ABSTRACT
For a number of writers, the term ‘social construction’ expresses a cohesive point of view on human experience across the lifespan. It places emphasis on the role of interpersonal negotiation in constructing the social world. For Kenneth Gergen, Rom Harré and John Shotter, in particular, face-to-face human engagement must be seen as the most significant arena for the construction of identity and subjectivity. We define ourselves and others, they suggest, in terms that emerge from the conversational activity that so characterizes humans. We tell ourselves, or perhaps story ourselves, into being.
