Toshio Sugiman

Faculty of Human Sciences,
Kyushu Sangyo University
2-3-1 Matsukadai,
Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 813-8503 Japan

Email: ttttsugiman@yahoo.co.jp
Phone: +81-92-673-5050
Web: http://www.kyusan-u.ac.jp/

My research area is group dynamics.  It is however quite different from traditional group dynamics which was created by Kurt Lewin amidst the second world war and has been unfortunately declined by a large number of rigorous but infertile empirical studies by his successors, typically small group research in laboratory settings.  Lewin’s holistic perspective reflected in his theory of social field and his focus on a real world reflected in his action-research have been totally forgotten.

In new group dynamics I proposed, collaborative practice by both researchers and people working in various real fields are emphasized while maintaining social constructionism as its meta-theory.  Fields of such a practice are diverse; industrial organization, urban and rural community, healthcare, education, family, environmental conservation, international and domestic conflict and so on.

My publications in English include ‘Meaning in action: Constructions, narratives, and representations’ (edited with Kenneth Gergen, Springer, 2008), ‘Theory in the context of collaborative inquiry’ (Theory & Psychology, vol. 16, no. 3, 2006 ), ‘Development of a new evacuation method for emergencies: Control of collective behavior by emergent small groups’ (Journal of Applied Psychology, vol. 73, no. 1, 1988) etc.

I was a president of the Japanese Group Dynamics Association in 1994-98 and a member of the editorial committee of Applied Psychology: An International Review, and am a member of the editorial committee of Culture & Psychology since 2006 and a fellow of the International Association of Applied Psychology since 2006.  Beside many friends in the US and Europe, I have strong connections with Asian and African institutes such as Chinese Academy of Social Science, Khartoum University, Sanata Dharma University in Indonesia, etc.