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Handbook of Constructionist Research

Edited by James A. Holstein and Jaber F. Gubrium

Hardcovere-bookprint + e-book
Hardcover
November 5, 2007
ISBN 9781593853051
Price: $175.00
832 Pages
Size: 7" x 10"
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832 Pages
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Constructionism has become one of the most popular research approaches in the social sciences. But until now, little attention has been given to the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of the constructionist stance, and the remarkable diversity within the field. This cutting-edge handbook brings together a dazzling array of scholars to review the foundations of constructionist research, how it is put into practice in multiple disciplines, and where it may be headed in the future. The volume critically examines the analytic frameworks, strategies of inquiry, and methodological choices that together form the mosaic of contemporary constructionism, making it an authoritative reference for anyone interested in conducting research in a constructionist vein.

“A useful, if massive, guide to grasping the entirety of what they call the 'constructionist mosaic' is offered in this volume by Holstein and Gubrium, two accomplished editors and longtime collaborators widely recognized for their insightful conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions to constructionist studies. They have assembled an international array of highly accomplished scholars as chapter authors. This is a scholarly reference work of use to social-behavioral researchers as well as graduate students seeking a more complete and thorough understanding of what comprises the social constructionist enterprise....From my point of view as a teacher of philosophical and methodological issues in social science research this book is invaluable as a guide to the literature and as a comprehensive treatment of the many ways in which the perspective of social constructionism is practically treated as a social research process as well as conceived as both an epistemology and theory of research....Volumes that address complex and dynamic topics in the social sciences...often do not provide a comprehensive enough view of the subject matter and there is high risk that the contents will be superseded in several years. This Handbook is an exception. Gubrium and Holstein have assembled and organized an impressive volume that will serve as guide both to current thinking in this arena and to what is likely to come.”

Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation


“This handbook presents an encyclopedic treatment of the contours of constructionism as a theoretical stance and an empirical endeavor. Organized around disciplinary domains, empirical topics, and methodological strategies, the book addresses the historical foundations of constructionism as well as current challenges facing constructionist work. Remarkably, the editors have resisted the temptation to sacrifice depth for scope; instead, they cover immense empirical and theoretical territory in a sophisticated yet accessible way. This is a 'must have' resource for students and scholars committed to understanding what social realities are constructed, how they come into being, and the consequences for understanding and ameliorating social problems.”

—Valerie Jenness, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, and Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine


“Holstein and Gubrium have edited one of the most exciting and innovative research handbooks of the last decade. This highly pluralistic, intellectually stimulating, and thoroughly comprehensive work presents the many varied facets and perspectives contained within constructionist approaches to research. The more than 50 contributors include an impressive, international cohort of writers from multiple disciplines. Of particular interest to applied psychology are excellent chapters on interviewing, psychological inquiry, therapy, emotion, the body, and the philosophical and historical foundations of constructionist inquiry. This book belongs on the desks of all clinical, counseling, health, and educational psychologists who are interested in current ontological and epistemological discussions around research, knowledge generation, and meaning making. A welcome, nuanced, and decidedly readable text.”

—Paul M. Camic, Research Director, Clinical Psychology Program, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK


“The time is ripe for this handbook, and Holstein and Gubrium—foundational voices in constructionist discourse—are the persons to do it. The field has matured and come of age, surviving four decades of conflict and controversy. Its future is exciting and promising. This handbook takes the constructionist mosaic into a new century. The field owes Holstein and Gubrium a huge debt for so brilliantly managing this project.”

—Norman K. Denzin, College of Communications Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


“It would be difficult to imagine a more complete compendium on the state of constructionism at this time. The editors have taken great care to cover the theoretical underpinnings of constructionism, its anchors in the disciplines, its methodological deployments, and a range of applications, including gender, medicine and therapy, race and ethnicity, emotions, and others. For those committed to the constructionist approach to phenomenological research, there is no better guide to the many practices and theoretical avenues from which to choose, nor could anyone find a better set of discussions of how social constructionist/constructivist philosophies might be utilized with differing methodological strategies and texts.”

