Socio-hermeneutic Discourse Analysis of Sustainability Based on Visual Materials

This article aims to demonstrate the discourse analysis on sustainability - the study object - based on visual materials. Sustainability reports published over the past five years (2007–2011) by the studied company were used as discursive sources. We concluded that the company’s discourse on sustainability, from the methodological perspectives of visual material analysis and socio-hermeneutic levels of discourse analysis, is a construction loaded with explicit and implicit interests. The study contributes to exploring the potential of incorporating these materials in the analysis of organizational phenomena and to stimulate the use of this approach as a methodological practice.