Conversational Realities

Introduction A Rhetorical-Responsive Version of Social Constructionism PART ONE: A RHETORICAL-RESPONSIVE VERSION OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM The Conversational Background of Social Life Beyond Representation Situating Social Constructionism Knowing `From Within' Dialogue and Rhetoric in the Construction of Social Relations PART TWO: REALISM, THE IMAGINARY AND A WORLD OF EVENTS The Limits of Realism Social Life and the Imaginary Linguistic Relativity in a World of Events PART THREE: CONVERSATIONAL REALITIES In Search of a Past Therapeutic Re-Authoring Real and Counterfeit Constructions in Interpersonal Relations The Manager as a Practical Author Conversations for Action Rhetoric and the Recovery of Civil Society Epilogue Rhetorical-Responsive Social Constructionism in Summary Form Afterword - Roy Bhaskar

`I like this book, will recommend it to colleagues and students, and expect it to become a staple citation in articles and books I publish... Sometimes books an academic reads enable a person to make connections among previously disconnected pieces of experience, recurring preferences and passions, and particular life decisions. Reading Conversational Realities accomplished this for me... it is theoretically rich, philosophically thoughtful and experientially evocative' - Human Studies `[An] immensely thoughtful, informative and persuasive treatment of the "rhetorical-responsive version of social constructionism" via an eclectic blend of, principally, European and American linguistics, philosophy and social psychology... Shotter's book is most important for continuing the work begun by Billig and others bringing recognition via recollection to the rhetorical corpus. He claims to target his recovery of these materials toward psychologists; readers in related disciplines will certainly also benefit' - Discourse & Society `This book is fascinating... It is important for several reasons. First, it provides an overview of an approach to the social sciences known as social constructionism... Second, Shotter maintains that the fundamental human reality is persons in conversations... Third, Shotter is concerned with practical implications, not just theoretical conceptions' - Studies in Second Language Acquisition