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Butchart, G.C.
Poststructuralism: A Philosophy of Difference,
(2025) In The Handbook of Communication Ethics. Edited By Amit Pinchevski, Patrice M. Buzzanell, Jason Hannan, Second Edition, Routledge, pp. 93-107.

DOI: 10.4324/9781003274506-9

Abstract
This chapter offers an overview of poststructuralism as relevant to media and communication ethics. Research informed by poststructuralist thinking typically emphasizes alterity over identity, plurality over singularity, reception and interpretation over authorship and transmission, as well as conflict and disagreement as productive conditions of community. The chapter focuses on “difference” as the main conceptual point at which several strands of this tradition converge. It asks: What is a philosophy of difference? How does difference work to construct identity and produce meaning? How do structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to difference, language, and subjectivity relate to and differ from poststructuralist and hermeneutic conceptions of discourse and otherness? The chapter rehearses how difference is theorized by Levinas, Saussure, Lacan, Derrida, Foucault, Butler, Deleuze, Laclau, Mouffe, and others, offering a guide to the analytical style of poststructuralism that underpins communication and media ethics.