and social service, with the wider opporiunities which may gree of flexibility is m/lintalnled, and it is possible for sruoerlts to concentrate substantially on either history or literature or politicsifthey so choose.
The first year is largely de-voted to providing a disciplin-ary grounding, and students pursue the normal first year courses in the History, English, and Politics departments, American options where they exist. Thereafter the course of study is almost exclusively devoted to Amer-ican topics, and may include the writing of a dissertation on an American theme.
In addition, American Studies majorswillspend their second year at an American university, such as the University of Massachusetis at Amherst or another selected American university. Lancaster's close American connections make it possible to integrate the year abroad into the degree, so that, unusually in British uni-versities, the American Studies degree can be completed inthree years. Special counsel-ling will ensure close Inte-gration between the year abroad and the two years at Lancaster.
Lancaster students have al-ways shown lively interest in American subjects, whether in the English, History, Politics or other departments. Now it is possible to take a specialised degree in American Studies.
This degree combines different disciplinary approaches to the study of the United States and offers options covering Amer-ican literature, and politics from the earliest colo-nial settlements to the present day.
Degree studies at Lancaster call on specialists In a number
Discourse and Social Change in Society 215
Technologization
Modem socrenes are characterized by a tendency
creasing control over more and more parts of s lives.
Habennas has described this in terms of the colomzatlon of the 'Iifeworld' by the 'systems' of the state and (1984:
xl}, What I have said .about commodification indicates a discursive aspect of colonization by the has also addressed this general tendency, earaloguing the
gies' and 'techniques' which are at the service of modem bio-power' (seeP:50 above). .
Foucault's analysis of the technologies can be ex-tended to discourse. We can usefully refer to discourse
gies' (Fairclough 1989a:211-23), and to a 'technolOglzatlon of . discourse' (Fairclough 1990b) as characteristics of
of discourse. Examples of are mterviewmg,
teaching, counselling, and advertising. In calling discourse technologies, I am suggesting that m modern society they have taken on and are taking on, the character of transcontextual which are seen as resources or. that be used to pursue a wide of strategies m diverse contexts. Discourse technologies are coming mcre.asmgly to handled in specific institutional by SOCial agents They are coming to have their own specialist technolog-ists: who look into their efficiency,
work out refinements in the light of research and changing.mstl-tutional requirements, and trainers who pass on the techniques.
. students' interests. 'Special' in the third sentence does some-very similar. In the sentence, ordering and framin.g . ain evident: the infonnatlon about the length of the course IS .IS ageded framed and in fact causally linked ('so that') to
Lancas-prec, , . h incid all
, 'close American connections', whic are mCI ent y
pre-rers kn b th 'Cl '
Posed as if applicants ought to ow a out em. ose
s u p , . ' di f d
hints discreetly at Lancaster's superiority, an IS part0 an un rrent of implicit comparison between Lancaster and other.
cuiversities. The italicization ofthree, andthe exp icitI" . Lancaster and other universities, that shorter length of the course is being projected as a 'sellingpoint', Discourse and Social Change in Society
214
infonnation in a digestible fonn, and valuing clarity efficiency in providing it.
The use of graphics also helps to overcome a contradictillh which arises from the colonization of prospectuses by advel' tising. Universities may set out to sell themselves to students, they also impose rigid controls and conditions on entry. Conse quently, students are positioned on the one hand as powerful sumers with the right to choose, and on the other as applicants. By marginalizing conditions on entry and them through graphics, requirements imposed by the are construed as matters of fact which no one is
responsible for. Notice how this also emerges in details of wording, such as opting for 'you will need' rather than require'.
Let us turn finally to the main body of text. What is striking about it is the blend of information and persuasion, telling poten-tial students about the scheme and selling it to them. This is evident in the ordering of sentences in the first paragraph. The third sentence describes the composition of the scheme, but it is preceded and framed by two sentences which set the scheme in a narrative about American Studies at Lancaster. Is this infonna-tion, or is it persuasion? It can, of course, be construed as either:
the record of the university in American Studies is certainly relevant infonnation for applicants, but innovation is likely to be more attractive if it arises out of past achievement. Prospectuses in the 1980s, compared with the 1970s or earlier, are more con-cerned to select and order their information on the basis of strategic calculations about persuasive effects. One might reason-ably argue that there is nothing new about strategic calculation in infonnation. The real novelty is that infonnation can be mani-festly strategic and persuasive without that being regarded as an issue. Under the influence of advertising as a prestigious model, the blending of information and persuasion is becoming natural-ized, divisions between them in orders of discourse are being fractured, and as a consequence the nature of 'information' is being radically changed.
