The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

Book Description

This book reformulates the sociological subdiscipline known as the sociology of knowledge. Knowledge is presented as more than ideology, including as well false consciousness, propaganda, science and art.

Customer Reviews:

The most important book ever written for all social sciences.......2007-10-07

This book should be considered absolutely required reading for anyone studying sociology or psychology. This book is written so well it elucidates some of the most profound and insightful psycho-social theories in plain english, although some familiarity with basic social science terminology is a prerequisite for thorough comprehension. Its impossible to give a complete synopsis of it in a brief review, but overall the book covers the construction of social reality in complete detail, from institutions to the microsocial world of individual identity construction. The section on society as subjective reality, and the subsection on identity, is of absolute importance for psychologists like myself who work with identity problems like DID. Too often psychotherapy of the self and identity ignores the underlying fact that these are dialectic social products. The foundation of self improvement and change is this awareness of the socially constructed self, which is much more complicated than most people seem to think. This book explains all of this with great clarity and alot of useful examples.

Social Construction: a concept who's time has come.......2007-03-29

The book establishes the concept, practice and impacts of social construction theory: a theory of human interaction, relating, and community building. We are beginning to understand that rational choice theory is limited, its bounded not only by the idea that individual human thought is restricted and not omniscient, but further restricted by a retro-evolutionist position that although seemingly "natural" posits mankind in an animal survival mentality. Not untrue, but not the whole story. The whole story is one of trans-rationality in which evolution unites perception and conception of reality into what may, in fact, be omniscient. The bounds of our "bounded rationality" may be boundless established only by our imagination and practical application of social collaboration most effectively operationalized as language: we language our world. We say it is so, and then work to construct the potential of the utterance. If nothing else, it takes the victimization out of survival and ushers in a new definition of adult human potential and also redefines the practicality of accountability.

Makes you think, not decipher.......2007-03-12

A very thought-provoking book. It really challenges you, but in a friendly way. The writing is crystal clear, warm and often witty. No need to "crack the code" of terminology: you get straight at the ideas. THAT is where the challenge is.

Berger and Luckmann have crafted a fascinating argument, drawing on earlier sociological classics (Weber and Durkheim in particular) but also incorporating key insights and concerns from phenomenology, exitentialism, and pragmatism. So there's a pedigree. But you don't need to be confident about or even familiar with Berger and Luckmann's predecessors to understand and appreciate this work. It stands alone as a classic in its own right.

In fact, I appreciate the earlier works more AFTER having read the Social Construction of Reality. That's probably because Berger and Luckmann are so skilled and generous in explaining the best of what other theorists have to offer.

Contemporary pragmatism anticipated.......2006-12-24

This book published in 1966 is still good reading forty years later. The authors express indebtedness to Durkheim and Weber, and they are incurable Romantics in their philosophy of science like Parsons, who was also influenced by Durkheim and Weber. Berger's Romanticism is manifest in his Invitation to Sociology: A Humanistic Perspective. And in this book the authors also describe sociology of knowledge as "humanistic" as opposed to scientific. American academic sociology has yet to outgrow this anachronistic philosophy of science.

The idea that consideration of the social origins of knowledge is relevant to judgments of validity is common to both Karl Mannheim and the Frankfurt School. To validity Berger and Luckmann add ontology. Thus this book is interesting as an anticipation of many central aspects of the contemporary pragmatist philosophy of language and of science, during the years that contemporary pragmatism was still in its formative period with the pioneering writings of such as Quine, Hanson and Feyerabend.

The authors say in the "Introduction" that their basic thesis is that reality is socially constructed, and that the sociology of knowledge must analyze the processes in which this construction occurs (p. 1). The constructional process consists in the social processes of institutionalization and the creation of language that "legitimizes" the institutionalized behavior patterns.

The most relevant thesis of contemporary pragmatism that is basic to their thesis is the doctrine that Quine calls "ontological relativity." This is the thesis that the real is characterized by the semantics of terms defined relativistically in the system of sentences believed to be true, or what Quine calls the "web of beliefs."

The authors say that the edifice of legitimization is built upon language and uses language as its instrumentality (p. 60). They distinguish four levels of legitimization (p. 87-89). The most fundamental level is the "incipient" level that builds legitimating explanations and justifications into the meanings of the vocabulary. The other levels are the theoretical level, the level consisting of a body of knowledge, and the supreme level that integrates all experience into a "symbolic universe" and integrates the whole institutional order of the society.

