The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice

Sheila McNamee, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of New Hampshire and Vice President and Co-Founder of the Taos Institute. She is internationally known for her contributions to social construction theory and practice, focusing on dialogic transformation in psychotherapy, education, healthcare, organizations, and research. She is author of several books and articles, including Research and Social Change: A Relational Constructionist Approach (with D. M. Hosking, Routledge, 2012), Relational Responsibility: Resources for Sustainable Dialogue (with K. Gergen, Sage, 1999), and is co-editor of The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice (with M. Gergen, E. Rasera, & C. Camargo-Borges, 2020) and Education as Social Construction: Contributions to Theory, Research, and Practice (with T. Dragonas, K. Gergen, E. Tseliou, Taos WorldShare, 2015). Dr. Gergen is Professor Emerita at Penn State University, Brandywine, in the Philadelphia area. She has taught courses in many subfields in psychology and in Women's Studies. Her major academic focus has been on social constructionist theory and feminism. Currently she is an officer in the Taos Institute, a non-profit educational organization. She also advises Ph.D. students in applied social science fields. Her work has taken her to many countries around the glove, most recently Nanjing, China. Recent collaborators include Kenneth J. Gergen and Ellen Cole. Emerson F. Rasera, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at the Federal University of Uberlandia, Brazil. He is former President of the Brazilian Association of Social Psychology, and former Editor of the Brazilian journals Psicologia & Sociedade [Psychology & Society], and Gerais: Revista Interinstitucional de Psicologia [Gerais: Interinstitutional Journal of Psychology]. His work is focused on social constructionist contributions to psychological practices, especially in health care, community work, and issues of sexual diversity. His most recent books are The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice (with S. McNamee, M. Gergen, & C. Camargo-Borges, 2020), Grupo como construcao social [Group as social construction] (with M. Japur, 2018) and Social Constructionist Perspectives on Group Work (2015).

