Social Constructionism

Conceptual Overview

Although one may trace certain roots of social constructionism to Vico, Nietzsche, and Dewey, scholars often view Berger and Luckmann's The Social Construction of Reality as the landmark volume. Yet, because of its lodgment in social phenomenology, this work has largely been eclipsed by more-recent scholarly developments. One may locate the primary stimulants to the more recent development of social constructionist thought in at least three, quite independent movements. In effect, the convergence of these movements provides the basis for social constructionist inquiry today.

The first movement may be viewed as critical and refers to the mounting ideological critique of all authoritative accounts of the world, including those of empirical science. Such critique can be traced at least to the Frankfurt School, but today is more fully embodied in the work of Foucault, and associated movements within feminist, black, gay and lesbian, and antipsychiatry enclaves. The second significant movement, the literary/rhetorical, originates in the fields of literary theory and rhetorical study. In both cases, inquiry demonstrates the extent to which scientific theories, explanations, and descriptions of the world are not so much dependent on the world in itself as on discursive conventions. Traditions of language use construct what we take to be the world. The third context of ferment, the social, may be traced to the collective scholarship in the history of science, the sociology of knowledge, and social studies of science. Here the major focus is on the social processes giving rise to knowledge, both scientific and otherwise.

The aim here is not to review the emergence of these three movements. Numerous and detailed accounts are already available to the reader. Rather, what follows briefly outlines a number of the most widely shared agreements to emerge from these various movements. To be sure, there is active disagreement both within and between participants in these various traditions. However, at least three major lines of argument tend to link these traditions and to form the basis of contemporary social constructionism.