They elaborate that legitimization maintains the reality of the socially constructed universe in two ways: therapy and annihilation. Since reality is socially defined, giving deviate reality constructions a "negative ontological status" can annihilate them. And the authors add that to understand the state of the socially constructed universe at any given time or its change over time, one must understand the social organization that permits the definers to do their defining.

Google my book titled History of Twentieth-Century Philosophy of Science at my web site philsci with free downloads.

Thomas J. Hickey, Econometrician

Social Construction of Reality.......2006-07-10

This critical work is a cornerstone in the study of being human. Recommended for anyone interested in sociology, psychology, philosophy, or human communication. Easy to read, easy to understand. This work is often cited in scholarly literature. It is so profound, it's almost a religious experience.

On Collective Memory (Heritage of Sociology Series)

Average customer rating:

Collective Memory
Just a word of advice for researchers
The foundation of the sociology of memory

On Collective Memory (Heritage of Sociology Series)
Maurice Halbwachs
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Popular Culture | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History of Ideas | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

How Societies Remember (Themes in the Social Sciences)
Memory, History, Forgetting
Present Pasts: Urban Palimpsests and the Politics of Memory (Cultural Memory in the Present)
Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present
History and Memory

ASIN: 0226115968

Book Description

How do we use our mental images of the present to reconstruct
our past? Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945) addressed this
question for the first time in his work on collective memory,
which established him as a major figure in the history of
sociology. This volume, the first comprehensive English-
language translation of Halbwach's writings on the social
construction of memory, fills a major gap in the literature
on the sociology of knowledge.

Halbwachs' primary thesis is that human memory can only
function within a collective context. Collective memory,
Halbwachs asserts, is always selective; various groups of
people have different collective memories, which in turn give
rise to different modes of behavior. Halbwachs shows, for
example, how pilgrims to the Holy Land over the centuries
evoked very different images of the events of Jesus' life;
how wealthy old families in France have a memory of the past
that diverges sharply from that of the nouveaux riches; and
how working class constructions of reality differ from those
of their middle-class counterparts.

With a detailed introduction by Lewis A. Coser, this
translation will be an indispensable source for new research
in historical sociology and cultural memory.

Lewis A. Coser is Distinguished Professor of Sociology
Emeritus at the State University of New York and Adjunct
Professor of Sociology at Boston College.

The Heritage of Sociology series

Customer Reviews:

Collective Memory.......2006-03-17

Halbwachs, Maurice. On Collective Memory. Translated and edited by Lewis A. Coser. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.

Memory reconstructs images from the past in the context of our social present. Maurice Halbwachs' important work on the formation of collective memory insists that any recalled events fundamentally exist as a function of group endeavour. These memories, and the different behaviours they sustain, rise from a selective process shaped by associations with classes, religions, and families. These social frameworks, he contends, provide the means to express memory through shared language and discourse. As such, all reconstructed pasts must draw on common conventions of beliefs and meanings. This stability accounts for the persistent strength of traditions, but also for changes to society that must first forge connections to past ways of understanding, in order to succeed.
Beginning with family, Halbwachs examines the social contexts that determine collective memory. Although the wider meaning of family structure comes from society in general, the individual experiences within a family play a crucial role in forming memories through association. Traditions, legends, and proverbs, as well as emotional connections to places, allow the family unit to penetrate into the meanings the individual constructs in all other areas of life. The narrative and logic of family life, derived and adapted from societal norms, thus influence the forms that memory can take. Looking at religion, Halbwachs contends that formal doctrine represents a collective memory composed of rites and beliefs. He finds in religions a historical narrative of major historical events, manifested in more or less symbolic forms. Focusing on the Catholic Church, he demonstrates how a collective memory can adapt to new interpretations while retaining great internal stability and persistence of vision. He then turns to social classes, which he sees as something akin to Weberian status groups. He examines the workings of class traditions and legitimacy in the transitions between old and nouveau riche elites, arguing that while function defines class groups, meanings and assigned qualities come from the wider social relationships in which they participate. As societal hierarchies experience change, he argues, presentist justifications draw from traditions to construct a new collective memory where the new structure seems stable and acceptable.
Evocative and thought provoking, Halbwachs' work offers an interesting approach to memory and its social construction. Similar to Hayden White's later argument of meta-narrative, he argues strongly, yet without much direct evidence, for the ubiquitous presence of societal pressures on individual creativity and personal spaces. Pierre Nora's work on memory in public history, and Eric Hobsbawm's on invention of traditions, further suggests the great influence of and legacy of Halbwachs. Nevertheless, several weak points stand out especially from the historian's perspective. In generalizing about religions, the annaliste-influenced author relies solely on evidence from a French author more conversant in Indo-Chinese Theravada traditions than in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, and his argument then fails in wider application. Similarly, other historical cases lack specific evidence or detail and show a pronounced Eurocentric bias. For example, feudalism appears as the essential institution from which social classes emerge, yet this does not then explain how classes formed in the non-European world that did not experience the feudal structure. Yet criticizing a sociologist for writing bad history only goes so far, as on the whole he succeeds in presenting a useful model for understanding memories changing over time.
From a philosophical and psychological approach, Halbwachs offers scholars a persuasive argument on the collective nature of memory and the recollection of the past as shaped by the present. Weak on history, he nonetheless provides important social considerations for investigating cultural memory. Halbwachs emphasizes the familial, class, and religious roots of individual knowledge of the past, and successfully explains how we select the images associated with historical events.

