calls for proposals. It is also important, particularly when examining ephemeral documents
such as calls for proposals, to realize that while discourses are manifested partly through
texts, they are much broader and include social and cultural structures and practices that
cannot be glimpsed through particular texts, even though they inform textual production
and consumption (Fairclough 1992). However, texts are valuable artefacts of discursive
practices, revealing particular signifiers and codes that influence social understandings and
behaviour.
It is important to situate such analysis within the contextual purposes and ‘‘uptake’’ of
the texts (how researchers make sense of and use the documents). While we did not
empirically examine these dynamics, we did consider how the texts functioned within the
contexts of researchers’ design of knowledge production and dissemination activities,
funders’ expectations of knowledge outcomes, and the overall policy contexts such as
federal social and economic objectives as referred to by the texts.