ABSTRACT
In this chapter I use ‘discourse’ to refer to any spoken or written language use conceived as social practice, a position I have elaborated elsewhere (Fairclough, 1989a), and ‘order of discourse’ (a term adapted from Foucault) for the overall configuration of discourse practices of a society or one of its institutions. 1 I want to suggest that contemporary ‘orders of discourse’ have a property which distinguishes them from earlier orders of discourse, or which at least has not been manifested in earlier orders of discourse to anything like the same degree; and that this property is of particular significance for the orders of discourse of various types of work, specifically because it is an important factor in changes which are currently taking place in workplace practices and ‘workplace culture’. I focus below upon workplace culture, and the constitution of social and professional relations and identities at work.
