Postmodernism,constructionism and the idea of reality: A contribution to the ‘ism’ discussions

There has been a tendency to negate the idea of an external reality in the current systemic uses of postmodernist and social constructionist ideas. Postmodernism challenges us to abandon the modernist idea of reality, but as therapists we are still left needing to understand the social and emotional worlds which our clients inhabit. Social constructionist theory has become attractive in the attempt to advance new understandings of those realities. However, there is a critical distinction between a version of social constructionism which defines the realities of the social world as being (simply) social constructions, versus a version which uses the idea of social construction to understand how we come to know and experience the social world. Both versions are often run together in the systemic discussions, but it is the second version which allows the acknowledgment of the existence of external realities separate to our constructions of them. This paper argues that it is important to allow the space for an understanding of ‘the subject, the world and the space in-between’ in thinking about the idea of reality in the domain of therapy.     

Political Position and Social Knowledge1

The nature of social cognition—how we “know about” the social world—is one of the most deceptively obvious problems for sociology. Because we know what we know, we often think that we know how or why we know it. Here, we investigate one particular aspect of social cognition, namely, what we will call “political ideology”—that is, people’s self‐placement on a dimension on which persons can be arrayed from left to right. We focus on that understanding that is in some ways the “ur‐form” of social cognition—our sense of how we stand by others in an implicit social formation whose meaning is totally relational. At the same time, these self‐conceptions seem to be of the greatest importance for the development of the polity and of civil society itself. Our question is, when citizens develop such a “political ideology,” what does this mean, and what do they do with it? We examine what citizens gain from their subjective placement on the dimension from liberalism to conservatism by using the results of a survey experiment that alters aspects of a hypothetical policy.     

Constructing a Life That Works: Part 2, An Approach to Practice

The 1st article (C. Campbell & M. Ungar, 2004) of this 2‐part exploration of postmodern approaches to family therapy and narrative approaches to career counseling explored the differences between traditional trait and factor counseling models and postmodern approaches using life narratives and social constructionism. In this 2nd article, the authors discuss 7 aspects of their practice as postmodern career counselors that ask clients to (a) know what you want, (b) know what you have, (c) know what you hear, (d) know what constrains you, (e) map your preferred story, (f) grow into your story, and (g) grow out of your story. Several case studies demonstrate the applicability of these theories to practice.     

Taking Subjectivity and Reflexivity Seriously: Implications of Social Constructionism for Researching Volunteer Motivation

This paper explores the contributions a social constructionist paradigm can make for researching volunteer motivation, by reflecting on an active membership study of volunteer netball coaches at a New Zealand high school. Social constructionism is based on philosophical assumptions which differ from those of positivism and post-positivism, the dominant paradigms for understanding and representing volunteer motivation. It highlights the social processes through which people give meaning to their motives and view researchers as necessarily implicated in this meaning-making process. Through a critique of the extant literature on volunteer motivation and an illustration of the insights of social constructionism from our empirical study, we consider how volunteer motivation research could be different if subjectivity and reflexivity were taken more seriously.     

Illegal Aliens,Criminals, and Hypersexual Spitfires: Latin@ Youth and Pedagogies of Citizenship in Media Texts

This article aims to broaden the ways we conceptualize citizenship and implement citizenship education in social studies. To do so, the authors explore media texts as a curricular and pedagogical site for teaching lessons about citizenship. Specifically, the authors investigate how media drafts the boundaries of citizenship for Latin@ youth, and influences how young people come to understand who is and who is not perceived as a citizen entitled to rights and freedoms. Media texts, like formal social studies curricula, are powerful and enduring educators that shape how students know the world and imagine their place in it. Therefore, this article addresses how social studies teachers can integrate media texts into the classroom to explore representations of Latin@s and the impact that media has on our citizenship identities and experiences.     

