This imaginative and original book challenges the traditional scientific view that naturally occurring psychological and sociological realities' are to be discovered underlying appearances. Instead, it claims that such orderly realities are both socially constructed and sustained within the context of people's disorderly, everyday conversational activities.

John Shotter's interdisciplinary analysis highlights the socially contested but imaginary nature of many of the things' we talk about in social life and illuminates the processes of their construction. He offers a broad-ranging...

This major book offers a comprehensive overview of key debates on subjectivity and the subject in psychological theory and practice. In addition to social construction's long engagement with social relations, this volume addresses questions of the body, technology, intersubjectivity, writing and investigative practices.

The internationally renowned contributors explore the tensions and opposing viewpoints raised by these issues, and show how analyzing the psychological subject interrelates with reforming the practices of psychology. Drawing on perspectives that include feminism, dialogics,...

Conversational Realities Reloaded is a new edition of John Shotter's 1993 book Conversational Realities. Like the first edition, it contests the traditional scientific view that naturally occurring psychological and sociological realities of a systematic and structured kind are to be discovered underlying appearances. Instead, it claims that such orderly 'realities' are both socially constructed and sustained in existence only within the context of people's disorderly, everyday conversational activities. However, this second edition is much more oriented toward practical issues than the...