Just a word of advice for researchers.......2005-04-21

I have just received the book and the text seems to be great. I only think it should be worth advising readers that the first four chapters of "The social frameworks of memory" are abridged versions of the original French book (THey are considered - and probably they are indeed - "largely preparatory for what is to come in the rest of the book. Only relatively brief central pages if these chapters have been translated here" (p. 37). Not that this poses a problem for the comprehension of Halbwachs - since I trust the publishers, the translator and the editor -, I only think it might be useful information.

The foundation of the sociology of memory.......2001-02-15

Maurice Halbwachs, french sociologist and student of Durkheim, died in Nazi camps in 1945. His work can be considered as the foundation of the sociology of memory, and is rediscovered today in Europe and in the US. An essential reading for any scholar interested in the relationship between history, memory, and the past.

Average customer rating:

Excellent book, but could be updated!
A year later I am still using this book as a reference
Scholarly, insightful, and accessible

The Self
Jonathon D Brown
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Developmental Psychology | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Personality | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Psychoanalysis | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Cognitive Psychology | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Behavioral Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Professional | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Science | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Self-Presentation: Impression Management & Interpersonal Behavior (Social Psychology Series)
The Curse of the Self: Self-Awareness, Egotism, and the Quality of Human Life
Advanced Social Psychology
Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development (Essays in Social Psychology)
New Passages

ASIN: 0070083061

Book Description

Although social psychology has been traditionally focused on interpersonal relationships, the cognitive revolution in psychology has had the effect of refocusing some social psychology on intra-psychic processes. This area of psychology has become very popular in recent years, yet there is currently no other textbook available for the study of the self. As part of the prestigious McGraw-Hill Social Psychology Series, this book carefully documents the changing conceptions and the value accorded the self in psychology over time. It further outlines the many alternative conceptions of this increasingly central domain in social psychology. New research and conceptions are juxtaposed with the classic and traditional, providing the reader with a comprehensive introduction to the study of the self.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book, but could be updated!.......2005-01-15

I have been a student of Dr. Brown and really enjoyed his class that used this book as a text book. If you are in or near Seattle check out "Self-Concept" at U of WA psychology department.

A year later I am still using this book as a reference.......2003-05-11

First, I should say that I was a student of Dr. Brown's and took his class in which we used this book as the text. But, I still find the information contained in this book useful even now that I am no longer a student. I found this area of psychology very applicable to my daily life, and I am surprised that this is the only book on self-psychology available on the market. He writes in a clear, entertaining manner and he makes the concepts easy to understand. This is a valuable reference to me, and I am certain it will continue to be as I enter graduate study in psychology.

Scholarly, insightful, and accessible.......1999-06-11

Jonathon Brown has created a book that works in both the home and the classroom. Written as a text for upper-level psychology classes in self-psychology, it manages to span the usual gap between 'informative' and 'engaging.' An excellent read for the interested layperson and an invaluable resource for the academic. Bravo!

