DOCSLIB.ORG

Draft Submitted to Mary Gergen

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Draft Submitted to Mary Gergen THE RELATIONAL REALISATION OF POLICY IN PRACTICE: Negotiating a narrative community of race, gender and other privileged identities Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Tilburg, op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. F. A. van der Duyn Schouten, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de Ruth First zaal van de Universiteit op dinsdag 6 juni 2006 om 10:15 uur door Myra Lee Dosia Virgil geboren op 29 augustus 1969 te Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Promotores: Prof. dr. John B. Rijsman Prof. dr. Mary Gergen With appreciation to the Taos Institute and Dr. Ken Gergen and dedicated To Marc, a foundation and Hailey and Madison, the motivation. To Colm McNamee, Julia Pare, and Hoda Choueri, who set the stage and to The second influential Julia (Krane), Linda Davies, and Kara Joyner, who set the standard. To Prue Rains who may not know that to me, she is the articulation of courage and grace. To Bev Morfitt who brought me “in” and to Brenda Dale, who kept me “in” and helped me “up”, And to special friends whose roles can’t be defined. SUMMARY The ‘relational realisation’ of practice in policy: aligning practice with policy This study inquires into the relationship between of different racial groups, genders and other self- policy and practice within a large organisation. The identified constructions of identity. Appreciative study begins with an overview of civil service work Inquiry (AI) became the basis for the study’s methods. and the ways in which policy and practice can be This approach, based on social constructionist ideas, misaligned. In Chapter 1, I propose that the potential and described in Chapters 2 and 3, is a revitalising for better policy/practice alignment can occur within organisational development and strategy tool. Story at least four spheres of organisational interaction: telling or narrative, drawing on positive experiences, relational networks; reflections of the organisation’s and centralising the notion of new understandings culture; statements on policy; and of best practice. being jointly created are components of AI. These spheres are characterised by the degree, tone Emphasising the value of narrative activity, and content of communications amongst participants were also asked to produce stories about organisational participants. Organisational participants their workplace with regard to relationships, policy communicate their varied experiences in both and practice. Detailed in Chapter 4, study privileged and professional ways; the two of which participants’ stories reflected their own identities, and differ by context and degree of disclosure. Privileged that of their experiences in relation to other narratives are typically detailed in content and are organisational participants. These dialogues disclosed amongst a select and trusted few. (inquiries) were understood to be situated within a Professional narratives are more likely to be tempered jointly-constructed organisational culture and in by expectations of some degree of public relation to the mission statement of the organisation. consumption. A model that describes these aspects of organisational discourse is presented. The findings from the inquiry (Ch. 4) are organised into three sections: the potential for alignment These spheres of interaction are referred to as amongst the four narrative spheres of an organisation; elements of a discourse community. Discourse, as a perspectives on identity; and offerings on the use of consequence, is regarded as both produced by and a Appreciative Inquiry methods for research. The product of people relating to each other. The findings suggest that the interplay between discourse community is a creation of the people who organisational practice, policy and people’s diverse participate in organisational life. Organisational relational experiences is blurred by the language and participation, as such, is described as the content of, notions of what are perceived as best practices. and extent to which people communicate their Chapter 5 discusses how, consequently and in a experiences. It is the “talk” of an organisation that cyclical way, the narratives of working relationships comprises its unique structures, language, and practical decisions represent people’s core beliefs assumptions, culture, policy and procedural about race, gender and social class. However, I argue frameworks. that these narratives may compromise the ethical and moral underpinnings of the organisation. Ultimately, Social constructionism is presented in Chapter 2, as participants offered insights as to how to create the study’s overarching theoretical framework, and is opportunities for better alignment between policy a perspective from which it is understood that people’s ideals and local practices. accounts are framed within their social networks. These accounts represent unique snapshots of The study’s conclusion (Ch. 6) highlights the tensions coordinated social relations. In the absence of these between the “professional culture” of the workplace relationships and social frameworks, there is no and a competing “privileged reality” representing how experience for which to account. These accounts are and what decisions are made. There are some infused with understandings of identity. considerations for the possibilities for moving policy and practice narratives together. Ideally, this Bermuda Government employees, from a wide range movement might dictate that policies better reflect the of civil service sectors, participated in the study. voices of the people who enact and live them, and that Study participants were invited to dialogue on their privileged and professional discourse is in ultimate privileged and professional