The Group in Society

John Gastil is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, where he specializes in political deliberation and group decision making. Prior to joining the University of Washington in 1998, Gastil received his communication Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994 and worked for three years at the University of New Mexico Institute for Public Policy. In 1993, Gastil published Democracy in Small Groups (New Society Publishers), and he continued to explore democracy and deliberation at many levels of analysis in By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy through Deliberative Elections (University of California, 2000), The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement in the Twenty-First Century (co-edited with Peter Levine, Jossey-Bass, 2005), and Political Communication and Deliberation (Sage, 2008). The National Science Foundation has supported three large-scale research programs in which Gastil has served as a principal investigator. The Jury and Democracy Project rediscovered the jury system as a valuable civic educational institution. Gastil has also contributed to the Cultural Cognition Project, which explores the cultural underpinnings of attitudes toward various public policy issues. Most recently, Gastil has worked with Australian colleagues to study the flow of ideas and arguments through the Citizens' Parliament held in Canberra in 2009. Gastil's scholarly articles from these and other projects have appeared in Adult Education Quarterly, Communication Theory, Harvard Law Review, Human Communication Research, Human Relations, Journal of Applied Social Psychology, Journal of Communication, Journal of Public Deliberation, Political Communication, Small Group Research, and other academic journals.

PART I. AN INTRODUCTION TO SMALL GROUPS 1. Small Groups Up Close Understanding Groups How We Learn About Groups Putting the Pieces Together Illustration: Terrorist Cells 2. Wiring Groups into Organizations and Society Building a Theoretical Framework The Embedded System Approach Small Group Archetypes Illustration: Self-Managed Work Teams PART II. DISCUSSIONS AND DECISIONS 3. Making Group Decisions Understanding the Modern Jury Summary Model of Jury Deliberation Agreements and Social Influence Summary Decision Making Model 4. Establishing Discussion Procedures The Group Network Designing Discussion Choose a Decision Rule Summary Model of Emergent Structure 5. Guiding the Flow of Ideas and Information Assembling a Task Force Generating Creative Ideas Gathering and Exchanging Information PART III. ROLES, RELATIONSHIPS, AND IDENTITY 6. Leading the Team Teamwork and Group Effectiveness Loving the Leader Negotiating Roles and Status Summary Model: The Group as Microcosm 7. Forging Group Bonds Groups Across the Lifespan Banding Together and Tearing Apart Cohesion and Harmony Summary Model of Group Bonding 8. Shifting Social Identities Maintaining Group Norms Symbolic Life in Groups Securing a Social Identity Summary Model of Conflict and Convergence 9. Learning and Growing Unconscious Group Behavior Personal Growth Summary Model of Group Learning Group Development PART IV. INTEGRATION AND CONCLUSION 10. The Power of Knowledge Using Group Theory for Social Change Reprising the Embedded System Framework Final Questions and Insights