Editors' Introduction - Sheila McNamee, Mary Gergen, Celiane Camargo-Borges, & Emerson F. Rasera Part 1: Introduction Chapter 1: Constructionist Theory and the Blossoming of Practice - Kenneth J. Gergen Part 2: Research Practices Chapter 2: Introduction to Research Section - Mary Gergen Chapter 3: Research as Innovation: An Invitation to Creative and Imaginative Inquiry Processes - Celiane Camargo Borges & Sheila McNamee Chapter 4: Collaborative Action Research: Co-constructing Social Change for the Common Good - Ottar Ness & Dina von Heimburg Chapter 5: Action Research and Social Constructionism: Community of Inquiry/Practice - Hilary Bradbury Chapter 6: Research as Performative Inquiry - Mary Gergen Chapter 7: We Are All Researchers - Sally St. George & Dan Wulff Chapter 8: To Know and Not to Know: Dialogic Social Inquiry - Rocio Chaveste & ML Papusa Molina Chapter 9: Transmaterial Worlding as Inquiry - Gail Simon & Leah Salter Chapter 10: Researching Socio-material Practices: Inquiries into the Human/non-human Interweave - Tanya Mudry & Tom Strong Part 3: Practices in Therapeutic Professions Chapter 11: Curiosity and Generativity: Welcome to Practices in the Therapeutic Professions - Sally St. George & Dan Wulff Chapter 12: Social Construction and Social Work Practice - Stanley L. Witkin & Christopher Hall Chapter 13: Collaborative-Dialogic Practice: A Relational Process of Inviting Generativity and Possibilities - Harlene Anderson Chapter 14: Generative Dialogues: Creating Resources and Possibilities in Therapy - Dora Fried Schnitman Chapter 15: How Symbolic Witnesses Can Help Counter Dominant Stories and Enrich Communities of Concern - Jasmina Sermijn Chapter 16: Contributions of Social Constructionism to Group Work - Emerson F. Rasera & Carla Guanaes-Lorenzi Chapter 17: Constructing Social Therapeutics - Lois Holzman Chapter 18: Integrative Community Therapy: Creating a Communitarian Context of Generative and Transformative Conversations - Marilene Grandesso Chapter 19: Individuals in Competition of Communities in Connection? Narrative Therapy in the Era of Neoliberalism - Jill Freedman & Gene Combs Chapter 20: Post-Truth and a Justification for Therapeutic Initiative - Karl Tomm Part 4: Practices in Organizational Development Chapter 21: When Social Constructionism Joins the Organization Development Conversation - Diana Whitney Chapter 22: Relational Ethics in Organizational Life - Gitte Haslebo Chapter 23: Working with Relational Leading and Meaning Making in Teams of Leaders - Lone Hersted Chapter 24: Coaching: Using Ordinary Words in Extraordinary Ways - Haesun Moon Chapter 25: Relational Practices for Generative Multi-Actor Collaboration - Johan Hovelynck, Marc Craps, Art Dewulf, Koen Sips, Tharsi Taillier, & Rene Bouwen Chapter 26: Designing Relationally Responsive Organizations - Ginny Belden-Charles, Morgan Mann Willis, & Jenny Lee Chapter 27: Large Scale Appreciative Inquiry: New Futures through Shared Conversations - Amanda Trosten-Bloom & Barbara Lewis Chapter 28: Zooming in on the Micro-Dynamics of Social Innovation: Enabling Novelty through Relational Constructionist Practice - Danielle Zandee Chapter 29: Social Construction and the Practice of Dialogic Organization Development - Gervase Bushe & Robert Marshak Part 5: Practices in Education Chapter 30: Education as Relational Process and Practice: Introduction - Thalia Dragonas Chapter 31: Lifescaping: Cultivating Flourishing School Cultures - Rolla Lewis Chapter 32: Creating School Harmony - Gro Emmertsen Lund Chapter 33: Creating New Futures through Collaboration: Dropouts No More - Ingebjorg Maeland Chapter 34: Collaborative, Appreciative, and Experiential Pedagogy in Educational Settings - Dawn Dole Chapter 35: School Counseling - Michael Williams & John Winslade Chapter 36: Relief of Critical Educational Psychology and the Nomadism of Critical Disability Studies: Social Constructionism in Practice - Tom Billington & Dan Goodley Chapter 37: Specific Learning Difficulties as a Relational Category: Reconstruction, Redistribution and Resistance in Higher Educational Practice - Harriet Cameron Chapter 38: Intercultural Education: Empowering Minority Learners - Thalia Dragonas Chapter 39: Educational Evaluation: A Relational Perspective - Scherto Gill & Kenneth Gergen Part 6: Practices in Healthcare Chapter 40: Political, Collaborative and Creative: Dimensions of Social Constructionist Health Care Practices - Murilo S. Moscheta Chapter 41: Collaborative Re-construction of Health Care - Ellen Raboin & Paul N. Uhlig Chapter 42: Words Matter: Promoting Relationality in Healthcare through Narrative Medicine - Karen Gold Chapter 43: Strengthening Our Stories in the Second Half of Life: Narrative Resilience through Narrative Care - William Randall Chapter 44: From an Individualist to a Relational Model of Grief - Lorraine Hedtke Chapter 45: Changing the Conversation: Appreciative Inquiry and Appreciative Practices in Healthcare - Natalie May, Julie Haizlip, & Margaret Plews-Ogan Chapter 46: Populating Recovery: Mobilizing Relational Sources for Healing Addiction - Pavel Nepustil Chapter 47: Health Care Practices for LGBT People - Murilo S. Moscheta & Emerson F. Rasera Chapter 48: Mindfulness as a Generative Resource in Compassionate Health - Edgardo Morales Chapter 49: Toward Relational Engagement: Poetic Reflections in Care - Arlene Katz & Kathleen Clark with Elizabeth Jameson Chapter 50: Play Creates Well-being: The Contingency and the Creativity of Human Interation - Saliha Bava Part 7: Community Practices Chapter 51: Community Building from a Social Constructionist Lens - Marie L. Hoskins Chapter 52: Narrative Mediation - John Winslade & Gerald Monk Chapter 53: Inclusion and Community Building: Profoundly Particular - Janet Newbury Chapter 54: Placemaking, Social Construction, and the Global South - Celiane Camargo-Borges & Cesar Ferragi Chapter 55: Re-imagining the Welfare State: From Systems Delivery to Collaborative Relationship - Jacob Storch & Carsten Hornstrop Chapter 56: Transformative Community Conferencing - A Constructionist Approach to a More Hopeful Future - David Hooker Chapter 57: Relational Community Practices for Transitional Societies - Victoria Lugo Chapter 58: Knowing Ourselves in the Stories of Us: The Inclusive Practice of "Be-Longing" - Ilene C. Wasserman & Erin W. Taylor Chapter 59: Intergenerative Community Building: Intergenerational Relationship for Co-creating Flourishing Futures - Kristin Bodiford & Peter Whitehouse Chapter 60: Social Construction, Practical Theology, and the Practices of Religious Communities - Duane R. Bidwell

The quality and breadth of this handbook is amazing. Contributions range from research methodology to constructionist practices in particular settings such as healthcare, education, and organizational development. Imbued with the full range of theory. A very welcome and leading addition to the field! -- Jaber F. Gubrium