To date, there has been no comprehensive and coherent approach to determining the communicative and precommunicative processes involved in the construction of group identities. The present study fills this gap by developing a unified theoretical foundation that can be used to capture empirical construction processes. Moreover, it contributes to the domain of group communication research. It creates a basic theoretical riverbed that provides a conceptual foundation for the conception of inter- and intra-group communication, which does not take its starting point from 'objective' categories, but from de facto socialization processes. In addition, the architecture of an innovative social theory is presented using the example of the construction of group identity, which satisfies the demands of epistemological interests in communication studies and possibly also in other disciplines.

Fundamental work of group communication research Innovative social theory with a paradigm shift Determines the (pre-)communicative processes of the construction of group identities

Autorentext

PD Dr. Robin Kurilla is a DAAD funded associate professor at the Faculty of Cultural and Social Sciences of the Turkish-German University in Istanbul and affiliated to the Institute of Communication Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Inhalt
Communication and observation.- Group and identity.- Environments of identity construction.- Construction processes.