Health international non-governmental organizations,democracy, and tuberculosis mortality in developing nations: A longitudinal analysis

ABSTRACT

Using data from 1985 to 2005 for 74 developing nations, we conduct a longitudinal cross-national analysis examining the contentions of world polity theorists that health-related international non-governmental organizations (HINGOs) are effective at reducing tuberculosis mortality. We find support for this hypothesis in our models, yet we re-specify our models from a social movements perspective to examine any effects democracy may have on TB mortality. We do this by constructing an interaction term between HINGO concentration and level of democracy. As a result, we find that democracy moderates the effect of HINGOs on TB. Higher concentrations of HINGOs within developing nations are correlated with a larger beneficial effect on tuberculosis mortality in nations with high levels of democracy versus more repressive nations. This suggests that the effectiveness of HINGO programs in fighting TB mortality is contingent on the political opportunity structure within the countries where they operate.     

The sociological construction of gender and sexuality

This essay considers how we might come to understand social constructionism sociologically. It examines a number of related approaches to gender and sexuality that speak to sociological concerns and might be termed social constructionist: historicism, symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and materialist feminism. By recognising that social constructionism is multifarious rather than unified, we find that each social constructionist approach offers particular strengths for analysing the complexities of gender and sexuality. Through closely analysing these approaches and some of the criticisms of them we can reassert sociology's specific contribution, and embrace social constructionist analyses which address the multilayered characteristics of the social in general and gender and sexuality in particular.     

Learning from sociological practice: The case of applied constructionism

Drawing upon field research in two distinct settings, the authors reflect upon the uses of and problems associated with social constructionism in academic and applied contexts. Miller’s research on brief therapists and Fox’s on an AIDS prevention program, both of which utilize the principles of social constructionism, bring into relief various issues within social constructionism. The authors suggest that academic contructionists’ consideration of applied uses might bear insight into the relationship between theory and sociological practice. As practitioners of everyday life who are responsible to practical concerns, social constructionists' knowledge claims are socially contingent. The mutable claims to expertise and authority in applied settings highlight these contingencies. Moreover, within applied constructionist settings, decisions to priviledge some knowledge forms over others reflect the ontological gerry-mandering problem in academic versions of constructionism. Kathryn Fox areas of specialization are deviant behavior and social control, social problems theory, and qualitative methods. She is co-author of Ethnography Unbound: Power and Resistance in the Modem Metropolis with Michael Burawoy et al. Currently, she is conducting research on a cognitive therapy program for violent offenders in prison. Gale Miller recent research has focused on language use in human service organizations and social problems theory. His recent book, Becoming Miracle Workers: Language and Meaning in Brief Therapy, is an ethnographic history of a postmodern approach to human troubles. He has also recently published a book with Robert Dingwall, Context and Method in Qualitative Research.     

Making activism a participatory,inclusive and developmental process: a research programme involving mental health service users

Abstract

Understanding real-world experiences and issues is a priority for research funders, yet there are challenges in directly engaging with people for evaluation and investigation of the professional services they receive. Much professional work takes place within institutional restrictions, arising from legislation, policy and local practices. Collaborative research is therefore complex but relevant for improving services. This research programme started in 2002 with focus group research, led by occupational therapists based in a local National Health Service trust and a university, followed by eight further projects including a Photovoice project. This programme and our perspectives from reflections suggest we do not always know who we are, what we want or who cares about research outcomes, but it is important to embrace the potential of activism, to energise and focus people for positive action, wherever they are based.     

Construction,Co‐production,and Beyond. Academic Disputes and Public Concerns in the Recent Debate on Nature and Society

The debate on realism and constructionism has transferred to environment and science studies a long‐standing philosophical controversy over the constitution of, and human cognitive access to, nature. Quite lively years ago, the dispute has been gradually sidestepped by approaches that, without merging into a full‐fledged theory, counter the subject/object dichotomy and argue about the mutual constitution of knowledge and reality. As earlier, analysis and critique, academic questions and ‘public’ concerns, are closely intertwined. Co‐production scholarship has addressed a number of issues at the crossroads of science and policy, offering a reply to the alleged weaknesses of constructionism. Cutting‐edge approaches, with special reference to ‘new materialism’, are now moving forward, making a case for the liveliness and full agential role of matter. They build on different areas of scientific inquiry, where distinctions between living and non‐living and material and symbolic entities are increasingly blurring. They tend, however, also to align with an emergent way of regulating the interface with the material world, which can be ascribed to the neoliberal rationality of government.     