The Distributed Mind: Achieving High Performance Through the Collective Intelligence of Knowledge Work Teams

Average customer rating:

Future trends in knowledge work.
An Organisation made of Knowledge Work Teams
I'll take responsibility over intelligence any time.
Real Knowledge About Knowledge Worker Teams

The Distributed Mind: Achieving High Performance Through the Collective Intelligence of Knowledge Work Teams
Kimball Fisher , and Mareen Duncan Fisher
Manufacturer: AMACOM
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Human Resources & Personnel Management | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Motivational | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Distance Manager: A Hands On Guide to Managing Off-Site Employees and Virtual Teams

ASIN: 0814403670

Book Description

For the first time in history, more employees work with their minds than with their muscles. Their value lies in their mental abilities and their knowledge. Collectively, they are the "mind" of the company -- a mind spread across many individual brains. The authors of this breakthrough book call it "the distributed mind."

The distributed mind is a powerful force, for if two heads are better than one, imagine how much better 20 heads are -- if it is possible to manage them all! That's the fascinating subject of this book: how progressive companies are creating teams of "knowledge workers" and coordinating their individual efforts into a web of high performance.

Using interviews they conducted with hundreds of knowledge workers, the Fishers have identified six trends that will change forever the way we work. The Distributed Mind provides an intriguing look at how to:

*understand the characteristics of knowledge work teams (and the innovative concept of "vertical multiskilling")
* organize multiple specialists into a cohesive unit
* share knowledge without creating information overload * coordinate activities when half the team is spread across the globe (or never in the office)
* understand the critical role of technology in this new work structure
* grasp a whole new organizational form, called "the learning lattice"

The Fishers point out that "knowledge workers" aren't just engineers, lawyers, and programmers. They can be found on the assembly line, as well. It's a new world of work for all!

Customer Reviews:

Future trends in knowledge work........2000-08-10

"This is the age of knowledge work. It is the age of the smart worker. The operations that learn the secret of tapping into this knowledge will always outperform those that do not. Those that master the 'collective intelligence' of knowledge work teams will be the architects of the future...As individuals, knowledge workers are smart people. But their individual effectiveness is amplified when they are also part of a smart organization. As an effective knowledge team, they can often create a sort of synergy where the outcome of the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts. These smart teams appear as though all team members are of a common mind that shares information and ideas seamlessly across the membership-a distributed mind...This book is about knowledge work teams. Knowledge work requires a special set of skills related to an area of expertise, such as those of an engineer, a salesperson, a consultant, a manager, or a health-care professional. But it requires much more than technical competence to be successful as a knowledge worker" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Kimball Fisher and Mareen Duncan Fisher:

* define knowledge work by comparing five characteristics that differ for physical and knowledge work as follows:

- Job Characteristics: (1). Core task, (2). Critical skills, (3). Work process, (4). Work outcome, (5). Knowledge used.

- Job Characteristics of Physical Work: (1). Doing, (2). Physical, (3). Usually linear, (4). Product, (5). Applied.

- Job Characteristics of Knowledge Work: (1). Thinking, (2). Mental, (3). Usually nonlinear, (4). Information, (5). Created.

* argue that "the nature of work is changing from mostly linear to mostly nonlinear and from requiring mainly physical skills to requiring mainly mental acuity. Jobs now usually produce more information than product and require more improvisation than rote, automatic application of process. While this trend is dramatic in a few cases, for most of us the change has been a slow, steady evolution of our jobs", and illustrate this trend.

* show how teams and team-based operations differ from groups and non-team-based operations, and illustrate how these teams differ from the traditional organizations by comparing hierarchical organizations with team-based organizations as follows:

- Hierarchical Organization: hierarchical order, local optimum, maximum specification, functional defect control, specialized skill, vertical information flow, work ethic value, and conservative improvement.

- Team-Based Organization: information order, global optimum, minimum critical specification, source defect control, multiskilled, source information flow, work life value, and continuous improvement.

* illustrate the differences between physical and knowledge work teams by comparing typical physical work teams with knowledge work teams.

- Typical Physical Work Teams: physical labor, multiple generalists, inside single organization, fairly stable membership, and repetitive responsibilities.

- Typical Knowledge Work Teams: mental labor, multiple specialists, across multiple organizations, shifting membership, and single-purpose responsibilities.

