Sociocultural Turn Research Articles

Post-Cartesian Psychoanalysis and the Sociocultural Turn: From Cultural Contexts to Hermeneutic Understanding

This article addresses the tension between the defining impact of culture on human experience and the role of the person as agent. Focusing on the sociocultural turn in psychoanalysis, it examines the evolution of the notions of culture and the person, first in the culturalist psychoanalysis of Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm, and then in the hermeneutic turn of recent psychoanalysis. The article maintains that persons are inescapably shaped by the culture in which they live. At the same time, the manner in which individual psychology is organized and experienced within culture points to the role of agency as an emergent human potential. The article suggests that culture and personal agency are mutually reinforcing and that psychoanalysis must account for both. It develops a hermeneutic perspective as an alternative to postmodernism and concludes by outlining a post-Cartesian approach in psychoanalysis that addresses culture and the person in a non-dualistic fashion.

Twenty years of historical pragmatics

This paper provides an outline of the changes in linguistics that gave rise to historical pragmatics in the 1990s and that have shaped its development over the twenty years of its existence. These changes have affected virtually all aspects of linguistic analyses: the nature of the data, the research questions, the methods and tools that are being used for the analysis, as well as the nature of the generalizations and findings that result from these investigations. We deal with the changes in terms of shifts in thought styles and discuss seven different turns: the pragmatic turn, the socio-cultural turn, the dispersive turn, the empirical turn, the digital turn, the discursive turn and the diachronic turn. We also deal with some long-standing, recent or emerging interfaces where historical pragmatics interacts with other disciplines and we discuss some future challenges, such as the multimodality and fluidity of communication and the problem of combining big data with pragmatic micro analyses.

What Is Cultural Psychoanalysis? Psychoanalytic Anthropology and the Interpersonal Tradition

In light of the recent emphasis on social and cultural factors in psychoanalytic theory and practice, this article will elaborate earlier attempts to bridge psychoanalysis and the study of culture. I begin by considering the disciplinary tension between the fields of psychoanalysis and anthropology and the emergence of a “psychoanalytic anthropology,” which began in the 1920s and lasted through the 1950s. I then turn to the works of Harry Stack Sullivan and Erich Fromm, who developed an approach known as “cultural psychoanalysis.” I suggest that Sullivan and Fromm anticipate today's sociocultural turn in psychoanalysis and that their work on culture and its role in psychological development and experience continues to be relevant. Rather than embracing a social or cultural determinism, Sullivan and Fromm focus on the interaction between culture and the person, thus creating an “integrationist” approach. Sullivan and Fromm develop a broad conception of culture that encompasses a critique of social and cultural norms and values. I suggest that this is particularly valuable because much current discussion of culture focuses chiefly on diversity and difference, thus overlooking the implicit social and cultural values at work in all human experience. I build on Sullivan and Fromm's insights to illustrate the significance of early interpersonal psychoanalysis for the sociocultural turn in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice.

A Reconceptualisation of the Self in Humanistic Psychology: Heidegger, Foucault and the Sociocultural Turn

Abstract Since the early 1970s humanistic psychology has struggled to remain a relevant force in the social and psychological sciences, we attribute this in part to a conceptualisation of the self rooted in theoretically outmoded thinking. In response to the issue of relevancy a sociocultural turn has been called for within humanistic psychology, which draws directly and indirectly on the conceptual insights of Michel Foucault. However, this growing body of research lacks a unifying conceptual base that is able to encompass its new perspectives (its call for a sociocultural turn) and the movement’s theoretical antecedents (the actualising tendency). This analysis suggests a way forward by offering a potential reconceptualisation of the self in humanistic psychology through the existential-phenomenology of Martin Heidegger. We argue that Heidegger’s conception of the self takes account of subjectivities produced in discourse and institutional practice, while acknowledging the human capacity for actualisation in his concept of the authentic-self.

