The Discourse Unit is a trans-institutional collaborative centre, currently located at Manchester Metropolitan University, which supports a variety of qualitative and theoretical research projects contributing to the development of radical theory and practice. The term 'discourse' is used primarily in critical hermeneutic and structuralist senses to include inquiries influenced by feminism and psychoanalysis. The centre functions: (i) as a teaching resource base for qualitative and feminist work; (ii) as a support unit for the (re)production of radical academic theory; (iii) as a networking centre for the development of critical perspectives in action research.