resumenEl término "exclusión social" vive su auge en las ciencias sociales europeas durante la última década. No obstante, el doble uso de la noción, como término de la política social y como concepto sociológico, ha producido un cierto carácter difuso en su contenido. El objetivo del presente trabajo es ofrecer, con la noción de "exclusión discursiva", un concepto de exclusión social capaz de satisfacer las exigencias teóricas de un concepto sociológico analítico. Para ello, se desarrolla la noción de exclusión discursiva siguiendo las más recientes investigaciones sobre la teoría sociológica del discurso y su aportación para el entendimiento de la construcción de la realidad social, más allá del lenguaje. Se trata pues, de entender el proceso de exclusión social en el contexto de su producción discursiva. El enfoque será ejemplificado utilizando la situación de exclusión de la población migrante en España. PalaBras ClaveAnálisis del discurso, Migración, Teoría social, Teoría de sistemas. aBstraCtThe term "social exclusion" has been converting into a buzzword in European social sciences in the last decade. But the double use of the notion, as a concept of social politics as well as a sociological concept is producing a blurring of its contents. The aim of this article is to offer an approach which is able to satisfy the theoretic requirements for an analytical sociological concept by making use of the concept of discursive exclusion. Therefore the text develops the notion of discursive exclusion based on the most recent findings about sociological discourse theory and its contributions to the understanding of the construction of social reality. The process of social exclusion has to be understood in the context of its discursive production but also has to go beyond language. The approach will be exemplified by a case study about the exclusion of migrants in Spain.

Although discourse analysts often conceive of their work as critical, there is little theoretical discussion regarding the possibility of normative critique in the scientific community of discourse analysis. Rarely are the normative grounds and normative scope of such a critique clear. Thus, this article attempts to find theoretically robust and practical answers to the following question: 'How is a normative critique possible?' In seeking my answer, I first provide a short overview of the possibilities of normative critique in critical discourse analysis. Second, I offer an argument in favour of immanent critique while explaining both its advantages and its theoretical and practical problems. Finally, I demonstrate how sociological discourse analysis and immanent critique can mutually benefit from one another. The theses I formulate and defend are as follows: Although the notion of immanent critique cannot adequately answer methodological questions, these answers can be found in several recent proposals on discourse analysis. Additionally, a combination of the dialectical approaches to immanent critique and discourse analysis might help overcome the methodological deficit of Critical Theory. Finally, this combination can resolve several theoretical deficits in discourse theory.

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ResumenEl objetivo del estudio es conocer las razones por las que los inmigrantes tienen un grado de participación política y social menor que los autóctonos que permita desarrollar medidas de inclusión de los mismos en el sistema democrático español.Se entrevistaron en profundidad 26 inmigrantes de diferentes sexos, edades y países de origen sobre la relación existente entre los problemas personales y sociales con la búsqueda de estrategias de soluciones.Los inmigrantes tienden a adoptar soluciones individuales para problemas estructurales, por lo que resulta necesario ampliar el modelo teórico de las estructuras de oportunidades políticas a un modelo que destaque la importancia de la percepción de las mismas. Palabras clave: inmigración, participación política, estructura de oportunidades políticas, investigación cualitativa. AbstractThe aim of the study was to find out the reasons why immigrants tend to participate less than locals for developing an active policy of including newly-arriving immigrants in the Spanish democratic system.An empirical study was undertaken in which 26 immigrants of different sexes, ages and countries of origin were given an in-depth interview about the relationship of personal and social problems with the search for solution strategies.By broadening the theoretic political opportunity structure (POS) model towards a model of perceived political opportunity structure it was found that immigrants tended towards individual solutions for many structural problems.

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