors | February First Fridays, Friday February 2nd, 2024 @ 6:00pm – 8:00 pm
While you’re indulging in your favorite downtown shops, swing by Fables Books and treat your shelf to a new read or two. Bring the kiddos in from 5 pm – 7 pm for a fun craft hosted by Triple P Elkhart County. Learn more about how you can protect our environment through waste management with Tyler Kanczuzewski and his book “Reinvent Your Waste.” Or dive into a new mystery with Bruce Cashbuaugh‘s newest novel, “None So Blind.” Tyler and Bruce will be available to answer questions and sign their books from 6 pm to 8 pm.
Finally, grab a gift for your Valentine, Palentine, or Galentine. Our booksellers are happy to help you find the perfect book or gift to show how much you care.
For more information about what’s happening in Downtown Goshen, visit downtowngoshen.org.


Improving early childhood literacy is one of the most pressing issues facing our nation today. Kids who struggle with reading can quickly fall behind in school and also have a higher chance of not completing high school or going on to college. It can have a lasting, negative impact on their lives.
Allison Tietjen understands the importance of working to improve early childhood literacy and so she decided to make it the focus of her Gold Award Take Action project.
“A Book and a Game – to Strengthen the Brain” focused on improving early childhood literacy in Allison’s community, Chester, Nebraska. She joined forces with area elementary school teachers and librarians and together they selected books for students in preschool through first grade and created a game to accompany each book. The books and games were based on National Reading Standards and the school district’s objectives.
Students participating in Allison’s program can check out a book/game tote bag from their school library and take it home to share with their family. The project had three goals: increase parents’ knowledge of their child’s reading skills, enhance students’ reading performance and create a lasting bond for reading and learning between a child and adult.
“A Book and a Game – to Strengthen the Brain” has been a huge success and with support from school staff, will continue to be part of the early childhood curriculum.
Way to go, Allison! You are truly helping to make the world a better place.


Please join Multnomah County Democrats in an informative event and discussion about systemic racism in schools at
6:30 to 7:30 PM
3551 NE Sandy Blvd
We will be joined by author Susan Anglada Bartley, an Educator and an advocate for students in Multnomah County largest school district, the Portland Public School district. Ms. Bartley will be reading from her recently published book A Different Vision A Revolution Against Racism in Public Education. The book is available in independent books store and online. Please RSVP Rachelle Dixon at: ViceChair1@Multdems.org.
Light refreshments will be served.


Yoga Bunny by Sarah Jane Hinder
A delightful new board book teaches babies and toddlers 10 yoga poses inspired by woodland creatures
Yoga Bunny invites you and your little one on a woodland yoga adventure with 10 adorable forest critters. Bunny, raccoon, owl, and deer—the gang’s all here! From Hero and Half Lotus to Cat and Cow, Yoga Bunny leads babies and toddlers through these authentic poses and more, with guidance from some of their favorite animal friends.
With the fourth yoga board book in her wildly popular series, Sarah Jane Hinder offers parents, grandparents, teachers, and daycare providers a wonderful new way to help children increase body awareness, coordination, concentration, and self-soothing. The left-hand page shows an illustration of a child performing a pose, with the facing page featuring a woodland animal in the same pose, along with a playful narrative. Yoga Bunny also includes a complete yoga flow with instructions for all 10 poses.


Saturday, March 19, 2005
It’s not that many people come here to read Lunar Skeletons, and so if I make a book recommendation, it would be like a tree falling in the forest: nobody will hear it. But I thought I would mention Marva J. Dawn’s book entitled “Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down—A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time” (Eerdsmans Publishing Company, 1995, ISBN 0-8028-4102-3). It’s an obscure book, I grant, and written long ago, but Ms. Dawn has written a very thoughtful book, and it tackles the biggest problem that seem to plague many evangelical churches nowadays: the Great Dumbing Down Syndrome. And it is the case, it seems, that one of the biggest criticisms of the Rick Warren's methodology is that it excessively “dumbs down” the Gospel in order to make it more palatable, or “seeker sensitive.” But she had so many excellent things to say, particularly in regard to worship, that I am giving the book a second reading already. One aspect of the book is that Ms. Dawn wrote it at a time of great personal suffering in her life because of various health problems, which is something that she did occasionally mentioned in her book.


