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Questioning the tradition of individual responsibility, this pioneering book also transforms the concept of responsibility by giving centre stage to the relational process rather than to the individual - replacing alienation and isolation with meaningful dialogue.
The first three chapters are the editors' own contribution on relational responsibility - followed by their analysis of a challenging case study involving the issue of child sexual abuse. The next 14 chapters contain responses from leading academics and professionals in the fields of communication, psychology and organizational development, which extend the editors' original dialogue. In conclusion, Sheila McNamee and Kenneth Gergen illustrate relational responsibility by taking the responses as suggestions for extending, redirecting and augmenting the original concept and practice of relational responsibility.
List of contents
Preface - Sheila McNamee and Kenneth J Gergen
Situating the Conversation
PART ONE:RELATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY
An Invitation to Relational Responsibility
Relational Responsibility in Practice
A Case in Point
PART TWO: EXPANDING THE DIALOGUE: RESONANCE AND REFIGURATION
When Stories Have Wings - David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney
How Relational Responsibility Opens New Options for Action
Collaborative Learning Communities - Harlene Anderson
Relational Moves and Generative Dances - Ian Burkitt
On Being Relational in an Accountable Way - John W Lannamann
The Questions of Agency and Power
The Uncertain Path to Dialogue - Sallyann Roth
A Meditation
Relational Responsibility - Mary Gergen
Deconstructive Possibilities
Relational Responsibility or Dialogic Ethics? A Questioning of McNamee and Gergen - Stanley Deetz and William J White
Responding and Relating - Michael J Mazanec and Steve Duck
Response-Ability to Individuals, Relating and Difference
Co-Constructing Responsibility - Karl Tomm
Inspiring Dialogues and Relational Responsibility - Eero Riikonen
Creating Relational Realities - John Shotter and Arlene M Katz
Responsible Responding to Poetic `Movements¿ and `Moments¿
Relational Inquiry and Relational Responsibility - Robert Cottor and Sharon Cottor
The Practice of Change
A Circle of Voices - Peggy Penn and Marilyn Frankfurt
`Just Like Max¿ - Walter Eggers
Learning in Relation
Waiting for the Author - Maurizio Marzari
PART THREE: CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION
Relational Responsibility - Sheila McNamee and Kenneth J Gergen
The Converging Conversation
About the author
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).Kenneth J. Gergen is a Senior Research Professor in Psychology at Swarthmore College, and the President of the Taos Institute. He is internationally known for his contributions to social constructionist theory, technology and cultural change, the self, aging, education, and relational theory and practices. His major writings include, Realities and Relationships: Soundings in Social Construction, The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life, and Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community. His most recent work Beyond the Tyranny of Testing: Relational Evaluation in Education (with Scherto Gill) offers a relational constructionist alternative to the destructive practices of testing and grading in education. Gergen lectures throughout the world, and has received numerous awards for his work, including honorary degrees in both the U.S. and Europe.
