AIM To argue that creating communicative spaces in an action research study gave voice to young mothers who may otherwise have remained voiceless. BACKGROUND Underpinning the concept of the communicative space in action research is the critical social theory of Jürgen Habermas, in particular, his theory of communicative action and the ideal speech situation. The author argues that in collabor...

This article presents a critique of the concept of cognitive distortion as it has been developed within the domain of sex-offender treatment programme theory and practice. Drawing upon a discursive psychology perspective, it is argued that cognitive distortions should not be considered as mental entities but as social practices. This argument is illustrated by closely examining how offenders‟ a...

In times of organizational change leaders often tell stories that justify publicly the directions in which organizations move. Such stories are always political in nature and often reflect the motives of the storyteller. We observe how leaders in high-tech organizations use the story of technological determinism in organizational settings as a discursive practice through which they invoke the “...

AIM This paper is a report of a study to analyse reflection as discourse and a technology of confession which produces a certain desirable subjectivity within nursing practice. BACKGROUND Reflection and reflective practice are common themes in nursing practices and in the literature on nursing. These practices are often construed as positive and empowering, and more critical analyses of them ...

Kykyri, Virpi-Liisa Helping Clients to Help Themselves. A Discursive Perspective to Process Consulting Practices in Multi-party Settings Jyväskylä, University of Jyväskylä, 2008, 76 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research ISSN 0075-4625; 330) ISBN 978-951-39-3082-0 (PDF), 978-951-39-3071-4 (nid.) Finnish Summary Diss. This study approaches process consulting work as c...

A traditional approach to contrastive rhetoric has emphasized cultural difference in rhetorical patterns among various languages. Despite its laudable pedagogical intentions to raise teachers’ and students’ cultural and rhetorical awareness in second language writing, traditional contrastive rhetoric has perpetuated static binaries between English and other languages and viewed students as cult...

We take software systems] engineering to consist of three major phases: domain engineering , requirements engineering and software systems] design engineering. We outline these and emphasise domain perspectives andfacets, requirements aspects and software architecture and program organisation views. This paper is the direct result of a US OOce of Army Research October 12{14, 1997 workshop on Re...

Our objective was to explore how prospective altruistic kidney donors construct their decision to donate. Using a qualitative design and biographical-narrative semi-structured interviews, we aimed to produce text for analysis on two levels: the social implications for subjectivity and practice and a tentative psychodynamic explanation of the participants' psychological investment in the discour...

In the following paper, I will consider the role of collectively shared background assumptions on development processes in organizations. The theoretical concept of the paper is based on a merger of background assumptions models with those of learning and development. The paper is based on the basic view that the fusion of theories should recognize coherence concerning their paradigmatic backgr...