Recent Approaches

Abstract

Having presented in the previous chapters the relevance to this investigation of the work of Simmel, Goffman and American Pragmatists, I shall now examine recent sociological and psychological approaches, as well as exploring the influence pragmatism and traditional social theory have had on recent social theory and research on internal and external conversation. In this chapter, I will first present the contribution of developmental psychology and intrapersonal communication in relation to the understanding of internal and external conversation. I will then discuss the theories of Bourdieu and Giddens as a continuation of Meadian theory, and the work of Wiley, Colapietro and Archer as a continuation of the Peircian school of thought and of James’s views.