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CfP: Ways of Understanding, Misunderstanding and Not Understanding People

http://compaso.eu/2012/07/13/cfp-understanding-people/

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Extended deadline for manuscript submission: 30 October 2012

Send articles, research notes and book reviews to: [log in to unmask]
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Social research relies on our claims of understanding people – which
often rely, further, on the claims advanced by our research
participants (as respondents, informants, subjects, or in other roles)
of understanding themselves and other people.

At times, we are also confronted, as researchers and in other walks of
life, with difficulties, failures, and outright impossibilities of
understanding people.

We invite papers that reflect on forms of understanding,
misunderstanding and not understanding people. Articles that have a
comparative focus, by looking at different forms, instances, settings
etc., are especially welcome.

Some of the questions that may guide discussion include (without being
limited to) the following:

-Different forms: What forms and claims of understanding, not
understanding, misunderstanding, uncertain understanding, better
understanding etc. have we encountered in our research?

-Rhetorical use: How do people report their understanding of other
people as arguments in conversations? How do claims of understanding,
misunderstanding, not understanding, uncertain understanding, partial
understanding etc. function as arguments that support one’s stance and
undermine alternative versions? What is the rhetorical force of these
various claims of understanding and lack thereof?

-Social organization: How are these forms of understanding and not
understanding socially organized? What social positions (such as
professionals, parents, friends, spouses etc) are privileged in
claiming understanding of particular other people? When and how do
alternative understandings clash, and how are these conflicts
adjudicated?
-Professional versus common reason: How is our professional
understanding of people related to the common-reason forms of
understanding and lack thereof of the people that we rely on – as
subjects, informants, respondents etc? How do we position our
understanding to be better? How do we elicit their understanding?

-Techniques and technologies: How do we operate with theories, schemes
and models, methods, techniques, instruments of understanding people?
How do other people operate with such tools? What do we (and others)
take to be more or less reliable indicators of other people’s
thoughts, personalities, motives, ways of being? How do we elicit and
/ or read CVs, photos, Facebook profiles, test results, biographies,
obituaries, interviews, and other would-be ways of understanding
people?

-Different perspectives: How do different theoretical or disciplinary
perspectives shape our understanding of people? What are the benefits
and the threats of drawing on, and combining, different disciplinary
perspectives in our research papers/studies?

Articles that engage in a comparative approach, connecting different
concepts, materials, methods, situations, pieces of research or other
social realities, are particularly welcome.

Please check the Journal’s website for guidelines on manuscript
submission: http://compaso.ro/instructions-for-authors/

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