The Subjectivity Of Participation

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Point of Departure

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Overture: One Day at The Crew

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 3-17

   3. Position: A Critical Psychology Accomplice

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 18-45

   4. History: A Rear-View Mirror Guide to the Idea of Collectivity

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 46-83

   5. Situating Data

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 84-101

3. A Theory of Participatory Subjectivity

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 103-103

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   2. Collectives as Situated Units of Praxis

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 105-131

   3. The Collective as Framed

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 132-164

   4. The Collective as Recognized in Ideology

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 165-192

   5. Constructing Subjectivity in Participation

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 193-230

4. Prototypical Reflections

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 231-231

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   2. Practice Research as Collective Prototyping and Critique

      • Morten Nissen

      Pages 233-261

5. Back Matter

   Pages 262-292

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What is a 'we' a collective and how can we use such communal self-knowledge to help people? This book is about collectivity, participation, and subjectivity and about the social theories that may help us understand these matters. It also seeks to learn from the innovative practices and ideas of a community of social/youth workers in Copenhagen between 1987 and 2003, who developed a pedagogy through creating collectives and mobilizing young people as participants. The theoretical and practical traditions are combined in a unique methodology viewing research as a contentious modeling of prototypical practices. Through this dialogue, it develops an original trans-disciplinary critical theory and practice of collective subjectivity for which the ongoing construction and overcoming of common sense, or ideology, is central. It also points to ways of relating discourse with agency, and fertilizing insights from interactionism and ideology theories in a cultural-historical framework.

• Critical Psychology
• participation
• psychology
• social work

"This is a very engagingly written and erudite cross-disciplinary intervention that not only connects key conceptual-political debates in psychology with the challenges and dilemmas of social work practice, but uses the latter to press for an urgent reorientation of psychological models that could enable better and more engaged forms of practice. The author has a strong and lengthy track record of work in this area, and this text represents a key synthesis and focused consideration of this corpus of work." - Erica Burman

• University of Copenhagen, Denmark

  Morten Nissen

MORTEN NISSEN (http://mnissen.psy.ku.dk) teaches community psychology in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Fredrikstad, Norway. He investigates participation, subjectivity, 'wild' social work, and addiction, with a focus on theories, standards, and practices. He edits Outlines – Critical Practice Studies (www.outlines.dk), and heads the research centre SUBSTANce-Subjects and standards.

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