perspectives as members and practical alignment with best practice theory. i Samenvatting De ‘relationele verwezenlijking’ van de praktijk in het beleid: het op elkaar afstemmen van praktijk en beleid. Deze studie onderzoekt de relatie tussen beleid en Werknemers uit een groot aantal burgerlijke diensten praktijk in een grote organisatie. De studie begint met van het Bestuur van Bermuda namen deel aan deze een overzicht van het werk in de burgerlijke diensten studie. Zij werden gevraagd om dialogen te voeren en de manieren waarop beleid en praktijk niet goed op over hun gepriviligieerde en professionele elkaar afgestemd kunnen zijn. In Hoofdstuk 1 stel ik perspectieven als leden van verschillende raciale voor dat de mogelijkheden voor een betere groepen, geslacht, en daarnaast ook nog zelfgekozen afstemming tussen beleid en praktijk zich in minstens constructies van hun identiteit. De basis van de vier sferen van de organisationele interactie kunnen gebruikte methodes in dit onderzoek is het zogenaamd voordoen, dat is in de relationele netwerken, in de Waarderend Onderzoek, of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) . weerspiegelingen van de organisationele cultuur, in Deze benadering, die wordt beschreven in Hoofdstuk uitspraken over beleid, en in de beste manieren van 2 en 3, komt voort uit de sociaal constructionistische doen (best practices). Deze sferen laten zich manier van denken, en is een revitaliserende manier karakteriseren in termen van de hoeveelheid, van organisationele ontwikkeling en een strategisch toonzetting en inhoud van de communicatie tussen de instrument. Het vertellen van verhalen, voortbouwen verschillende deelnemers aan de organisatie. Deze op positieve ervaringen, en het centraal stellen van deelnemers communiceren hun uiteenlopende nieuwe manieren van begrijpen die gezamelijk worden ervaringen zowel op gepriviligieerde alsop gecreerd zijn onderdelen van AI. Vanuit deze nadruk professionele wijze, wat neerkomt op een verschil in op het vertellen van verhalen werden de deelnemers context en hoeveelheid van onthulling. uitgenodigd om verhalen te produceren over hun Gepriviligieerde verhalen zijn meestal gedetailleerder werkplek met betrekking tot relaties, beleid en qua inhoud en worden in de regel slechts onthuld voor praktijk. Zoals gedetailleerd wordt beschreven in een select gezelschap van mensen waar men Hoofdstuk 4, kunnen we zeggen dat de verhalen van vertrouwen in heeft. Van professionele verhalen de deelnemers een weerspiegeling zijn van hun eigen daarentegen mogen we aannemen dat ze enigszins identiteiten, van hun ervaringen in relatie tot andere zullen worden getemperd door de verwachting dat ze deelnemers aan de organisatie. Deze dialogen (of ook in de publieke sfeer zullen worden gebruikt. We manieren van bevragen) moeten worden begrepen als presenteren een model waarin deze twee aspecten van gesitueerd in een samen geconstrueerde de organisationele discours worden beschreven. organisationele cultuur en in relatie tot de uitgesproken missie van de organisatie. De genoemde sferen van de interactie worden aangeduid als de elementen van de gemeenschap van De resultaten van de bevraging (Hoofdstuk 4) worden de discours. Een discours wordt opgevat als zowel de ingedeeld in drie delen: wat is het potentieel voor het productie als het product van mensen die met elkaar op elkaar afstemmen van de vier narratieve sferen van omgaan. De gemeenschap van de discours komt voort de organisatie; wat zijn de perspectieven op de uit de mensen die deelnemen aan het leven in de identiteit; en welke vruchten levert het op voor het organisatie. Deelname aan de organisatie wordt zo gebruik van AI als methode van onderzoek. De beschreven als de inhoud van en de mate waarin resultaten suggereren
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Vita Arthur P. Bochner
    VITA ARTHUR P. BOCHNER Department of Communication University of South Florida Tampa, FL 33620 e-mail: [email protected] January 2018 AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION & INTEREST Narrative Inquiry; Storytelling; Qualitative Research: Ethnography and Autoethnography; Interpersonal Communication; Family Communication; Philosophy of Communication; Social Construction. EDUCATION Ph.D. Communication, Bowling Green State University, 1971 M.A. Speech Communication, Syracuse University, 1969 B.S. Speech Communication, California State University (PA), 1968 ACADEMIC EMPLOYMENT 2008-Present Distinguished University Professor, University of South Florida 1984-Present Professor, Department of Communication, University of South Florida 1990-Present Co-Director, Institute for Interpretive Human Studies, College of Arts & Sciences, University of South Florida 1994-Present Professor (Joint Appointment), College of Education, Department of Special Education, University of South Florida 1995-Present Graduate Faculty, Institute on Aging, University of South Florida. 1994-Present Courtesy Appointment, Department of Gerontology, University of South Florida. 1994-1996 Chairperson, Department of Communication, University of South Florida, A.P. Bochner Curriculum Vita 2 1996-Present Affiliate Member, USF Institute on Aging Summer 1984 Visiting Professor, Department of Communication, University of South Florida 1982-1984 Professor, Department of Speech, Temple University Winter 1980. Visiting Professor, Michigan State University 1977-1982 Associate Professor, Department of Speech, Temple University 1974-1977 Assistant Professor, Department of Speech, Temple University 1971-1974 Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Cleveland State University HONORS AND AWARDS (2017) University of South Florida Research Achievement Award ($2,500). (2017) Top Competitive Paper Award from the NCA Ethnography Division. (2017) The Bud Goodall and Nick Trujillo “It’s A Way of Life” Best Book Award (for A.