* explore the process of knowledge work design, and illustrate the characteristics of evolving organizational form-learning lattice organization.

* discuss the metaphors and practices needed to create successful knowledge teams.

* argue that "environmental shifts and changes in organizational capabilities have created opportunities and need for virtual knowledge teams in contemporary organizations. To effectively create, utilize, and support VKT's, we must focus more attention on the VKT challenges", and then discuss the challenges of making VKTs effective.

* discuss fostering innovation and creativity as a critical challenge for knowledge work.

* discuss what is becoming a critical attribute of effective knowledge work teams: the ability to transfer knowledge effectively without causing information overload.

* discuss the role of leaders in knowledge teams, and argue that "in knowledge work teams, team leadership is critical. Although this formal leadership is often shared or rotated, we believe it must be done properly for the team to be effective".

* discuss a number of practical tips to prevent illness in teams, including providing team training, integrating new team members, setting goals and measuring results, understanding group decision-making processes, managing team conflict, building team communication skills, giving and receiving feedback, defining team members' roles and responsibilities, developing operating guidelines, and creating a team charter.

* explore how technology aids knowledge work, and argue that "technologies must be appropriately integrated into the organization if they are to benefit knowledge teams. Three particular problems to avoid are technology misuse, expecting more from technology than it can reasonably deliver, and serving technology instead of having technology serve the team".

* discuss future trends in knowledge work by illustrating six key work trends for the new millennium: (1). automation of physical work, (2). elimination of traditional jobs and work structures, (3). empowered knowledge workers, (4). knowledge work teams predominant, (5). workplace flexibility, (6). more virtual knowledge teams.

Strongly recommended.

An Organisation made of Knowledge Work Teams.......2000-08-02

The T-word, team, has been badly devaluated during the last few years. People talk about teams without really understanding, what they actually are about. No wonder some people react with cynicism when their CEO returns from a training seminary with the word Team on his lips.

There is a solid case for this book that addresses teams, especially knowledge work teams from a practical no-nonsense perspective. This book makes good reading not only for knowledge work team builders but also for the people that actually make up the teams. The language and structure is exceptionally readable and the issues are easy to grasp. Someone might even say that Fishers use too many cases to justify their points. Fishers start with discussing knowledge work, then teams and finally knowledge work teams and finally building a working organisation made of knowledge work teams.

Fishers do not limit their perspective to teams and organisations but discuss also their influences to societies and individuals. Teams do not work in a vacuum but change the way people work and think and live their lives.

The one thing that I disagree with is they way Fishers create an artificial (in my opinion) distinction between physical work and knowledge work, and the consequent physical work teams and knowledge work teams. Fishers stress the point that even knowledge workers do physical work and physical workers do knowledge work, but within their definition of knowledge work!

I'll take responsibility over intelligence any time........2000-04-29

This is a book on Knowledge Workers, and on business management, actually. It does discuss industrial age and post-industrial age workers, but it's not so much about industry, industrial workers, and modern factory automation.

The sense I came away with is that the aim of the authors was on making work teams more effective. However, for me, the book gets back to a more fundamental issue, the possibility of effectively eliminating levels of management in any organization. This is done not just by eliminating some staff, and giving the remaining staff communications. On a superficial level, automation of information access and communications for today's knowledge workers is required. However, on a more fundamental level, this is done by the assumption of a greater degree of the responsibilities by Knowledge Workers.

The book does get to the nub of flat (empowerment) versus hierarchical (delegation) management styles, which has come about with downsizing and the advent of empowered workers. It discusses how to manage processes and people with fewer managers, by enabling them to gather and use information and make decisions. Most importantly, it prioritizes: responsibility, empowerment, the management of processes, the management of people, management styles, downsizing, and information sharing. They all go together, but some of these are ends, and others are only means to an end. Further, some of these means to an end are prerequisites and others are only facilitators.

Whether tasks are delegated one-at-a-time to individuals (hierarchical), or projects and processes are turned over to a work-team (flat), in both cases communications is required. However, the differences today, are that Knowledge Workers in empowered organizations: are on multiple teams, not having just one job to do; must communicate with all team members, not just with supervisor and immediate coworkers; are responsible for the entire job, not just for one aspect of it.

