Social Construction

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 in Psychology at Swarthmore College, and the President of the Taos Institute. He is internationally known for his contributions to social constructionist theory, technology and cultural change, the self, aging, education, and relational theory and practices. His major writings include, Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction, The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, and Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. His most recent work Beyond the Tyranny of Testing: Relational Evaluation in Education (with Scherto Gill) offers a relational constructionist alternative to the destructive practices of testing and grading in education. Gergen lectures throughout the world, and has received numerous awards for his work, including honorary degrees in both the U.S. and Europe.

Comprehensive collection which brings together classic material.

• PART ONE: THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE REAL AND THE GOODIntroductionOn Scientific Paradigms - Thomas S KuhnSocially Negotiating Knowledge - Harold GarfinkelKnowledge As Socially Constructed - Kenneth J GergenKnowledge As a Language Game - Ludwig WittgensteinEconomics As Rhetoric - Diedre N McCloskeyKnowledge As a Numbers Game - Gudmund R IversenThe Egg and the Sperm - Emily MartinKnowledge As IdeologyPART TWO: CONSTRUCTING THE PERSON: CULTURE AND CRITIQUEIntroductionEmotion - Catherine A LutzThe Universal As LocalThe Meanings of Pain - David MorrisPower and Confession - Michel FoucaultLearning to Labour - Paul WillisPART THREE: HORIZONS OF INQUIRYIntroductionLife Stories - Mary GergenPieces of a DreamThe Secret Life in a Culture of Thinness - Lisa M Tillmann-HealyTroubling the Angels - Patti Lather and Chris SmithiesSilent Voices - Karen V FoxA Subversive Reading of Child Sexual AbuseTogether Against the Computer - Gustavo I de RouxGlimpses of Street Children through Short Stories - Marcelo DiversiPART FOUR: THE RELATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SELFIntroductionPossessive Individualism and the Self-Contained Ideal - Edward E SampsonIdentity, Deconstruction and Politics - Judith ButlerThe Social Construction of Remembering and Forgetting - John ShotterThe Relational Reconstruction of Repression - Michael BilligThe Social Construction of Emotion - Rom Harr[ac]eMeaning in Relationship - Kenneth J GergenPART FIVE: PROFUSIONS OF PRACTICEIntroductionNarrative Therapy and Externalizing the Problem - Michael WhiteCulture of Education - Jerome BrunerAppreciative Inquiry - David L Cooperrider and Diana WhitneyFrom Stuck Debate to New Conversation - Carol Becker et alPART SIX: READING CULTUREIntroductionThe World of Wrestling - Roland BarthesThe Lone Ranger, Barbar and Other Innocent Heroes - Ariel DorfmanStyle in Revolt - Dick HebdigeRevolting StylePost-Colonial Feminism and the Veil - Lama Abu OdehThinking the DifferencePART SEVEN: CONSTRUCTIONISM IN QUESTIONIntroductionDeath and Furniture - Derek Edwards, Malcolm Ashmore and Jonathan PotterArguments against RelativismRelativism and Feminist Psychology - Alexa HepburnSexual Orientation - Janis S Bohan and Glenda M RussellEssential and Constructed