The Fight of Two Dogs Within You
An old wiseman is teaching his grandson about life:
“A fight is going on inside me,” he said to the boy.
“It is a terrible fight and it is between two dogs. One is evil–he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”
He continued, “The other is good – he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you–and inside every other person, too.”
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which dog will win?”
The old wiseman simply replied, “The one you feed.”


Performing a state of the art study in geo- materials poses several challenges to both the human and the computer system:
Hydrous phases are among the most important Earth components. They have technological and societal utility and are important for a broad suite of Earth processes, including the origin of life. From both thermodynamic and structural perspectives, however, they represent some of the most complex naturally occurring materials: their bonding often includes a combination of strong covalent, weak ionic, van der Waals, and hydrogen bonding, all within large unit cells. Most are solid solutions, and many are prone to variations in layer packing. Many prior studies of these materials have emphasized experimental measurements and analytic modeling of their thermodynamics. Such thermodynamic studies represent a fundamental tool for understanding present and past natural processes, including those that shaped—and continue to shape—the structure and evolution of our planet. Nevertheless, many properties of these materials and solid solutions are difficult to measure experimentally or model analytically. To make significant new progress and attain a deep and predictive understanding of these materials requires a more atomistic and theoretical approach.
Spin crossover of iron is of central importance in solid Earth geophysics. It impacts all physical properties of minerals that altogether constitute ∼ 95 vol% of the Earth’s lower mantle: ferropericlase [(Mg,Fe)O] and Fe-bearing magnesium silicate (MgSiO3) perovskite.
Using density functional theory+Hubbard U (DFT+U) calculations, we investigate how aluminum affects the spin crossover of iron in MgSiO3 perovskite (Pv) and post-perovskite (Ppv), the major mineral phases in the Earth’s lower mantle. We find that the presence of aluminum does not change the response of iron spin state to pressure: only ferric iron (Fe3+) in the octahedral (B)-site undergoes a crossover from high-spin (HS) to low-spin (LS) state, while Fe3+ in the dodecahedral (A)-site remains in the HS state, same as in Al-free cases. However, aluminum does significantly affect the placement of Fe3+ in these mineral phases. The most stable atomic configuration has all Al3+ in the B-site and all Fe3+ in the A-site (thus in the HS state). Metastable configurations with LS Fe3+ in the B-site can happen only at high pressures and high temperatures. Therefore, experimental observations of LS Fe33+ at high pressures in Al-bearing Pv require diffusion of iron from the A-site to the B-site and should be sensitive to the annealing temperature and schedule. In the Earth’s lower mantle, the elastic anomalies accompanying the B-site HS-LS crossover exhibited in Al-free Pv are likely to be considerably reduced, according to the B-site Fe3+ population.
 N. Tosi, D. A. Yuen, N. de Koker, and R. M. Wentzcovitch, Mantle dynamics with pressure- and temperature-dependent thermal expansivity and conductivity, Phys. Earth & Planet. Int. 217, 48–58 (2013). DOI:10.1016/j.pepi.2013.02.004
 H. Hsu, Y. Yu, and R. M. Wentzcovitch, Spin crossover in iron in aluminous MgSiO3 persovskite and post-perovskite, Earth & Planet. Sc. Lett. 359-360, 34-39 (2012). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.09.029


