Much recent work in social psychology has questioned the assumptions and practices of traditional research and debate. Accessible and often passionately argued, this book pulls these new trends together in a major overview of the main theoretical, political and empirical developments. Assembling a group of leading figures in the field, the book addresses the need for a critical perspective in social psychology and examines the many levels of discussion that have informed that critique. The contributors encompass such key topics as: political analysis in a postmodern world; the status of qualitative methods; realism versus relativism; and the question of subjectivity from a critical perspective.