    [Show full text]
  • Education As Social Construction: Contributions to Theory, Research and Practice
    WorldShare Books Education as Social Construction: Contributions to Theory, Research and Practice Thalia Dragonas, Kenneth J. Gergen, Sheila McNamee, Eleftheria Tseliou Editors A Taos Institute Publication Education as Social Construction Contributions to Theory, Research and Practice Thalia Dragonas, Kenneth J. Gergen, Sheila McNamee, Eleftheria Tseliou Editors Education as Social Construction Contributions to Theory, Research and Practice Thalia Dragonas, Kenneth J. Gergen, Sheila McNamee, Eleftheria Tseliou Editors Copyright ©2015 Taos Institute Publications/WorldShare Books © 2015 – Editors: Thalia Dragonas Kenneth J. Gergen Sheila McNamee Eleftheria Tseliou All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. In all cases, the editors and writers have made efforts to ensure that the text credits are given to appropriate people and organizations. If any infringement has been made, the Taos Institute Publications will be glad, upon receiving notification, to make appropriate acknowledgement in future editions of the book. Inquiries should be addressed to Taos Institute Publications at [email protected] or 1-440-338-6733. Taos Institute Publications A Division of the Taos Institute Chagrin Falls, Ohio USA E-Book Format Only ISBN: 978-1-938552-33-5 (e-book version) Taos Institute Publications The Taos Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of social constructionist theory and practice for purposes of world benefit. Constructionist theory and practice locate the source of meaning, value, and action in communicative relations among people. Our major investment is in fostering relational processes that can enhance the welfare of people and the world in which they live.
    [Show full text]
  • Toward a Cultural Constructionist Psychology
    Draft copy for Theory and Psychology, 1997, 7, 31-36. Toward a Cultural Constructionist Psychology Kenneth J. Gergen Mary M. Gergen Swarthmore College Pennsylvania State University The cultural adventure in psychology is scarcely a new one. It was indeed present in the earliest deliberations on the character of psychological science. With the publication of Wilhelm Wundt's, Volkerpsychologie there was already a concern with alterity - the psychology of those "not quite like us." Yet, as the discipline's romance with natural science (Naturwissenschaft) intensified in the early decades of the present century, and the possibility of psychology as an exploration of human meaning (Geisteswissenschaft) subsided, so did interest in cultural context and variation grow pale Most particularly, with the hegemony of logical empiricist metatheory and behaviorist theory the discipline became increasingly enamored with the possibility of general laws or principles - transcultural and transhistorical. This optimism was expressed by psychologist John W. Williams (1993, pg. 102) : "I am confident that [if] modern psychology had developed in, let us say, India, the psychologists there would have discovered most of the principles discovered by the Westerners." These were years when cultural conditions were virtually ignored. Yet, the universalizing orientation of empiricist psychology did ultimately give way to a particular form of culturally based inquiry, namely cross-cultural psychology. The cultural adventure in this case primarily served as a handmaiden to the prevailing enterprise of establishing general principles of behavior. The vast share of such research has attempted either 1) to demonstrate the cross-cultural universality of various psychological processes, or 2) to demonstrate cultural variations in some some basic or universal psychological process.