Reference Books on Writing and Publishing
There are a lot of books published on book publishing. Unfortunately, like many books on other topics, the books vary greatly on the value of the content presented. We've assembled some of our favorite books on a variety of topics related to book publishing that we believe are worth reading.
Let us know what you think of our suggestions or recommend other books to add to our list.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition
by The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff
Technologies may change, but the need for clear and accurate communication never goes out of style. That is why for more than one hundred years The Chicago Manual of Style has remained the definitive guide for anyone who works with books. In addition to grammar and usage, The Chicago Manual of Style has sections specifically related to the formatting and organization of books.
In the seven years since the previous edition debuted, we have seen an extraordinary evolution in the way we create and share knowledge. This seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been prepared with an eye toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords. It recognizes the needs of those who are self-publishing or following open access or Creative Commons publishing models. The citation chapters reflect the ever-expanding universe of electronic sources—including social media posts and comments, private messages, and app content—and also offer updated guidelines on such issues as DOIs, time stamps, and e-book locators.
Other improvements are independent of technological change. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language. Key sections on punctuation and basic citation style have been reorganized and clarified. To facilitate navigation, headings and paragraph titles have been revised and clarified throughout. And the bibliography has been updated and expanded to include the latest and best resources available.
This edition continues to reflect expert insights gathered from Chicago’s own staff and from an advisory board of publishing experts from across the profession. It also includes suggestions inspired by emails, calls, and even tweets from readers. No matter how much the means of communication change, The Chicago Manual of Style remains the ultimate resource for those who care about getting the details right.
The Writer's Compass: From Story Map to Finished Draft in 7 Stages
by Nancy Ellen Dodd
Just as surveyors use a compass to map the known world, The Writer’s Compass teaches writers to use their intuition as an internal compass to create their story map. This book simplifies Aristotle’s elements of good writing into easily applicable concepts. Each stage focuses on a major story weakness such as structure, characterization, and creating tension. Through thought-provoking questions, The Writer’s Compass trains the analytical side of the brain to be creative and to write the story the writer wants to tell—in 7 stages.
What's Your Book? A Step-by-Step Guide to Get You from Inspiration to Published Author
by Brooke Warner
What's Your Book? is an aspiring author’s go-to guide for getting from idea to publication. Brooke Warner is a publishing expert with thirteen years’ experience as an acquiring editor for major trade houses. In her book, she brings her unique understanding of book publishing (from the vantage point of coach, editor, and publisher) to each of the book's five chapters, which include understanding the art of becoming an author, getting over common hurdles, challenging counterproductive mindsets, building an author platform, and ultimately getting published. Brooke is known for her straightforward delivery, honest assessments, and compassionate touch with authors. What's Your Book? contains the inspiration and information every writer needs to publish their first or next book.
Journey of Memoir: The Three Stages of Memoir Writing
by Linda Joy Myers
Journey of Memoir --The Three Stages of Memoir Writing is a workshop in a book. Guiding you from your reasons to write a memoir, to how to begin, you will discover the answers to the questions you have about memoir writing. There are lessons on how to write a great scene; information on the difference between freewriting and outlining, and why you need both. Timeline and turning point exercises help you get started and create structure, and you'll learn what the narrative arc is and how to create plot in memoir.
Breaking Ground on Your Memoir: Craft, Inspiration, and Motivation for Memoir Writers
by Brooke Warner and Linda Joy Myers
In Breaking Ground on Your Memoir, Linda Joy Myers (President of the National Association of Memoir Writers) and Brooke Warner (Publisher of She Writes Press) present from the ground up—from basic to advanced—the craft and skills memoirists can draw upon to write a powerful and moving story, as well as inspiration to write, finish, and polish their own story. Full of rich insights and practical advice and strategies, Breaking Ground on Your Memoir offers all the tools writers need to write a powerful, publishable memoir.
Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers
by Judith Briles
Could you use a pick-me-up? A bit of inspiration or silliness? How about something to chew on or get you unstuck? In Snappy Sassy Salty: Wise Words for Authors and Writers, you will find all that and more.
Author Judith Briles favorite advice over the years to her many author clients is included ... think and write snappy, sassy and salty and surround yourself with cheerleaders for your vision, not distractors.
Writing with a bit of snap, always some sass and yes, there's salt in there.
The Elements of Style: 2017 Edition
by William Strunk Jr.
The Elements of Style is an American English writing style guide. It is one of the most influential and best-known prescriptive treatments of English grammar and usage in the United States. It originally detailed eight elementary rules of usage, ten elementary principles of composition, and "a few matters of form" as well as a list of commonly misused words and expressions. Updated editions of the paperback book are often required reading for American high school and college composition classes.
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
by William Zinsser
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
Stein On Writing
by Sol Stein
A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies.
Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for all writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether they are newcomers or old hands, students or instructors, amateurs or professionals. As the always clear and direct Stein explains here, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions--how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place." With examples from bestsellers as well as from students' drafts, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, trimming away flabby wording, the so-called "triage" method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more.
Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo
by Grant Faulkner
Every writer knows that as rewarding as the creative process is, it can often be a bumpy road. Have hope and keep at it! Designed to kick-start creativity, this handsome handbook from the executive director of National Novel Writing Month gathers a wide range of insights and advice for writers at any stage of their career. From tips about how to finally start that story to helpful ideas about what to do when the words just aren't quite coming out right, Pep Talks for Writers provides motivation, encouragement, and helpful exercises for writers of all stripes.
You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)
by Jeff Goins
Becoming a writer begins with a simple but important belief: You are a writer; you just need to write.
In You Are a Writer, Jeff Goins shares his own story of self-doubt and what it took for him to become a professional writer. He gives you practical steps to improve your writing, get published in magazines, and build a platform that puts you in charge.
This book is about what it takes to be a writer in the 21st Century. You will learn the importance of passion and discipline and how to show up every day to do the work.
You Are a Writer will help you fall back in love with writing and build an audience who shares your love. It’s about living the dream of a life dedicated to words.
How do we select a Book to be included on the Center for Book Publishing Resources page?
All of the books listed on this page have been reviewed by us and we have found that they provide excellent information about their subject matter.
If you have a book that you would like to have listed here, please contact us on our Feedback page. We will need a copy of the book to review. We prefer printed copies, but will accept other formats.


