I am a sociocultural psychologist, studying development in the lifecourse, and trying to understand the mutual constitution of people and their social and cultural worlds.
Academic Social psychology’s disconnect from the vital and urgent questions of people’s lived exp... more Academic Social psychology’s disconnect from the vital and urgent questions of people’s lived experiences reveals limitations in the current paradigm. We draw on a related perspective in social psychology1—the sociocultural approach—and argue how this perspective can be elaborated to consider not only social psychology as a historical science but also social psychology of and for world-making. This conceptualization can make sense of key theoretical and methodological challenges faced by contemporary social psychology. As such, we describe the ontology, epistemology, ethics, and methods of social psychology of and for world-making. We illustrate our framework with concrete examples from social psychology. We argue that reconceptualizing social psychology in terms of world-making can make it more humble yet also more relevant, reconnecting it with the pressing issues of our time. Public Abstract We propose that social psychology should focus on “world-making” in two senses. First, pe...
Diaries have been generally understood as “windows” on sense-making processes when studying life ... more Diaries have been generally understood as “windows” on sense-making processes when studying life ruptures. In this article, we draw on Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of self-writing as a “technology of the self” and on sociocultural psychology to propose that diaries are not “windows,” but technologies that aid in the sense-making. Concretely, we analyzed three non-exhaustive and non-exclusive uses of diary writing in times of vulnerability: 1) imagination of the future and preparation to encounter difficulties; 2) distancing from one's own experience; and 3) creating personal commitments. Our longitudinal data comprised three public online diaries written over more than twenty years, belonging to three anonymous individuals selected from a database of more than 400 diaries. We analyzed these three diaries by iterating between qualitative and quantitative analysis. We conclude that: 1) beyond their expressive dimension, diaries are technologies that support the sense-making...
Dans un canton laïc, il est intéressant d’examiner comment on parle de religion. Nous nous intére... more Dans un canton laïc, il est intéressant d’examiner comment on parle de religion. Nous nous intéressons à la manière dont de jeunes adultes neuchâtelois⋅e⋅s font mention de la religion et la laïcité – la leur, celle des autres – au quotidien, dans leur rapport aux autres et face à des questions personnelles. Il apparaît que, si les jeunes semblent bien s’être approprié les discours et les valeurs laïques de leur environnement social, ils et elles en font parfois paradoxalement usage pour exclure.
Academic Social psychology’s disconnect from the vital and urgent questions of people’s lived exp... more Academic Social psychology’s disconnect from the vital and urgent questions of people’s lived experiences reveals limitations in the current paradigm. We draw on a related perspective in social psychology1—the sociocultural approach—and argue how this perspective can be elaborated to consider not only social psychology as a historical science but also social psychology of and for world-making. This conceptualization can make sense of key theoretical and methodological challenges faced by contemporary social psychology. As such, we describe the ontology, epistemology, ethics, and methods of social psychology of and for world-making. We illustrate our framework with concrete examples from social psychology. We argue that reconceptualizing social psychology in terms of world-making can make it more humble yet also more relevant, reconnecting it with the pressing issues of our time. Public Abstract We propose that social psychology should focus on “world-making” in two senses. First, pe...
Diaries have been generally understood as “windows” on sense-making processes when studying life ... more Diaries have been generally understood as “windows” on sense-making processes when studying life ruptures. In this article, we draw on Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of self-writing as a “technology of the self” and on sociocultural psychology to propose that diaries are not “windows,” but technologies that aid in the sense-making. Concretely, we analyzed three non-exhaustive and non-exclusive uses of diary writing in times of vulnerability: 1) imagination of the future and preparation to encounter difficulties; 2) distancing from one's own experience; and 3) creating personal commitments. Our longitudinal data comprised three public online diaries written over more than twenty years, belonging to three anonymous individuals selected from a database of more than 400 diaries. We analyzed these three diaries by iterating between qualitative and quantitative analysis. We conclude that: 1) beyond their expressive dimension, diaries are technologies that support the sense-making...
Dans un canton laïc, il est intéressant d’examiner comment on parle de religion. Nous nous intére... more Dans un canton laïc, il est intéressant d’examiner comment on parle de religion. Nous nous intéressons à la manière dont de jeunes adultes neuchâtelois⋅e⋅s font mention de la religion et la laïcité – la leur, celle des autres – au quotidien, dans leur rapport aux autres et face à des questions personnelles. Il apparaît que, si les jeunes semblent bien s’être approprié les discours et les valeurs laïques de leur environnement social, ils et elles en font parfois paradoxalement usage pour exclure.
... pre-sented here owe a lot to discussions with my Cambridge thinking partners Flora Cornish, ... more ... pre-sented here owe a lot to discussions with my Cambridge thinking partners Flora Cornish, Alex Gillespie, Charis Psaltis, Dam ... Sayer, 1998), cognitive (Keating, 1990; Keating & Sasse, 1996; Steinberg, I993)8 and symbolic developments (Anastasopoulos, 1988; Labouvie ...
... 318 Saul Meghnagi Index 329 Page 6. Contributors Barbara Burge, Learning Research and Develop... more ... 318 Saul Meghnagi Index 329 Page 6. Contributors Barbara Burge, Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States ... ShirleyBrice Heath, Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States ...