Essentialism, social constructionism, and beyond

Anti-essentialism has criticised a range of targets, from cultural essentialism and biological reductionism to causal explanation and foundationalism, and concerning topics ranging from markets to ‘race’, identity and sexuality. The paper assesses these diverse lines of critique. Some social phenomena, like identities, clearly do not have essences, but it does not follow from this that other phenomena we study do not have essences or something like them. While a strong, or deterministic essentialism is always wrong and often dangerously misleading, a moderate, non-deterministic essentialism is necessary for explanation and for a social science that claims to be critical and have emancipatory potential. The concept of essence is problematic, but not for some of the epistemological and ontological reasons put forward by anti-essentialism. Strong variants of social constructionism are liable to invert rather than resolve the problems of strong essentialism, including those of its biological reductionist guises. While it may be best to avoid concepts of essences which assume that the distinguishing and generative properties of objects must coincide, we still need to distinguish classes of objects and identify causal powers which enable and constrain what those objects can do.     

Critical Materialism: Science,Technology, and Environmental Sustainability*

There are widely divergent views on how science and technology are connected to environmental problems. A view commonly held among natural scientists and policy makers is that environmental problems are primarily technical problems that can be solved via the development and implementation of technological innovations. This technologically optimistic view tends to ignore power relationships in society and the political‐economic order that drives environmental degradation. An opposed view, common among postmodernist and poststructuralist scholars, is that the emergence of the scientific worldview is one of the fundamental causes of human oppression. This postmodernist view rejects scientific epistemology and often is associated with an anti‐realist stance, which ultimately serves to deny the reality of environmental problems, thus (unintentionally) abetting right‐wing efforts to scuttle environmental protection. We argue that both the technologically optimistic and the postmodernist views are misguided, and both undermine our ability to address environmental crises. We advocate the adoption of a critical materialist stance, which recognizes the importance of natural science for helping us to understand the world while also recognizing the social embeddedness of the scientific establishment and the need to challenge the manipulation of science by the elite.     

The ‘Indian Queen’ of the four continents: tracing the ‘undifferentiated Indian’ through Europe’s encounters with Muslims,anti-Blackness,and conquest of the ‘New World’

ABSTRACT

This article places Columbus’s travels to the New World within a much older history of eight centuries of Muslim/Moor presence on the Iberian Peninsula. It argues that the Orientalist logics underlining the creation of the ‘New World Indian’ have a long history interpellated through figures of the Moors and other Africans whom Europeans knew for centuries before they encountered the Indigenous peoples of the ‘New World.’ This article argues for the need to bring together seemingly discrepant figures, spatialities, and temporalities in order to re/examine what we know and have yet to learn about entanglements of colonialism, capitalism, race, caste, gender, sexuality, and other social formations. Such a reading of the figure not only brings to fore unexamined relationalities but also demands that we think critically and concretely about questions of our complicity in upholding different systems of violence.     

The Story of Belle, Minnie, Louise and the Sovjets: throwing light on the dark side of an institution

Our post-modernist story is composed as a narrative analysis of the lived experiences of Belle and Louise--two women with 'learning difficulties'--and our ethnographic field notes while doing narrative inquiry. The narratives mirror a shared construction of meaning and broaden our understanding--throwing light on the dark side of an institution. The narrative analysis points out a clear illustration of power dynamics and discourses in their lives, and shows how the women boast of resilience and offer (hidden) resistance. This paper particularly illuminates the individual, personal and even private celebration of activism and self-empowerment of Belle and Louise. Their vivid stories take us on an enthralling journey, getting to know their world through their eyes.     

Popular Punitivism: Finding a Balance Between the Politics,Presentation, and Fear of Crime

This paper aims to take stock on what we know about popular punitivism and how it manifests across time and social atmosphere. To do this, the recent history and literature of popular punitivism is explored beginning with its tumultuous birth during the 1960s. Specific focus is then given to how debates regarding the punitive turn have become theories of popular punitivism. Recognizing popular punitivism as an important factor in many crime control policies, the paper explains how popular punitivism has acted as a catalyst to current justice practices, associated problems, and the study of crime. Additionally, emphasizing the adaptability of popular punitivism, the paper explains its influence in other contexts and cultures comparatively, especially in a post‐9/11 world. From such contexts I explain the widespread pattern of controlling minority groups in all places where popular punitivism is present. The paper concludes by mapping the areas of future research.     