Quotes of the Day
Edgar Watson Howe
"Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public."
Miguel de Cervantes
"I say that good painters imitated nature; but that bad ones vomited it."
"Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."
"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents, and the second half by our children."
"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think interior decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are."
John J. Plomp
"You know that children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers."
"It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help."
"If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done."
"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way."
"Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth *and* fresher breath."
"The greatest use of life is to spend it for something that will outlast it."


April of 2021 saw the publication of my novel Smithy, the story of a chimpanzee raised in a storied Newport, RI mansion who just might have the ability to use language--and who just might be using it to communicate with a spirit lurking in the house.
Smithy's journey didn't end when that book ended. When I initially prepared the manuscript of Smithy's story, it was much longer, covering a twenty-year trajectory. That final draft was so long that I ended up splitting it in half. Part I became Smithy. Now, Inkshares will be releasing Part II of Smithy's remarkable adventure this February in a book called Webster.
The forthcoming book follows Smithy as he departs Trevor Hall and travels across the country to a research lab in California. Ruby and Jeff hope this new environment will give Smithy a fresh start and an opportunity to further develop his sign language skills. Instead, they are dismayed to discover the director of the Center for the Scientific Advancement of Man is an abusive bully who neglects the welfare of the animals and tyrannizes his employees. Worse, accidents in the lab and unruly behavior from the research apes suggest that a phantom presence is still hovering over Smithy. Has the "Dark Woman" followed him from Trevor Hall, or are new entities converging on him?
As word spreads of the weird events at CSAM and Smithy's unusual abilities, his notoriety grows to worldwide proportions, eventually claiming headlines, a place in the court of public opinion, and participation in the court of law. It's a story about belief in the mysterious and faith in the unseen. I think it will thrill you. It may amaze you. It might even . . .terrify you.
I hope you will join me and Smithy for the conclusion of a saga that is out of this world.