The blending of information and persuasion is also evident in the other paragraphs of the text; I shall concentrate on the second. The first sentence looks straightforwardly informational until 'selected' which suggests how solicitous the university is for
Discourse and Social Change in Society 217
functions, to the core genre of the private sphere, conversation.
This reflects in part the appropriation of conversation by institu-tions, and its investment with specific political and ideological content. The 'alternative' medical interview above (pp. 144-9) an example of this. It also reflects the way in which private spheres are shifting into the public domain as, in Habermas's terms, Iifeworld domains come to be colonized by systems. Thus the domestic arrangements and relationships of the family are to some extent being made public, and are often referred to as a specific domain of politics.
Let me make these points more concrete by referring to a book which describes how managers in workplaces can improve their conversational skills (Margerison 1987). The book is about 'con-versation control skills', though 'con'con-versation' includes business meetings and interviews, as well as informal conversation in a more restricted sense. Some of the skills discussed, such as 'summarizing' (roughly equivalent to 'formulation' - see p. 157 above), are mainly associated with these more formal institu-tional types of discourse, but others also appenain to informal conversation. Indeed, 'conversation control skills' are said to be relevant not only at work, but also in managing relations within the family and amongst friends.
The book gives attention to quite a range of skills. One chapter deals with inferential skills in recognizing and reacting to verbal 'clues' and non - verbal 'signals' that point to meanings that are indirectly expressed or just hinted at. Important problems are often signposted in this way, when people feel unable to talk about them explicitly, and failing to pick up clues and signals can have serious consequences. A related issue is skills in obtaining permission to enter conversational territory feelings, states of mind, private thoughts, and personal monvanons of others -that might be 'out of bounds'. Another chapter focuses upon techniques for turning a confrontational conversation into a col-laborative and co-operative one, including techniques for 'manag-ing' disagreement and rejection SkiIls in what are known in the pragmatics literature as 'positive politeness' and 'negative polite-ness' (see pp. above) feature in several chapters. These include ways of showing one's appreciation and understanding of others conversationally (perhaps while trying to win consent for one's own contrary position), and ways of mitigating criticisms of Discourse and Social Change in Society
216
These technologists include members of university social scien well.-established is research and
m SOCIal skills carried out by SOCIal psychologists (Argyle 1978) Those who are targeted for training in discourse technologie' tend :0 be teachers, interviewers, advertisers, and other keepers' and power-holders, whereas discourse technologies generally designed to have particular effects upon publics (c1iellts customers, consumers) who are not trained in them.
Discourse technologies establish a close connection about language and discourse, and power. They designed and refined on the basis of the anticipated effects of the finest details of linguistic choices in vocabulary intonation, organization of dialogue, and so forth, as as expressi?n, bodily stance, and movements. They about discursive change through conscious design. This implies
on the part .of technologisra to knowledge about language, discourse and as well as and sociological
",It IS predictable that discourse analysts and linguists will increasingly be expected to act as, or make available the
of their research to, discourse technologists.
. technologies involve simulation: in particular, the simulation strategic and instrumental purposes of interper-meanings and discursive practices. This links in with my earlier comments on democratization of discourse: the simulation of power and informality are widely used techniques on the part of institutional power-holders. One example is the son of job interviews carried out in public services such as hospitals, local government, and universities. I have used elsewhere (Fair-clough 1989a: 62) the term 'synthetic personalization' for the of aspects of interpersonal meaning on the basis of calculation of effects. The simulation of interpersonal from the of all other aspects of discursive practice and meanmg to achieving strategic and in-strumental goals - the type of interaction that Habermas calls 'strategic' in contrast to 'communicative' (see above). The tech-nologization of discourse is associated with an extension of strategic discourse to new domains.
The technologization of discourse appears to be spreading from genres such as interview, which have a public character in the sense that they are associated with a range of public institutional