The global shadow of functionalism and Excellence Theory: An analysis of Australasian PR

There are increasing claims and, in some quarters, celebration of a ‘sociocultural turn’ in public relations that has allegedly shifted the locus of scholarship and practice from US-originating functionalist and organization-centric models to more socially and culturally orientated approaches. However, this article presents a critical analysis of PR education and scholarship in Australasia which shows that, despite a claimed ‘sociocultural turn’ and a number of emergent postmodern models identified by contemporary scholars around the world, Excellence Theory, including its various constituent theories, remains a dominant paradigm of PR in Australia and many South East Asian countries. The ontological and epistemological characteristics of PR in Australasia, and the influences that have created and sustained them, as well as the progress of alternative postmodern and critical conceptualizations, are explored in this article based on two stages of research. In the first, a broad exploratory study was undertaken using ethnography and elements of autoethnography to provide reflective insights into the nature of and influences on PR scholarship and practice in the region. In the second stage, the findings of this exploratory analysis were tested and further contextualized with empirical data from structured textual analysis of the PR texts and reference books most commonly used today.

Who will benefit from ‘the sociocultural turn’ in education?

Educational theories, cultures and learning: a critical perspective, edited by Harry Daniels, Hugh Lauder and Jill Porter, Heinemann 2009, 246 pp., $160.00; £93.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-0-415-49118-...

Where are we going beyond the archive metaphor?

Brockmeier integrates perspectives of several fields and shows that the use of the archive metaphor is reaching its expiration date. What he offers as an alternative to the metaphor is a new model based on the socio-cultural approach. Although the present author agrees with Brockmeier on the limitations of the archive metaphor and acknowledges the significance of the socio-cultural approach or narrative turn, yet a new view on body—environment relations and time is needed for a new theory of memory. We have found it to be a necessity when working on issues of examination of confession and testimony in legal settings. Our research team has accumulated practical and empirical evidence to propose an ecological approach to remembering and memory. It is also an alternative to the archive metaphor. An ecological approach to remembering and memory in constructing our scholarly autobiography is outlined.

The Sociocultural turn in psychology: the contextual emergence of mind and self

The Sociocultural turn in psychology: the contextual emergence of mind and self

Towards a Socio-Cultural Turn in Translation Teaching: A Canadian Perspective

While current translation theory is beginning to reconcile cultural and linguistic approaches to translation, this is far from the case in translation pedagogy and curriculum. This paper will argue in favour of a socio-cultural turn in translation pedagogy and curriculum design with specific reference to the Canadian/Québec context where the social, political and economic dimensions of the practice of translation, and its place within the broader area of inter-cultural communication in Canada differ depending on whether one is working into English or into French. Issues examined include redesigning curriculum to highlight the socio-cultural functions of translation, integrating culture and pedagogy, and identifying the theoretical implications of a cultural turn in translation teaching.

Teacher education

Teacher education

The Sociocultural Turn and Its Challenges for Second Language Teacher Education

Although the overall mission of second language (L2) teacher education has remained relatively constant, that is, to prepare L2 teachers to do the work of this profession, the field's understanding of that work—of who teaches English, who learns English and why, of the sociopolitical and socioeconomic contexts in which English is taught, and of the varieties of English that are being taught and used around the world—has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. This article examines the epistemological underpinnings of a more general sociocultural turn in the human sciences and the impact that this turn has had on the field's understanding of how L2 teachers learn to do their work. Four interrelated challenges that have come to the forefront as a result of this turn are discussed: (a) theory/practice versus praxis, (b) the legitimacy of teachers' ways of knowing, (c) redrawing the boundaries of professional development, and (d) “located” L2 teacher education. In addressing these challenges, the intellectual tools of inquiry are positioned as critical if L2 teacher education is to sustain a teaching force of transformative intellectuals who can navigate their professional worlds in ways that enable them to create educationally sound, contextually appropriate, and socially equitable learning opportunities for the students they teach.