Perceived discrimination,traditional practices,and depressive symptoms among American Indians in the upper midwest

American Indian adults are thought to experience significant depressive symptoms at rates several times higher than adults in the general population, yet we know very little about factors associated with depressive symptoms among this under studied group. Many researchers have argued that depressive symptoms are associated with conflicts between American Indian traditional cultural values, practices, and beliefs and those of the majority culture. This report, based on a sample 287 American Indian adults from the upper Midwest, takes into account two measures of cultural effects: perceived discrimination, as one indicator of culture conflict, and traditional practices, as a measure of cultural identification. The results indicate that discrimination is strongly associated with depressive symptoms among American Indian adults and that engaging in traditional practices is negatively related to depressive symptoms. Moreover, interaction effects between perceived discrimination and traditional practices indicate that engaging in traditional practices buffers the negative effects of discrimination among those who regularly participate in them.     

Insider/Outsider: A Muslim Woman's Adventure Practicing ‘Alongside’ Narrative Therapy

The following paper centres on my unique experience as a white Australian therapist who is able to sympathise with a Western world view while being immersed in an Islamic world view. The goal is to share my journey as a Muslim Australian via an auto‐ethnography reflexive method. Using diaries, intentional reflexive positioning, and multiple modes of supervision, I contemplate an Islamic identity and value system while negotiating poststructural therapies such as solution‐focused collaborative, and in particular, narrative therapy as viable approaches to working with the Muslim community. There are two inquiries which are of interest. The first is to reflexively describe the experience of being a Muslim practitioner and wondering whether core differences in epistemological views between social constructionism and Islamic doctrine can be overcome. Secondly, this enquiry explores Quranic guidelines about how to perceive ‘problems’ in life, based on the premise that understanding how an Islamic world view addresses life's troubles may add to deeper conceptions of the role of difficulties. I propose that adherent Muslims have a natural metaphorical way of thinking that connects with some of the poststructural therapeutic skills and techniques and at the same time draw on past Quranic solutions for contemporary problems. Little has been written on narrative therapy as a suitable approach to working with Muslim clients. In the current paper I review my personal experience as a veiled Muslim therapist striving to implement narrative therapy alongside an Islamic epistemology.     

SOMETHING IN THE AIR: OTHERNESS,RECOGNITION AND ETHICS

This essay will address the troublesome matter of relatedness between human beings. Taking everyday interactions as a point of investigation and exploration I will explore how recognition is simultaneously essential to human relatedness and impossible to achieve. Similarly, I will argue that an ethical stance is crucial for human relatedness. Using a psychoanalytic and philosophical framework, I will contend that it is essential to know our separateness and our profound connections to one another, and that in short, we are nothing without the other. Drawing upon the work of Arendt, Benjamin, Levinas and Young the complexities of recognition and alterity will be explored. The illusion of feeling emotionally settled and bolstered through the fantasies of recognition are here conceptualised as part of being human and sustaining oneself, and are approached here as problematic processes that need urgent investigation and action.     

“For a Younger Crowd”: Place,Belonging, and Exclusion among Older Adults Facing Neighborhood Change

Qualitative Sociology - Cities are gentrifying, yet we know little about the experience of older adults aging in gentrifying areas. Most research has focused on a shortage of affordable housing and...     

Gender and dependency in psychotherapy

Abstract

Gender is central to our understanding of ourselves, our actions in the world, how we feel about ourselves and others, what we conceive of as being possible for ourselves, even what we believe it is likely or possible for us to feel, and how we describe what we feel. and yet its importance is something we take for granted without examination. Like the force of gravity, we live with the effects of gender without retaining much conscious awareness of how it constantly affects the way we live our lives.

In this paper I focus on the importance of incorporating into our work as psychotherapists a consciousness of how gender acquired in the early mother-child relationship constructs aspects of a girl's psychic structure. The current construction of femininity means that girls and women are highly defended against their desires desire for dependency and desire to initiate. This phenomena has implications for treatment.