Without proper orientation by management, Knowledge Workers in empowered work teams can remain focused on technical skill development or on information sharing, as ends unto themselves, or on doing their narrow tasks. What could be missing is a focus on the success of the process or project, and on the achievement on the goals of the organization. In the absence of middle managers, whose job it was to not only manage workers, departments, and processes, but also to focus on the goals of the larger organization, empowered Knowledge Workers must assume a large share of these responsibilities.

Team members must understand firstly, that responsibilities have been thrust upon them, and secondly, how to carry out these responsibilities as a self-directed work team. Today, we're not just providing communications systems to workers. We are holding people responsible, and therefore we're providing them with communications systems.

Real Knowledge About Knowledge Worker Teams.......1998-05-29

The husband-and wife team of Kimball and Mareen Duncan Fisher have collaborated to produce a well-documented, stimulating and useful book on what they call the "distributed mind", or knowledge workers who are geographically and/or organizationally dispersed. The Fishers have been involved in business process redesign for many years, and they have poured their comprehensive lessons learned into this 277-page volume.

One of their most important contributions that they deliver early in the book is to demystify the term "knowledge worker" by explaining that very few knowledge workers do only knowledge work and very few physical laborers do only physical work. This is a liberating insight, because it expands the potential applicability of their later discussions on how knowledge work is important in factories as well as R & D labs.

The Fishers use the term "the learning lattice" to describe an approach to redesigning knowledge work that explains how teams can be organized to take advantage of both units composed of functional experts (skill development teams) and cross-functional teams (business teams), optimizing the knowledge, perspectives and contributions of all concerned. Some organizations call these newly emerging learning lattices "centers of excellence".

Both of the Fishers started their careers in the art world, it is not surprising to see that they have some intriguing comments about harnessing creativity in organizations. They argue that creativity is a social activity, not a guru-centered process that requires isolation. Citing a 1993 survey done ! by the Center for the Study of Work Teams at the University of North Texas, research showed that knowledge workers prefer collaborative team environments, where there is an opportunity to share ideas and solutions.

How about leadership of knowledge workers? The Fishers suggest that this is not an easy task and that the leader's role is handled best through a boundary manager role. They identify seven key attributes for the "distributed leader", including articulating a vision for the organization, managing by principles rather than policies, and effectively coaching and communicating. They provide specific recommendations for ways to "infuse energy and wellness" into organizations through better understanding of roles and responsibilities, effectively managing--rather than suppressing--conflict, and orienting and developing knowledge worker teams.

The Distributed Mind is a great new tool for those who are interested in building community in organizations.

Marketing in the In-Between: A Post-Modern Turn on Madison Avenue
Average customer rating:

Rebecca Nailed It

Big Thoughts on Marketing

Marketing in the In-Between: A Post-Modern Turn on Madison Avenue
Len Ellis
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Marketing | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Web Marketing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Ethics & Morality | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Computer Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Online Advertising Playbook: Proven Strategies and Tested Tactics from the Advertising Research Foundation

Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business

Advertising Now. Online

The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media

ASIN: 1419646753
Release Date: 2006-12-12

Product Description

Marketing in the early 21st century is dominated by two approaches, neither of which is visible to the naked eye: the use of data to define and shape human affairs into machine-readable form and the effort to create and sustain ongoing two-way relationships with customers. The former is one way human life is being subjugated to the regime of the machine; the latter is one way the individual may one day emerge from within the datascape. A post-modern perspective is used to reveal both the "kaleidoroscope" of data and the "raw immaterials" of relationships in two companion essays.

Customer Reviews:

Rebecca Nailed It.......2007-03-18

Rebecca's review is spot-on. I could read this book several times and get something new out of it each time. Ellis succinctly captures the changes in consumer-marketer interaction and the new 21st century value exchange and does a great job of putting it in historical and philosophical context.

Big Thoughts on Marketing .......2007-03-09

Most books on business (particularly those by self-proclaimed "gurus") seize on a single idea. With terrier-like tenacity they explain it, illustrate it, present case studies of it, then explain it yet again, until a readers feels she's entered some sort of textual version of "Groundhog's Day."

"Marketing in the In-Between," takes the opposite approach. It packs so many clusters of thought, ideas, revelations and connections on every page, the reader will need to repeatedly dip in to glean all the thoughts. It challenges readers to truly ponder and to question the basic precepts and practices upon which marketing is based.

