Social Construction: A Reader

by Mary Gergen, Kenneth J. Gergen

Overview

'Social Construction: A Reader is a superb selection of classic and contemporary readings representing the major viewpoints central to social constructionism' Journal of Community and Applied Psychology

Social Construction: A Reader is a collection of classic and contemporary articles, representing the major viewpoints central to social constructionism. It provides the reader with an overview of the key empirical research ideas and papers written by an outstanding collection of international authors in each of the substantive areas of the field, including philosophical, social science, ethnography, cultural studies and feminist thought. These readings are bought together in one accessible volume and are organized thematically with editorial commentaries to provide an intellectual context and aid student learning. The Reader is comprised of seven parts:

- The Social Construction of the Real and the Good

- Constructing the Person: Culture and Critique

- Horizons of Inquiry

- The Relational Reconstruction of the Self

- Profusions of Practice

- Cultural Analysis

- Constructionism in Question

Social Construction: A Reader will be essential reading for students across the social sciences. It will be an invaluable resource, both used indepently and as complimentary to Kenneth J Gergen's seminal text, An Invitation to Social Construction, also published by SAGE Publications.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761972280
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/03/2003
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dr. Gergen is Professor Emerita at Penn State University, Brandywine, in the Philadelphia area. She has taught courses in many subfields in psychology and in Women's Studies. Her major academic focus has been on social constructionist theory and feminism. Currently she is an officer in the Taos Institute, a non-profit educational organization. She also advises Ph.D. students in applied social science fields. Her work has taken her to many countries around the glove, most recently Nanjing, China. Recent collaborators include Kenneth J. Gergen and Ellen Cole.

Kenneth J. Gergen is a Senior Research Professor at Swarthmore College, USA, and President of the Taos Institute. He has been the recipient of many awards throughout the world. His major works include Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction; The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life; and Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community.

Table of Contents

PART ONE: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE REAL AND THE GOOD
Introduction
On Scientific Paradigms - Thomas S Kuhn
Socially Negotiating Knowledge - Harold Garfinkel
Knowledge As Socially Constructed - Kenneth J Gergen
Knowledge As a Language Game - Ludwig Wittgenstein
Economics As Rhetoric - Diedre N Mc Closkey
Knowledge As a Numbers Game - Gudmund R Iversen
The Egg and the Sperm - Emily Martin
Knowledge As Ideology
PART TWO: CONSTRUCTING THE PERSON: CULTURE AND CRITIQUE
Introduction
Emotion - Catherine A Lutz
The Universal As Local
The Meanings of Pain - David Morris
Power and Confession - Michel Foucault
Learning to Labour - Paul Willis
PART THREE: HORIZONS OF INQUIRY
Introduction
Life Stories - Mary Gergen
Pieces of a Dream
The Secret Life in a Culture of Thinness - Lisa M Tillmann-Healy
Troubling the Angels - Patti Lather and Chris Smithies
Silent Voices - Karen V Fox
A Subversive Reading of Child Sexual Abuse
Together Against the Computer - Gustavo I de Roux
Glimpses of Street Children through Short Stories - Marcelo Diversi
PART FOUR: THE RELATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF
Introduction
Possessive Individualism and the Self-Contained Ideal - Edward E Sampson
Identity, Deconstruction and Politics - Judith Butler
The Social Construction of Remembering and Forgetting - John Shotter
The Relational Reconstruction of Repression - Michael Billig
The Social Construction of Emotion - Rom Harr[ac]e
Meaning in Relationship - Kenneth J Gergen
PART FIVE: PROFUSIONS OF PRACTICE
Introduction
Narrative Therapy and Externalizing the Problem - Michael White
Culture of Education - Jerome Bruner
Appreciative Inquiry - David L Cooperrider and Diana Whitney
From Stuck Debate to New Conversation - Carol Becker et al
PART SIX: READING CULTURE
Introduction
The World of Wrestling - Roland Barthes
The Lone Ranger, Barbar and Other Innocent Heroes - Ariel Dorfman
Style in Revolt - Dick Hebdige
Revolting Style
Post-Colonial Feminism and the Veil - Lama Abu Odeh
Thinking the Difference
PART SEVEN: CONSTRUCTIONISM IN QUESTION
Introduction
Death and Furniture - Derek Edwards, Malcolm Ashmore and Jonathan Potter
Arguments against Relativism
Relativism and Feminist Psychology - Alexa Hepburn
Sexual Orientation - Janis S Bohan and Glenda M Russell
Essential and Constructed