    [Show full text]
  • April 2019 1 SHEILA Mcnamee Professor Department Of
    April 2019 SHEILA McNAMEE Professor Department of Communication Horton Social Science Center University of New Hampshire 20 Academic Way Durham, New Hampshire 03824-3586 Phone: 603-862-3040 Fax: 603-862-1913 Webpage: http://pubpages.unh.edu/~smcnamee/ email: [email protected] EDUCATION University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Department of Communication PhD, 1983; MA, 1980; BA, 1978 magna cum laude PERMANENT APPOINTMENTS 1982- Department of Communication, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH. Professor (1997-present), Chair (1990-1999), Associate Professor (1988-1997), Assistant Professor 1982-1988) 1993- Vice President, Co-Founder, and Board member, The Taos Institute, (www.taosinstitute.net) INVITED FACULTY POSITIONS 2013-2016 Professor, Department of Culture Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. 2012 Fulbright Specialist, University of Caldas, Manizales, Colombia. 2011 Visiting Professor, Department of Psychology and Education, University of Sao Paulo - Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. 2010-2013 Affiliate Faculty, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands. 2009 Visiting Research Professor, Department of Psychology and Education, University of Sao Paulo - Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. 2007 Visiting Professor, Department of Public Health, College of Nursing, University of São Paulo - Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. 2006-2012 Visiting Professor, School of Governance, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. 2005-pres. Faculty, Ph.D. Program in Social Psychology, University of Parma, Italy. 1 April 2019 2001 Visiting Professor, Department of English and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. 1987-89 Adjunct Faculty, The Center for Family Studies, Nashua, NH. 1987-90 Research Advisor, Framingham Day Hospital, Framingham, MA. 1986 Visiting Professor, Istituto di Psicologia, University of Parma, Italy. 1984-1987 Research and Clinical Associate, Family Therapy Team, North Essex Health Resource Center, Newburyport, MA.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Aging: Self Construction and Social Values
    Draft copy for K. W. Schaie (Ed.) (2000) Social structures and aging. New York: Springer. The New Aging: Self Construction and Social Values Kenneth J. Gergen Mary M. Gergen Swarthmore College Pennsylvania State University "To look at people over sixty five in terms of work, health, and productivity would be to treat them compassionate or contemptuous care." -Betty Friedan, The Fountain of Age Historically speaking the aged in the United States have largely suffered through what may be characterized as a Dark Age. As Michael Harrington characterized it in 1969,"America tends to make its people miserable when they become old. [They are] plagued by ill health; they do not have enough money; they are socially isolated." (p. 32) Richard Margolis (1990) suggests that we have given "into a heavy fatalism that recalls Seneca’s dismissal of old age as ‘an incurable disease.’ We see feebleness, helplessness, mindlessness. The evidence...is all around us." (p.112) There is a habit of seeing a population of "frail elders, locked within their homes, as rather passive and as prisoners of their illnesses." (Rubinstein, Kilbride, & Nagy, 1992, x) As Margaret Gullette (1997), proposes, our history is such that we treat longevity as "solely a disaster. (Perhaps men should congratulate themselves on dying younger!)." (p. 186) And as the Gray Panthers’ television monitoring task force concluded in the late 1970s, older people were typically depicted as "ugly, toothless, sexless, incontinent, senile, confused and helpless..." This Dark Age condition has been intensified by certain dominant values in American culture. Two of these bear special attention.
    [Show full text]
  • Positionings in Gendered Relations: from Constructivism to Constructionism
    Positionings in Gendered Relations: From Constructivism to Constructionism Mary Gergen Pennsylvania State University ABSTRACT The paper contrasts the constructivist and constructionist approaches to understanding "gender", "sexual orientation", and "social activity." Many psychologists hold that personal identity, sexual orientation, and ways of relating socially as gendered beings depend upon a system of personal constructs. In contrast to this constructivist view, a social constructionist approach emphasizes the development and use of languaging activities in the processes of sustaining the self, as gendered, in social activity. Constructionist feminists concern themselves with the social processes by which certain language patterns enable the maintenance of gendered selves and social activity. The social constructionist approach, which supports a relational theory of meaning and action, suggests that people are maintained in their social identities through their interactions with others. Without the supplements of others, within historically bounded contexts, actions would be chaotic, maladaptive and senseless. I. Introduction For the cognitive psychologist, theoretical interest is primarily centered on how automatic processes in the brain produce human knowledge and subsequent bodily activity in the social realm. For these theorists, the metaphor of the information processor, or computer, is most appropriate for understanding the functioning of the human brain. Cognitivists generally agree that the basic building block in the production of mental life is the schema. An individual's mental apparatus contains a variety of schemas, each helping to structure information into categories that are relevant to the person. My particular interest in this paper is in the theoretical frameworks by which cognitive psychologists discuss the particular categories or schemas of sex and gender .