The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge

Average customer rating:

"The American Indian Mind in a linear World"

The American Indian Mind in a Linear World: American Indian Studies and Traditional Knowledge
Fixico
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Modern | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside History Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Power and Place: Indian Education in America
Natives and Academics: Researching and Writing about American Indians
Genocide of the Mind: New Native American Writing (Nation Books)
Indigenizing the Academy: Transforming Scholarship and Empowering Communities (Contemporary Indigenous Issues)
Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples

ASIN: 0415944570

Book Description

Currently, there are three approaches to studying American Indians: from how white Americans approach Indian studies, from the dynamics or exchange of Indian-white relations and from the Indian point of view. Donald Fixico, an American Indian, has been teaching and writing history for a quarter of a century. This book is the direct result of his experience as a scholar who 'thinks like an Indian' in an academic environment created predominantly by non-Indian thinkers. This book addresses current approaches to studying Native American traditional knowledge and acknowledges an Indian intellectualism that has up until now been ignored in studying Native American history. Written primarily from inside the Native world, but fully cognizant of the American cultures outside of that world, his unique voice speaks to a need for understanding the interior Native world: a world in which linear thinking is atypical and circularity is preferable.

Customer Reviews:

"The American Indian Mind in a linear World".......2007-02-07

The importance of this book may well be over looked by those who need the information most. Historians, Anthropoligists, and myriad teachers. Finally someone has set to print the causes of many misunderstandings twixt the European mindset and the thought patterns of the Original People (OP). Fixico has accomplished a task long time coming. The neuances that the OP take as givens are all but lost on those bound by linear thinking. The world view of The OP when compared with White European Males (WEMs) is such that one is compareing a handful of dirt (WEMs) while the other (OP) is thinking of the Universe.
WEMs have no problem destroying the earth not realizing, as the OP do, that the earth is not all forgiving. WEMs can not wrap their munds around spatial thinking and the OP choose not to do otherwise. The all inclusive universe is considered on all levels by the OP. WEMs do not approach many levels. I'm not quite sure if this can be changed as it takes a great deal of faith in something other than a dollar.
I watch in amazement and wonderment at times as people try to understand what I'm saying. Too me everything is connected with everything else.
Thanx Fixico and may he always Walk in Beauty. You too

Human Communication: Motivation, Knowledge, Skills

Average customer rating:

Human Communication: Motivation, Knowledge, Skills
Sherwyn P. Morreale , Brian H. Spitzberg , and J. Kevin Barge
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Communications | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Speech | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Negotiating Difference: Cultural Case Studies for Composition
MASS MEDIA IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: STRUCTURES, FUNCTIONS, ISSUES AND ETHICS: Structures, Functions, Issues And Ethics
The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium (with AceAstronomy, Virtual Astronomy Labs Printed Access Card)
World Religions
Public Speaking: Strategies for Success (5th Edition) (MySpeechLab Series)

Accessories:

Election 2004: Speeches from the Campaign CD-ROM
The Art and Strategy of Service-Learning Presentations
The Teaching Assistant's Guide to the Basic Course

ASIN: 0534570240

Book Description

HUMAN COMMUNICATION: MOTIVATION, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS, Second Edition, features the collaborative work of recognized experts in the fields of communication and offers a unified approach to the basic processes of human communication backed by skill assessment. Beginning with the premise that all forms of communication have the potential to be viewed as competent depending on the context or situation, the text helps readers develop a framework for choosing among communication messages that will allow them to act competently. The theoretically based and skills-oriented framework emphasizes the basic themes of motivation, knowledge and skills across interpersonal communication, electronically mediated communication, small group communication, public speaking, and-new to the Second Edition-mass communication to help students become competent communicators in their own lives.

The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World

Average customer rating:

Fast delivery - no problems

The Self We Live By: Narrative Identity in a Postmodern World
James A. Holstein , and Jaber F. Gubrium
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Consciousness & Thought | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Epistemology | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Metaphysics | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Personality | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Health Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Identity and Story: Creating Self in Narrative (Narrative Study of Lives)
Damaged Identities, Narrative Repair
How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves
The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self
Institutional Selves: Troubled Identities in a Postmodern World

