The Making of Modern Social Psychology The Hidden Story of How an International Social Science was Created

by Moscovici, Serge; Markovà; , Ivana

• ISBN13: 9780745629667
• ISBN10: 0745629660
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-06
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

This fascinating book makes an important contribution to the history of the social sciences. It tells the largely hidden story of how social psychology became an international social science, vividly documenting the micro-politics of a virtually forgotten committee, the Committee on Transnational Social Psychology, whose work took place against the back-drop of some of the most momentous events of the twentieth century. Overcoming intellectual, institutional and political obstacles, including the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the military coups in Chile or Argentine, the committee struggled to bring social psychology to global recognition, not as part of a programme of intellectual imperialism, but motivated by a mixture of intellectual philanthropy and self-interest. Few authors could tell this unique story. Serge Moscovici is undoubtedly the best-placed insider to do so, together with Ivana Markova providing a lucid, erudite and carefully documented account of the work of this remarkable group.This book will be an essential resource for any scholar interested in the history of social psychology, as well as upper-level students studying the history of the social sciences.

Author Biography

Serge Moscovici is Professor of Social Psychology, l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris.


Ivana Markova is Professor of Social Psychology, University of Stirling.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	ix
Preface	x
Acknowledgements	xviii
List of Abbreviations	xix
I The Quest for a Social Psychology of Human Beings	1	(54)
1 The Birth of a New Science	3	(25)
2 Two Sources of Modern Social Psychology	28	(27)
II The West European Experiment	55	(86)
3 Americans and Europeans	57	(14)
4 The Transnational Committee: from New York to Rome	71	(10)
5 The European Map of Social Psychology in the Mid-1960's	81	(7)
6 The Second Milestone for European Social Psychology	88	(14)
7 The Louvain Summer School	102	(13)
8 The Ford Foundation and Fundraising for Europe	115	(26)
III The East European Experiment	141	(36)
9 The First Encounter of a Small Science with Big History	143	(19)
10 A Strange Animal	162	(15)
IV The Latin American Experiment	177	(48)
11 Latin American Odyssey	179	(11)
12 A Second Encounter with History	190	(9)
13 An 'Invisible College'	199	(26)
V Crossing the Atlantic	225	(41)
14 A Crisis Delayed	227	(10)
15 Crossing the Atlantic	237	(8)
16 Pilgrims' Progress	245	(6)
17 Rays and Shadows above the Transnational Committee	251	(15)
Appendix	266	(2)
Notes	268	(16)
References	284	(6)
Index	290