This book offers a comprehensive theory of invisibility as a critical sociological concept, addressing the relationship between social suffering and invisibilization. Herzog draws on social theory and a variety of empirical examples to analyze social grammar and unveil various mechanisms of social suffering. Presenting an original theory of silencing and suffering, this book outlines a substantive theory and methodology of invisibilization as an instrument of authority. This systemic analysis of visibility as both a liberating and dominating mechanism will be a major contribution to the field of critical theory, offering an original framework to help improve the situation of excluded groups and individuals. Invisibilization of Suffering will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars across sociology, social philosophy, social work, political sciences, criminology, linguistics and education, with a focus on justice theory, marginalization, discrimination and exclusion.

Material Discourse - Materialist Analysis explores the entanglement of material realities and discourse and shows how a materialist discourse analysis can be put into practice. A cognate concern for language and discourse, as well as well as materiality and materialism can look back on a long tradition in the Social Sciences and Humanities. This book makes their relation an explicit focus. Located at the intersections of materialism and Discourse Studies, it highlights the materiality of discourse and the entanglement of matter and meaning. The essays collected in this volume are united by a rejection of static dichotomies such as discursive / material, language / materiality or material / immaterial. Rather than presenting materialism and Discourse Studies as distinct from one another, they are shown to be intimately entwined. The book brings together theoretical and empirical contributions from a whole range of disciplines, fields, and academic contexts in a truly transdisciplinary and global manner. Material Discourse - Materialist Analysis is a timely intervention into the ongoing debates revolving around materiality, materialism, discourse, and language, as well as the intricate relations between them.

This book presents post-Marxist theoretical approaches towards social critique and offers discourse analytical tools for critical research. How is a normative critique possible? The author, working at the crossroads of sociological discourse analysis and social philosophy, answers this question and others to show how empirical discourse research can be used to develop normative critique of societies. Divided into three major sections, Herzog introduces the reader to the theoretical approaches to critique, provides tools for normative evaluations of social structures, and finally offers practical examples of theoretical concepts. The book will be of interest to those working in the fields and subfields of discourse analysis, poststructuralism, hegemony theory, cultural political economy and critical theory, with an interdisciplinary orientation.