[DNA] MPI working paper on DNA

[Philip Leifeld]

Dear DNA users,

A new working paper was released about two weeks ago:

Philip Leifeld and Sebastian Haunss (2010): A Comparison between 
Political Claims Analysis and Discourse Network Analysis: The Case of 
Software Patents in the European Union. Preprints of the Max Planck 
Institute for Research on Collective Goods 2010/21.

Abstract: The study of policy discourse comprises actor-centered and 
content-oriented approaches. We attempt to close the gap between the two 
kinds of approaches by introducing a new methodology for the analysis of 
political discourse called Discourse Network Analysis. It is based on 
social network analysis and qualitative content analysis and takes an 
entirely relational perspective. Political discourse can be analyzed in 
a dynamic way, and the approach makes previously unobservable cleavage 
lines and alignments measurable at the actor level, at the level of the 
contents of a discourse, and a combined layer. We compare discourse 
network analysis with political claims analysis, a competing method, and 
apply both methods to the European-level discourse on software patents. 
Our results demonstrate how an anti-software-patent coalition was 
mobilized and how it gained control over important frames, while the 
well-organized pro-software-patent discourse coalition was not able to g
 ain sovereignty over the discourse.

Download: http://www.coll.mpg.de/pdf_dat/2010_21online.pdf

Kind regards,
Philip