Handbook of Constructionist Research

by Holstein, James A.; Gubrium, Jaber F.

• ISBN13: 9781593853051
• ISBN10: 159385305X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-11-05
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

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 Handbookbrings 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.

Author Biography

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.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Constructionist Mosaic

Foundations and Historical Context

The Philosophical Foundations of Constructionist Research

Historical Development and Defining Issues of Constructionist Inquiry

Constructionism across the Disciplines

Constructionism in Anthropology

Social Constructionist Perspectives in Communication Research

Educational Constructionisms

Social Constructionism in Management and Organization Studies

Critical Constructionism in Nursing Research

Social Construction and Psychological Inquiry

Social Constructions in the Study of Public Policy

Social Constructionism in Science and Technology Studies

Constructionism in Sociology

The Scope of Constructionist Inquiry

Foucauldian Constructionism

Discursive Constructionism

Narrative Constructionist Inquiry

Interactional Constructionism

Claimsmaking, Culture, and the Media in the Social Construction Process

Strict and Contextual Constructionism in the Sociology of Deviance and Social Problems

Strategies and Techniques

Constructionist Impulses in Ethnographic Fieldwork

Constructionism and the Grounded Theory Method

Constructionism and Discourse Analysis

A Social Constructionist Framing of the Research Interview

Autoethnography as Constructionist Project

Documents, Texts, and Archives in Constructionist Research

The Social Construction of What?

The Constructed Body

The Social Construction of Emotion

Constructing Gender: The Dancer and the Dance

The Construction of Sex and Sexualities

The Diverse Construction of Race and Ethnicity

Constructions of Medical Knowledge

Constructing Therapy and Its Outcomes

Constructionist Themes in the Historiography of the Nation

Continuing Challenges

The Reality of Social Constructions

Can Constructionism Be Critical

Feminism and Constructionism

Institutional Ethnography and Constructionism

Ethnomethodology as a Provocation to Constructionism

Saving Social Construction: Contributions from Cultural Studies

Writing Culture, Holism, and the Partialities of Ethnographic Inquiry

Constructionist Research and Globalization

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