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Social construction

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	Topics Social construction Topic Home A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular cultureCulture The word *culture, from the Latin colo, -ere, with its root meaning "to cultivate", generally refers to patterns of ... or societySociety Summary A society* is a grouping of individuals, which is characterised by common interest and may have distinctive culture and inst... , existing because people agree to behave as if it exists or follow certain conventionalConvention (norm) A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted social norms, norms, standards or criteria, often taking t... rules. One example of a social construct is social statusSocial status Overview Social status is the "standing", the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society.... . Social constructionismSocial constructionism Social constructionism is a sociological theory of knowledge developed by Peter L.... is a school of thought which deals with detecting and analyzing social constructions. Definition Emile DurkheimÉmile Durkheim mile Durkheim was a french sociologist, considered by many to be the father of modern sociology, contributing to its accept... first theorized about social construction in his anthropological work on collective behaviorCollective behavior Collective behavior is a specialized term in sociology.... , but did not coin the term. The first book with "social construction" in its title was Peter L. BergerPeter L. Berger Peter Ludwig Berger is an American sociologist and theologian well known for his work The Social Construction of Reality: ... and Thomas LuckmannThomas Luckmann Thomas Luckmann was Professor for Sociology at the University of Constance in Germany.... 's The Social Construction of RealityThe Social Construction of Reality The book The Social Construction of Reality was a classic text in the sociology of knowledge written by Peter Berger and Tho... , first published in 1966. Since then, the term found its way into the mainstream of the social sciencesSocial sciences The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world.... . The central idea of Berger and Luckmann's Social Construction of Reality was that actors interacting together form, over time, typifications or mental representations of each other's actions, and that these typifications eventually become habitualized into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other. When these reciprocal roles become routinized, the typified reciprocal interactions are said to be institutionalized. In the process of this institutionalization, meaning is embedded and institutionalized into individuals and society - knowledge and people's conception of (and therefore belief regarding) what reality 'is' becomes embedded into the institutional fabric and structure of society, and social reality is therefore said to be socially constructed. For further discussion of key concepts related to social construction, see social constructionismSocial constructionism Social constructionism is a sociological theory of knowledge developed by Peter L.... and deconstructionDeconstruction The term *deconstruction* was coined by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1960s and is used in contemporary humani... . Social constructs and language PinkerSteven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker is a prominent American experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and popular science writer kno... (2002, p. 202) writes that "some categories really are social constructions: they exist only because people tacitly agree to act as if they exist". He goes on to say, however: "But, that does not mean that all conceptual categories are socially constructed" (italics his). Both Hacking and Pinker agree that the sorts of objectObject (philosophy) In philosophy, an object is a thing, an entity, or a being.... s indicated here can be described as part of what John SearleJohn Searle John Rogers Searle is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, and is noted for contri... calls "social reality". In particular, they are, in Searle's terms, ontologically subjective but epistemologically objective. Informally, they require human practices to sustain their existence, but they have an effect that is (basically) universally agreed upon. The disagreement lies in whether this category should be called "socially constructed". Hacking (1997) argues that it should not. See also PostmodernismPostmodernism Postmodernism is an idea that has been extremely controversial and difficult to define among scholars, intellectuals, and hi... Post-structuralismPost-structuralism Post-structuralism is a loose, historical term used to describe intellectual developments in Continental Philosophy and Crit... RealityReality Reality in everyday usage means "everything that exists".... Social constructionismSocial constructionism Social constructionism is a sociological theory of knowledge developed by Peter L.... SocializationSocialization Socialization is the process by which human beings or animals learn to adopt the behavior patterns of the community in which... SociologySociology Sociology is the study of society and human social action.... Structure and agencyStructure and agency The debate surrounding the influence of structure and agency on human thought and behaviour is one of the central issues in ... External links