From the victims and villains of television talk shows, to battered women in support groups, to the violent selves of prison inmates, this book illustrates how selves are organizationally informed and structured in institutional practice. The institutional construction of selves is an especially interesting issue as social problems, their causes, and their victims are endlessly reinterpreted by the various organizations devoted to helping resolve associated troubles. It provides common vocabulary that offers students a consistent language for discussing the construction of troubled identities. The style of the book is accessible and appropriate to a wide range of undergraduate students in sociology. It can be used to lay the foundation for discussion of how the self is constructed in today's world by linking the social psychology of the self to the organizational processing of deviance and social problems.
Troubled identity is the concern of the human services as well as the social sciences.
Combines traditional interests with postmodern concerns. Arguments are illustrated with empirical materials in each chapter. The style is accessible and appropriate to a wider range of readers. Uses a common conceptual vocabulary across the various chapters, giving readers a consistent language for discussing the construction of institutional selves. Can be used to lay the foundation for discussions of how the self is institutionally or organizationally constructed.