Patients with poor ovarian response (POR) are both challenging to treat and represent a large proportion of patients presenting with infertility . Patients with POR, who are often of advanced maternal age, have a high cycle cancellation rate, higher miscarriage rate, and significantly reduced live birth rate per cycle.
The term “poor responder” is typically referred to as someone whose ovaries and body does not respond to fertility medications. Usually they will require much higher doses of stimulation medications to produce 4 or less than optimal number of eggs needed to proceed in an IVF treatment.
How do you diagnose someone who may be a poor responder?
In most cases a poor responder diagnosis is discovered after going through an IVF cycle resulting in a poor stimulation outcome. However, it is possible to identify potential issues ahead of time through ovarian reserve testing. This can be done through having a provider ideally a fertility specialist, check the FSH levels and conducting the clomiphene challenge test. An ultrasound assessment can help predict both resting and antral follicle numbers. There is one last test that can help determine if a person will be a poor responder and that is cycle day 3 blood testing of the Inhibin B levels.
It has been recognized that, in order to define the poor response in IVF, at least two of the following three features must be present: (i) advanced maternal age or any other risk factor for POR; (ii) a previous POR; and (iii) an abnormal ovarian reserve test (ORT). Two episodes of POR after maximal stimulation are sufficient to define a patient as poor responder in the absence of advanced maternal age or abnormal ORT. By definition, the term POR refers to the ovarian response, and therefore, one stimulated cycle is considered essential for the diagnosis of POR. However, patients of advanced age with an abnormal ORT may be classified as poor responders since both advanced age and an abnormal ORT may indicate reduced ovarian reserve and act as a surrogate of ovarian stimulation cycle outcome. In this case, the patients should be more properly defined as ‘expected poor responder’. If this definition of POR is uniformly adapted as the ‘minimal’ criteria needed to select patients for future clinical trials, more homogeneous populations will be tested for any new protocols. Finally, by reducing bias caused by spurious POR definitions, it will be possible to compare results and to draw reliable conclusions.
It is important that women who are diagnosed as poor responders talk discuss with their fertility specialist on whether they fall in the spectrum. There are studies that indicate that women with elevated FSH levels during a clomiphene challenge test, may have an unsuccessful IVF cycle. However, everybody’s diagnosis can vary as well treatment protocol.
Here are a few different treatments for a poor response to ovarian stimulation that are commonly recommended:
- Altering the pituitary down regulation protocols
- Modifying stimulation cycle medications (e.g., different types and amounts gonadotropins),
- The use of adjuvant therapy (such as, growth hormone or androgen pretreatment), and
- advanced laboratory techniques (e.g., assisted hatching, continuing to egg retrieval despite low follicle numbers, or day 2 transfers)
Agonist Protocol or Microdose Lupron Flare Protocol: If patient had a poor response to other protocols or are of advanced maternal age, we can recommend a lower dose of Lupron that stimulates (rather than suppresses) the body’s natural production of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH). This is considered the “flare” period. patient will continue to take the microdose of Lupron during the stimulation phase up until hCG trigger injection. The combination of low-dose Lupron and stimulation drugs maximizes the patient’s ovarian stimulation potential. eggs will be retrieved, fertilized, and transferred back into uterus. This cycle takes approximately 6 weeks, if birth control is not used, until the time of pregnancy test.
Estrogen Priming Protocol: In conjunction with the Antagonist Protocol, estrogen can be supplemented to silence natural hormone production and ovarian stimulation. The estrogen patch is typically prescribed two weeks before day 1 of cycle and is replaced daily until period (cycle day 1) arrives. The stimulation period begins and follows the Antagonist protocol. This is best for poor responders or women diagnosed with Diminished Ovarian Reserve (DOR).
HOW MINI IVF S ARE INCREASING POOR RESPONDERS CHANCES OF GETTING PREGNANT ?
What is a mini IVF cycle?
Mini, also known as minimal stimulation, IVF protocols have one distinct difference from traditional IVF protocols. Instead of using fertility medication to push the body to produce a large number of eggs, Mini IVF focuses on producing a small number of high quality eggs. On average, a mini IVF cycle retrieves between two and five high quality eggs.
Why are poor responders and Mini IVFs a good match?
Because minimal stimulation IVF protocols are not concerned with retrieving a large number of eggs, poor responders are often a good fit. Each woman is prescribed only the specific level of medication she needs to promote ovulation. Throughout the cycle each woman is closely monitored which allows the care team to make adjustments as necessary to provide the best outcome.
What medication is used during Mini IVF cycles?
Each woman’s medication is determined by her specific needs, therefore treatment amounts vary. Generally, women undergoing a Mini IVF protocol can expect to take one dose of Clomid a day as well as up to three injections of Menopur during the course of the cycle. Additionally, a dose of Synarel – which is administered via nasal spray – is generally used to trigger ovulation.