Bücher der Reihe Cultural Dynamics of Social Representation

This edited volume aims to renew the theory of creativity from the perspective of socio-cultural psychology. It brings together eminent social and cultural psychologists who study dynamic, transformative and emergent phenomena and invites them to conceptualise creativity in ways that depart from mainstream definitions and theoretical models existing in past and present literature on the topic.

Addresses the question of how culture and mind are related through symbols. This book explores how our experience is transformed through symbols: why we are moved by a movie or political speech, how bread and wine can taste like Christ's body and blood, and why our memories are forever changing. It focuses on the symbols in the human life-course.

This comprehensive text presents key theoretical issues and extensive empirical research using different theoretical and methodological approaches to consider the value of social representation theory when social representations are examined not only in isolation, but also in context.

Gerard Duveen's original and comprehensive approach continues to offer fresh insight into core theoretical, methodological and empirical problems in contemporary psychology. In this collection the editors have carefully selected Duveen¿s most significant papers to demonstrate the innovative nature of his contribution to developmental, social and cultural psychology.

This book positions imagination as a central concept which increases the understanding of daily life, personal life choices, and the way in which culture and society changes. Case studies from micro instances of reverie and daydreaming, to utopian projects, are included and analysed. The theoretical focus is on imagination as a force free from immediate constraints, forming the basis of our individual and collective agency. In each chapter, the authors review and integrate a wide range of classic and contemporary literature culminating in the proposal of a sociocultural model of imagination. The book takes into account the triggers of imagination, the content of imagination, and the outcomes of imagination. At the heart of the model is the interplay between the individual and culture; an exploration of how the imagination, as something very personal and subjective, grows out of our shared culture, and how our shared culture can be transformed by acts of imagination. Imagination in Human and Cultural Development offers new perspectives on the study of psychological learning, change, innovation and creativity throughout the lifespan. The book will appeal to academics and scholars in the fields of psychology and the social sciences, especially those with an interest in development, social change, cultural psychology, imagination and creativity.

"This work is an adaption and translation of a previously published work in Norwegian: "Det er innover vi mea gea" - en kulturpsykologisk studie av selvhjelp, [published in] 2014 by Universitetsforlaget."

Symbolic Transformations brings together scholars in the social sciences from around the world, to address the question of how mind and culture are related through symbols.

Imagination has long been a subject of interest and debate, this book considers imagination as a core process in our daily lives and explores how we use it in psychological development as well as in societal change. Tania Zittoun brings together findings from various fields of psychology and the social sciences, and reviews classic studies as well as recent research to propose a new integrative model of imagination in sociocultural psychology. In this book she examines the interrelations between individual lives and social processes as well as the dynamics of creation of new representations and cultural transformations by considering imagination as an important cultural dynamic.

Trust and Conflict offers a fresh perspective on the problems that arise from treating trust, distrust and conflict as simplified indicators.

Educational Dilemmas uses cultural psychology to explore the challenges, contradictions and tensions that occur during the process of education, with consideration of the effect these have at both the individual and the collective level.