This book positions imagination as a central concept which increases the understanding of daily l... more This book positions imagination as a central concept which increases the understanding of daily life, personal life choices, and the way in which culture and society changes. Case studies from micro instances of reverie and daydreaming, to utopian projects, are included and analysed. The theoretical focus is on imagination as a force free from immediate constraints, forming the basis of our individual and collective agency.
In each chapter, the authors review and integrate a wide range of classic and contemporary literature culminating in the proposal of a sociocultural model of imagination. The book takes into account the triggers of imagination, the content of imagination, and the outcomes of imagination. At the heart of the model is the interplay between the individual and culture; an exploration of how the imagination, as something very personal and subjective, grows out of our shared culture, and how our shared culture can be transformed by acts of imagination.
Imagination in Human and Cultural Development offers new perspectives on the study of psychological learning, change, innovation and creativity throughout the lifespan. The book will appeal to academics and scholars in the fields of psychology and the social sciences, especially those with an interest in development, social change, cultural psychology, imagination and creativity.
Imagination allows individuals and groups to think beyond the here-and-now, to envisage alternati... more Imagination allows individuals and groups to think beyond the here-and-now, to envisage alternatives, to create parallel worlds, and to mentally travel through time. Imagination is both extremely personal (for example, people imagine unique futures for themselves) and deeply social, as our imagination is fed with media and other shared representations.
As a result, imagination occupies a central position within the life of mind and society. Expanding the boundaries of disciplinary approaches, the Handbook of Imagination and Culture expertly illustrates this core role of imagination in the development of children, adolescents, adults, and older persons today.
Bringing together leading scholars in sociocultural psychology and neighboring disciplines from around the world, this edited volume guides readers towards a much deeper understanding of the conditions of imagining, its resources, its constraints, and the consequences it has on different groups of people in different domains of society. Summarily, this Handbook places imagination at the center, and offers readers new ways to examine old questions regarding the possibility of change, development, and innovation in modern society.
Cultural Psychology studies how persons and social-cultural worlds mutually constitute one anothe... more Cultural Psychology studies how persons and social-cultural worlds mutually constitute one another. It is premised on the idea that culture is within us—in every moment in which we live our human lives, in the meaningful worlds we have created ourselves. In this perspective, encounters with others fundamentally transform the way we understand ourselves. With the increase of globalization and multicultural exchanges, cultural psychology becomes the psychological science for the 21st century. No longer can we ignore questions about how our cultural traditions, practices, beliefs, artifacts and other people constitute how we approach, understand, imagine and remember the world. The Niels Bohr Professorship Lectures in Cultural Psychology series aims to highlight and develop new ideas that advance our understanding of these issues.
This second volume in the series features an address by Tania Zittoun and Alex Gillespie, which is followed by commentary chapters and their response to them. In their lecture, Zittoun and Gillespie propose a model of the relation between mind and society, specifically the way in which individuals develop and gain agency through society. They theorise and demonstrate a two-way interaction: bodies moving through society accumulate differentiated experiences, which become integrated at the level of mind, enabling psychological movement between experiences, which in turn mediates how people move through society. The model is illustrated with a longitudinal analysis of diaries written by a woman leading up to and through the Second World War. Commentators on further elaborate on the issues of (1) context and history, (2) experience, time and movement, and (3) methodologies for cultural psychology.
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In each chapter, the authors review and integrate a wide range of classic and contemporary literature culminating in the proposal of a sociocultural model of imagination. The book takes into account the triggers of imagination, the content of imagination, and the outcomes of imagination. At the heart of the model is the interplay between the individual and culture; an exploration of how the imagination, as something very personal and subjective, grows out of our shared culture, and how our shared culture can be transformed by acts of imagination.
Imagination in Human and Cultural Development offers new perspectives on the study of psychological learning, change, innovation and creativity throughout the lifespan. The book will appeal to academics and scholars in the fields of psychology and the social sciences, especially those with an interest in development, social change, cultural psychology, imagination and creativity.
As a result, imagination occupies a central position within the life of mind and society. Expanding the boundaries of disciplinary approaches, the Handbook of Imagination and Culture expertly illustrates this core role of imagination in the development of children, adolescents, adults, and older persons today.
Bringing together leading scholars in sociocultural psychology and neighboring disciplines from around the world, this edited volume guides readers towards a much deeper understanding of the conditions of imagining, its resources, its constraints, and the consequences it has on different groups of people in different domains of society. Summarily, this Handbook places imagination at the center, and offers readers new ways to examine old questions regarding the possibility of change, development, and innovation in modern society.
This second volume in the series features an address by Tania Zittoun and Alex Gillespie, which is followed by commentary chapters and their response to them. In their lecture, Zittoun and Gillespie propose a model of the relation between mind and society, specifically the way in which individuals develop and gain agency through society. They theorise and demonstrate a two-way interaction: bodies moving through society accumulate differentiated experiences, which become integrated at the level of mind, enabling psychological movement between experiences, which in turn mediates how people move through society. The model is illustrated with a longitudinal analysis of diaries written by a woman leading up to and through the Second World War. Commentators on further elaborate on the issues of (1) context and history, (2) experience, time and movement, and (3) methodologies for cultural psychology.