—Yvonna S. Lincoln, College of Education and Human Development, Texas A&M University


“Amid a plethora of handbooks, this one stands out. It tracks the diffusions, foundations, controversies, and remarkable empirical fruitfulness of constructionism in the social sciences. The authors come from multiple disciplines, and the volume is unusually coherent for an edited work. I was particularly struck by what gets 'talked into being' in the name of a constructionism invested in critically taking stock of its analytic and empirical ambitions, intellectual antecedents, new directions, and continuing challenges. From Strauss, Foucault, and Berger and Luckmann to what is on the horizon, from ethnomethodology to cultural studies, across issues of agency and determinism, typologies, traditions, and new imaginaries, I got a taste of the future in this collection, which should stand the test of serving as a resource for quite some time to come.”

—Patti Lather, author of Getting Lost: Feminist Efforts Toward a Double(d) Science


“Although this book offers an outstanding overview of how constructionist research is conducted across the social sciences and applied fields, it achieves something even more substantial. It challenges both professor and student to question the very foundations of their theoretical claims and scientific practices. The work presented in these pages is provocative, creative, and rich in interpretive and social analysis. This handbook is ideal for seminar discussion and should be on the shelf of every researcher who aspires to apply a constructionist lens to his or her field of study.”

—Jefferson A. Singer, PhD, Dean of the College and Faulk Foundation Professor of Psychology, Connecticut College

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. The Constructionist Mosaic, Jaber F. Gubrium and James A. Holstein

I. Foundations and Historical Context

2. The Philosophical Foundations of Constructionist Research, Darin Weinberg

3. Historical Development and Defining Issues of Constructionist Inquiry, Joel Best

II. Constructionism across the Disciplines

4. Constructionism in Anthropology, James D. Faubion and George E. Marcus

5. Social Constructionist Perspectives in Communication Research, Elissa Foster and Arthur P. Bochner

6. Educational Constructionisms, Stanton Wortham and Kara Jackson

7. Social Constructionism in Management and Organization Studies, Dalvir Samra-Fredericks

8. Critical Constructionism in Nursing Research, Joanna Latimer

9. Social Construction and Psychological Inquiry, Kenneth J. Gergen and Mary M. Gergen

10. Social Constructions in the Study of Public Policy, Anne L. Schneider and Helen Ingram

11. Social Constructionism in Science and Technology Studies, Sal Restivo and Jennifer Croissant

12. Constructionism in Sociology, Scott R. Harris

III. The Scope of Constructionist Inquiry

13. Foucauldian Constructionism, Leslie Miller

14. Discursive Constructionism, Jonathan Potter and Alexa Hepburn

15. Narrative Constructionist Inquiry, Andrew C. Sparkes and Brett Smith

16. Interactional Constructionism, Amir Marvasti

17. Claimsmaking, Culture, and the Media in the Social Construction Process, Kathleen S. Lowney

18. Strict and Contextual Constructionism in the Sociology of Deviance and Social Problems, Peter R. Ibarra

IV. Strategies and Techniques

19. Constructionist Impulses in Ethnographic Fieldwork, James A. Holstein and Jaber F. Gubrium

20. Constructionism and the Grounded Theory Method, Kathy Charmaz

21. Constructionism and Discourse Analysis, Pirjo Nikander

22. A Social Constructionist Framing of the Research Interview, Mirka Koro-Ljungberg

23. Autoethnography as Constructionist Project, Laura L. Ellingson and Carolyn Ellis

24. Documents, Texts, and Archives in Constructionist Research, Annulla Linders

V. The Social Construction of What?

25. The Constructed Body, Bryan S. Turner

26. The Social Construction of Emotion, Donileen R. Loseke and Margarethe Kusenbach

27. Constructing Gender: The Dancer and the Dance, Judith Lorber

28. The Construction of Sex and Sexualities, Sara L. Crawley and K. L. Broad

29. The Diverse Construction of Race and Ethnicity, Mitch Berbrier

30. Constructions of Medical Knowledge, Paul Atkinson and Maggie Gregory

31. Constructing Therapy and Its Outcomes, Gale Miller and Tom Strong

32. Constructionist Themes in the Historiography of the Nation, Bo Stråth

VI. Continuing Challenges

33. The Reality of Social Constructions, Stephen Pfohl

34. Can Constructionism Be Critical?, Dian Marie Hosking

35. Feminism and Constructionism, Barbara L. Marshall

36. Institutional Ethnography and Constructionism, Liza McCoy

37. Ethnomethodology as a Provocation to Constructionism, Michael Lynch

38. Saving Social Construction: Contributions from Cultural Studies, Joseph Schneider

39. Writing Culture, Holism, and the Partialities of Ethnographic Inquiry, Vered Amit

40. Constructionist Research and Globalization, Pertti Alasuutari


About the Editors

James A. Holstein (PhD, University of Michigan) is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University. His research and publications have addressed social problems, deviance and social control, family, and the self—all approached from an ethnomethodologically informed, constructionist perspective.

