An interdisciplinary research approach: A legal and discursive analysis of social rights policy in the UK

Abstract

This briefing document has been prepared for the Nuffield Foundation project on ‘Access to Justice for Social Rights: Addressing the Accountability Gap’, led by Dr Katie Boyle. It shows that the project’s unique interdisciplinary approach to analysing empirical data offers a valuable contribution to the socio-legal research field. After setting out in brief the motivations behind the overall project, this briefing addresses the benefits of an interdisciplinary research approach for examining how the social rights frameworks across UK jurisdictions are taken up in practice. Part I explains the value of directing attention to discourse in analysis. Part II shares some examples to illustrate how certain mechanisms and (social) processes are made visible though a critical examination of discourse.