Pursuit of Meaning

The fields of cross-cultural and cultural psychology both acknowledge the role of `culture' for the constitution of a meaningful practice. There are notable differences as well as remarkable commonalities between nomologically oriented cross-cultural psychology on the one hand and interpretive cultural psychology on the other. Contributions to this book discuss recent theoretical and methodological approaches from both fields in order to explore their joint potential for an advancement of the concept of culture, for the theoretical conceptualization and methodical completion of comparative cultural studies and the scientific understanding of cultural difference. This volume includes contributions by Ernest E. Boesch, Kenneth J. Gergen, Rom Harré, Gustav Jahoda and Jaan Valsiner.

Jürgen Straub (Dr. phil.) is professor of social theory and social psychology at the faculty of social sciences, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. Doris Weidemann (Dr.) is a cultural psychologist and professor at the University of Applied Sciences of Zwickau, Germany. Her research interests include Chinese indigenous psychology and the challenges of intercultural cooperation in the social sciences. Carlos Kölbl (Dr. phil.) is teaching at the Institute of Psychology and Sociology, Department of Education, at the University of Hannover, Germany. Barbara Zielke (Dr. phil.) is teaching psychology at the Chemnitz University of Technology, Germany, at the Hamburger Fern-Hochschule (Germany) and at the Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt (Austria).