ASIN: 0195119290

Book Description

The self is a big story. In the early part of the century, pragmatists like William James, Charles Horton Cooley, and George Herbert Mead turned away from the transcendental self of philosophical reflection to formulate the new concept of an empirical selfthe notion that who and what we are is established in everyday interaction. The self was now a social structure, as Mead put it, even if it was located within the individual. The story has changed dramatically since then. Today, according to some postmodern critics, the self has been cast adrift on a sea of disparate images. Its just one swirling representation among others, bandied about the frenzy of a media-driven society. At the turn of the 21st century, the self has lost its traditional groundings and fizzled empirically. The self's very existence is seriously being questioned. The Self We Live By resurrects the big story by taking issue with this account. Holstein and Gubrium have crafted a comprehensive discussion that traces a different course of development, from the early pragmatists to contemporary constructionist considerations, rescuing the self from the scrap-heap of postmodern imagery. Glimpses of renewal are located in a new kind of ending, centered in an institutional landscape of diverse narratives, articulated in relation to an expanding horizon of identities. Not only is there a new story of the self, but were told that the self, itself, is narratively constructed. Yet as varied and plentiful as narrative identity has become, its disciplined by its social practices, which the authors discuss and illustrate in terms of the everyday technology of self construction. The empirical self, it turns out, has become more complex and varied than its formulators could have imagined.

Customer Reviews:

Fast delivery - no problems.......2007-03-09

Item arrived in just a few days, although I chose cheapest shipping method. Nice.

Collective Wisdom: Transforming Support with Knowledge

Average customer rating:

A true collection of wisdom on Collective Wisdom!

Collective Wisdom: Transforming Support with Knowledge
Francoise Tourniaire; David Kay
Manufacturer: HDI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Complete Guide to Customer Support: How to Turn Technical Assistance into a Profitable Relationship
The Art of Software Support
The Ultimate Customer Support Executive: Unleash The Power Of Your Customer
The Help Desk Audit: Blueprint for Success
Customer Surveying: A Guidebook for Service Managers

ASIN: 1571259996

Product Description

Collective Wisdom is the first book on knowledge management for the support industry. Collective Wisdom: Transforming Support Through Knowledge provides IT service and support professionals with a comprehensive overview to the role of knowledge management in the support environment. The book addresses: · How to create and maintain knowledge · How to deliver knowledge inside the support center and through self-service · How to organize and staff for knowledge management · How to understand, select and implement technology · How to measure knowledge management · What the future holds for knowledge management and support · How to make self-service work.

Customer Reviews:

A true collection of wisdom on Collective Wisdom!.......2006-09-29

This book provides the first summary of support knowledge management principles and practices. Support industry KM is finally coming of age and this book shares its hard-learned lessons about how best to leverage content in the call center, for self-service and to drive overall customer satisfaction. The major trends and practices are covered, as well as specific examples of metrics, performance management, knowledge development strategy and technology selection.

Chock full of good advice, entertaining, relevant anecdotes and clear definitions and practice descriptions, it is a handbook in the best sense of that word. The authors speak from many years of experience and pull it together in a style that's succinct and meaningful, not overly theoretical. It's heavy on the how-to's and light on the theory. An excellent resource for people looking to understand the terrian of knowledge management in the services & support context, and to probe best practices developed over the past 20 years. People who want a deeper view into knowledge creation and sharing may want to read more academic or research-oriented texts. This is a 'how to' for people creating how-to's, and as such succeeds brilliantly. Highly recommended!

Shared Cognition in Organizations: The Management of Knowledge (Lea's Organization and Management Series)

Average customer rating:

Shared Cognition in Organizations: The Management of Knowledge (Lea's Organization and Management Series)

Manufacturer: Lawrence Erlbaum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

MIS | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Social Psychology & Interactions | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Cognitive | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0805828907

Book Description

Written for those interested in the topic of "shared knowledge" in organizations, this edited volume brings together a variety of themes and perspectives that emerge when multidisciplinary scholars examine this important subject. The papers were presented at a conference designed to bring together behavioral scientists who were interested in the creation, conversation, distribution, and protection of knowledge in organizations.

The editors bring together a distinguished group of social psychologists who have made important contributions to social cognition and group processes. They cast a wide net in terms of the topics covered and challenged the authors to think about how their research applies to the management or mismanagement of knowledge in organizations. The volume is divided into three sections: knowledge systems, emotional-motivational systems, and communication and behavioral systems. A final conclusion chapter discusses and integrates the various contributions.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books