ABSTRACT
The discourse theory of Mikhail Bakhtin and his colleagues, most notably P. N. Medvedev and V. N. Voloshinov, has made a substantial impact upon contemporary social theory. Known collectively as the Bakhtin Circle, and emerging in the Soviet Union of the 1920s, their insights have been used to explore feminist literature (Cosslett 1996), the body (Holquist 1989), theories of utopia (Gardiner 1993), democracy (Hirschkop 1986, 1999), social history (Burke 1988; Roberts 2001a), cultural studies (Bell 1998; Hirschkop 1989), sociology (Gardiner 1992), free speech (Roberts 2003, 2004), local economic development (Collins 1999), cyborgs (Hitchcock 1998) and even car-boot sales (Gregson and Crewe 1997).
