Discourse and representation in the construction of witchcraft

Abstract

Little is known from social psychological research about the dynamics and workings of real everyday discourse. This situation is comprehensible given the fact that real-world discursive processes cannot easily be observed in their entirety without introducing serious modifications of these processes through the mere presence of the observer or recording device. Besides a few more artificial than natural discursive events including laboratory observations that have been analyzed in discourse oriented research, there is little reliable material about socially relevant phenomena available for such analysis. This fact is very unfortunate for all walks of social and societal psychology that are dedicated to investigating real-world social life. © 2008 Springer.