    [Show full text]
  • Forum: Qualitative Social Research Sozialforschung
    FORUM: QUALITATIVE Volume 5, No. 3, Art. 18 SOCIAL RESEARCH September 2004 SOZIALFORSCHUNG "Thoroughly Post-Modern Mary" [A Biographic Narrative Interview With Mary Gergen] Appendix: Transcript of Tape Recorded Interview With Mary Gergen, Spring 2004 Kip Jones Back to main text Kip JONES (on cassette tape, posted to Mary GERGEN): Today I'd like you to tell me the story of your life. You can start wherever you'd like and take as long as you'd like. All I ask is that you tell me your story without interruption. I won't be interrupting you because I'm not there. Um, so I hope you'll just start wherever you'd like and tell me the story of your life. Over to you. [1] Mary GERGEN: (recording on cassette tape): Hi, Kip. I am starting at 7:56 on a Tuesday evening here in Wallingford, and I look back to see that this is something that you will be working with students on and that you will hope to place in the ah, electronic journal, run by Katja and Günter in Germany, for an international audience. Um, as an imminent psychologist, and I think ah, that's ah term far beyond what I would deserve or even hope to deserve, um but taking all of these things into account, um, it makes me want to shape my narrative in certain ways and not in other ways. Um, it's a challenge when you are a narrative ah, theorist to go about doing life story when you realize that there are many life stories that could be told and you have given me a rather broad pallet of/or a broad canvas on which I can paint the story of my life.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Download
    FORUM: QUALITATIVE Volume 5, No. 3, Art. 18 SOCIAL RESEARCH September 2004 SOZIALFORSCHUNG "Thoroughly Post-Modern Mary" [A Biographic Narrative Interview With Mary Gergen] Kip Jones Abstract: Method: The Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method him shortly after graduation. The couple had a girl, (Prue CHAMBERLAYNE, Joanna BORNAT & Tom Lisa, and a boy, Michael. Over the next seven years, WENGRAF, 2000; Tom WENGRAF 2001; Gabriele Mary studied part-time for a Master’s Degree in ROSENTHAL 2004; Kip JONES 2004) uses an Counselling Psychology. Her husband was a fast interview technique in the form of a single, initial track architect and they expected to move to Rome narrative-inducing question (minimalist-passive), for in the early 60s, but moved instead to Boston example, "Tell me the story of your life, " to elicit an where he could continue his studies at MIT. extensive, uninterrupted narration. This shift encom- At a Halloween party given at Harvard, Mary met passes willingness on the part of the researcher to Ken GERGEN for the first time. They had a long cede "control" of the interview scene to the inter- conversation and she discovered that he had an viewee and assume the posture of active listener/ opening for a research assistant, a position for audience participant. A follow-up sub-session can which she immediately applied. She got the job and then be used to ask additional questions, but based Ken encouraged her to finish her Master’s Degree. only on what the interviewee has said in the first She worked for him for two years; he later interview and using her/his words and phrases in accepted a position at Swarthmore College in the same order.
    [Show full text]
  • "Thoroughly Post-Modern Mary" [A Biographic Narrative Interview with Mary Gergen]
    Volume 5, No. 3, Art. 18 – September 2004 "Thoroughly Post-Modern Mary" [A Biographic Narrative Interview With Mary Gergen] Kip Jones Abstract: Method: The Biographic Narrative Interpretive Method him shortly after graduation. The couple had a girl, (Prue CHAMBERLAYNE, Joanna BORNAT & Tom Lisa, and a boy, Michael. Over the next seven years, WENGRAF, 2000; Tom WENGRAF 2001; Gabriele Mary studied part-time for a Master’s Degree in ROSENTHAL 2004; Kip JONES 2004) uses an Counselling Psychology. Her husband was a fast interview technique in the form of a single, initial track architect and they expected to move to Rome narrative-inducing question (minimalist-passive), for in the early 60s, but moved instead to Boston example, "Tell me the story of your life," to elicit an where he could continue his studies at MIT. extensive, uninterrupted narration. This shift encom- At a Halloween party given at Harvard, Mary met passes willingness on the part of the researcher to Ken GERGEN for the first time. They had a long cede "control" of the interview scene to the inter- conversation and she discovered that he had an viewee and assume the posture of active listener/ opening for a research assistant, a position for audience participant. A follow-up sub-session can which she immediately applied. She got the job and then be used to ask additional questions, but based Ken encouraged her to finish her Master’s Degree. only on what the interviewee has said in the first She worked for him for two years; he later interview and using her/his words and phrases in accepted a position at Swarthmore College in the same order.
    [Show full text]