Critical Hermeneutic Analysis

Critical hermeneutic analysis combines interpretive hermeneutics with critical social theory to read texts and discourse not only for meaning but for embedded power relations, ideological distortions, and structures of domination. Originating in Habermas's critique of Gadamer and developed further by Ricoeur's hermeneutics of suspicion, the method asks both 'what does this text mean?' and 'whose interests does this meaning serve?'. It is widely used in education, social work, policy research, and health humanities.