Ambiguous discursive practices in health-care project plans: a keyword-assisted critical discourse analysis of the term “patient ”
Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management
ISSN: 1746-5648
Article publication date: 5 October 2020
Issue publication date: 23 February 2021
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to investigate ambiguous language use in health-care project plans in a manner that accounts for the wider, institutional, public health-care context.
Design/methodology/approach
The article deployed a case study approach and drew from Fairclough's critical discourse analysis (CDA) as well as a keyword analysis to investigate two time-sequenced versions of the same project planning document for a health-care project in Finland.
Findings
In the project plans investigated, the study identified patient as a keyword possessing various meanings within the public health-care context. By examining the discursive practices around the keyword patient, the study demonstrated their role in constituting the institutional context as well as the function of this context in constraining these practices.
Originality/value
By looking at the potential of the CDA to investigate discursive practices of the keyword in two sequential versions of a project plan within the broader context of public health care, the study adds to the scant existing literature on critically oriented health-care project communication studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their deepest gratitude to two anonymous reviewers for their profound, insightful and valuable comments during the review process.Funding: This study has been partially funded by SHERLOC-project (Sytemic and Human Empowerment in the Revolution of Health Care), University of Oulu, Finland.
Citation
Lunkka, N., Lukkarila, P., Laulainen, S. and Suhonen, M. (2021), "Ambiguous discursive practices in health-care project plans: a keyword-assisted critical discourse analysis of the term “
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited