Discourse theory as an semiotic of flows

Abstract

This essay seeks to develop, introductorily, a model for a Theory of Discourse as a qualitative (topological) theory of quantitative relations (statistical distributions) associated with the effects of meaning (semiotic effects). Employ the notion of "model " as a work of fiction, whose properties may be real, but they are, usually, convenience properties, which help to give consistency to the model and apply the theory, but they are not necessarily found in real situations . In this model, understanding the discursive fields as structurally stable vector fields, their characterization in terms of the constituent elements of a field (equilibrium points, trajectories) is the starting point for the study of structural changes (bifurcations), where decisions play strategic role in the stability of discursive formations, regulated systems of dispersion. We will take as defined for this analysis social phenomena the legal system and the justice flow. The legal system is a central site for the study of social conflict and power relationships that lead to a partial formalization of the justice flow. The justice flow runs through the whole social field, articulating legal, extralegal or illegal actions (civil disobedience, revolution, insurrection, civil war ... ), converging (judicialization of the conflict ) or not for the legal system, transgressing it or changing it .