Critique, construction, and co-creation

a conversation with Kenneth Gergen

Kenneth J. Gergen

pp. 177-210

in: Heather Macdonald, David Goodman, Brian Becker (eds), Dialogues at the edge of American psychological discourse, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

It is important to note that Ken Gergen (1985) has been a champion of social constructionism throughout his career. In this most recent interview Gergen emphasizes the case that he has made, in his more recent writings, for a "reflective pragmatism" which means shifting attention away from questions about "why some descriptions of human action [are] simply more accurate than others' to an examination of what values and meaning would serve society the best. Through Gergen's scholarship, the idea of how to measure and describe human behavior goes to the heart of what these researchers reveal to us. He alerts us to the disproportionate gaps between experimental research (psychological science), theory, and practice, which other scholars also comment on in their interviews.