Social Constructionism

Origins

Although one may trace the roots of social constructionism to early philosophers, such as Giambattista Vico, scholars often view The Social Construction of Reality by Peter Berger and Thomas Lukmann in 1966 as the landmark volume. Yet, because of its theoretical origins in social phenomenology, this work has largely been eclipsed by more recent scholarly developments, particularly 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 to the Frankfurt School, as well as to other Marxist enclaves, but today is more fully embodied in movements associated with feminist, multicultural, anticolonial, gay [Page 817]and lesbian, and antipsychiatry groups. The second significant movement, the literary-rhetorical, 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 one takes 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.

Basic Tenets

The aim in this entry is not to review the emergence of these three movements. Rather, what follows is a brief outline of several of the most widely shared agreements to emerge from these various movements. To be sure, there is active disagreement among participants in these various traditions. However, there are at least three major lines of argument that tend to link these traditions and to form the basis of contemporary social constructionism. This discussion will prepare the way for a brief account of the relationship between social construction and movements in qualitative methods.