Social Constructivist Approach to Political Identity

A social constructivist approach to political identity assumes that we create realitiesand make these realities meaningfulby way of interaction. We come to know society by interacting with culturally significant others (such as parents, teachers, and doctors), institutions (such as churches, schools, and governments), and symbolic universes (such as capitalism, patriarchy, and Christianity). The approach frames knowledge as learned, situational, and fallible, and, as such, partial, consequential, and sometimes problematic.

Social constructivists attend to the processes in which realitiesand knowledge of these realitiesare developed by, maintained by, and transmitted to cultural members. Social constructivists focus on the ways in which a group's beliefs, attitudes, and practices metaphorically crystallize into objective, authorless, seemingly natural and seemingly necessary matters of fact. By way of socialization, these matters, consequentially, also come to be [Page 743]perceived of as correct, valuable, normal, and therefore, unquestionable; they become phenomena we must understand and negotiate to be perceived as competent, legitimate cultural members.

A social constructivist approach to identity recognizes that we experience life being particular kinds of people. These kinds often take the form of categories and are kinds both personally chosen and determined by culturally significant others, institutions, and symbolic universes. Categories influence how we interpret ourselves and others, and when we do not enact the appropriate characteristics relevant to the kinds of people we claim or are perceived to be, questioning, conflict, and relational strife can result.

We come to understand ourselves by the categories of people always already present in the culture(s) in which we're immersed, and we learn, via interaction, how to and why we fit particular labels. However, we can never know, definitively and completely, what categories others may demand of us or what kinds of people others will consider us as; we can try to pass as particular kinds of persons but may not succeed or know if we succeeded. And even though we may consider some categories pivotal to our being, this does not mean that others will recognize these categories always and everywhere or that we will forever consider these categories pivotal. A social constructivist approach to identity thus recognizes that identity requires constant care and negotiation, and understands that the kinds of people we claim or are perceived to be can change with context and relationship.

The kinds of people we claim or are perceived to be can influence interpretations of what we say and do, perceptions of our character, and how we are evaluated; who speaks affects what is said and who listens influences who speaks, what is spoken about, and how a speaker and her or his discourse is perceived. These sense-making processes around identitythe interpretations, perceptions, and evaluations that correspond to claiming or being perceived as a particular kind of personare what make identity political.