Jaber F. Gubrium (PhD, Wayne State University) is Professor and Chair of Sociology at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has had a long-standing program of research on the social organization of care in human services institutions and pioneered in the reconceptualization of qualitative methods and the development of narrative analysis. Dr. Gubrium has published widely on aging, the life course, medicalization, and representational practice in therapeutic context.

As collaborators for 20 years, Drs. Holstein and Gubrium have developed a distinctive constructionist approach to everyday life in a variety of coauthored and coedited projects.

Contributors

Pertti Alasuutari, PhD, Research Institute for Social Sciences, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Vered Amit, PhD, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Paul Atkinson, PhD, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Mitch Berbrier, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Alabama, Huntsville, Alabama

Joel Best, PhD, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware

Arthur P. Bochner, PhD, Department of Communication, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

K. L. Broad, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Kathy Charmaz, PhD, Department of Sociology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California

Sara L. Crawley, PhD, Department of Women's Studies, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

Jennifer Croissant, PhD, Department of Women's Studies, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

Laura L. Ellingson, PhD, Department of Communication, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California

Carolyn Ellis, PhD, Department of Communication, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

James D. Faubion, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Rice University, Houston, Texas

Elissa Foster, PhD, Department of Communication Studies, San José State University, San José, California

Kenneth J. Gergen, PhD, Department of Psychology, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Mary M. Gergen, PhD, Department of Psychology and Women's Studies, Pennsylvania State University-Delaware County, Media, Pennsylvania

Maggie Gregory, PhD, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Jaber F. Gubrium, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri

Scott R. Harris, PhD, Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri

Alexa Hepburn, PhD, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

James A. Holstein, PhD, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Dian Marie Hosking, PhD, School of Governance, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Peter R. Ibarra, PhD, Department of Sociology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

Helen Ingram, PhD, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine, California

Kara Jackson, PhD, Department of Teaching and Learning, Peabody College of Education, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee

Mirka Koro-Ljungberg, PhD, Department of Educational Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Margarethe Kusenbach, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

Joanna Latimer, PhD, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Annulla Linders, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio

Judith Lorber, PhD, Center for the Study of Women and Society, City University of New York, New York, New York

Donileen R. Loseke, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida

Kathleen S. Lowney, PhD, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice, Valdosta State University, Valdosta, Georgia

Michael Lynch, PhD, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

George E. Marcus, PhD, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Irvine, California

Barbara L. Marshall, PhD, Department of Sociology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Amir Marvasti, PhD, Department of Criminal Justice and Sociology, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, Pennsylvania

Liza McCoy, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Gale Miller, PhD, Department of Social and Cultural Sciences, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Leslie Miller, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Pirjo Nikander, PhD, Department of Sociology and Social Psychology, Tampere University, Tampere, Finland

Stephen Pfohl, PhD, Department of Sociology, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts

Jonathan Potter, PhD, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

Sal Restivo, PhD, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, and Nottingham University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Dalvir Samra-Fredericks, PhD, Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom

Anne L. Schneider, PhD, School of Justice and Social Inquiry, Arizona State University, Tucson, Arizona

Joseph Schneider, PhD, Department for the Study of Culture and Society, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa

Brett Smith, PhD, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

Andrew C. Sparkes, PhD, School of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom

Bo Stråth, PhD, Renvall Institute, Helsinki University, Helsinki, Finland

Tom Strong, PhD, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Bryan S. Turner, PhD, Department of Sociology, Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Darin Weinberg, PhD, Department of Sociology, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Stanton Wortham, PhD, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Audience

Researchers and graduate students in a wide range of fields, including sociology, psychology, education, social work, communication, management, gerontology, anthropology, nursing, and women's studies.

Course Use

May serve as a text in graduate-level research methods or social theory seminars.