Unravelling social constructionism

Social constructionist research is an area of rapidly expanding influence that has brought together theorists from a range of different disciplines. At the same time, however, it has fuelled the development of a new set of divisions. There would appear to be an increasing uneasiness about the implications of a thoroughgoing constructionism, with some regarding it as both theoretically parasitic and politically paralysing. In this paper I review these debates and clarify some of the issues involved. My main argument is that social constructionism is not best understood as a unitary paradigm and that one very important difference is between what Edwards (1997) calls its ontological and epistemic forms. I argue that an appreciation of this distinction not only exhausts many of the disputes that currently divide the constructionist community, but also takes away from the apparent radicalism of much of this work

A Holistic Social Constructionist perspective to Enterprise Education

Purpose – Drawing on the Gestalt approach this article proposes a holistic framework for enterprise education (EE) research based on Social Constructionism, illustrating how the latter supports research into experiential learning in EE in 7 UK Higher Education (HE) pharmacy schools. Design/ Methodology/ Approach – This paper is based on a qualitative empirical study involving educators in UK Higher Education Institution (HEI) pharmacy schools in semi-structured interviews, and investigates the delivery of EE through experiential learning approaches. Social Constructionism is proposed as a suitable underlying philosophical paradigm. Findings – A Social Constructionism paradigm, which adopts relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, and Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, offers a relevant, multi-perspectival philosophical foundation for EE research, supporting transactional relationships within contexts of multiple possibilities. Research limitations/implications – Social Constructionism does not necessarily support the individualistic paradigm, as advocated by Constructivists; and the values associated with the former encourage a more collaborative and cooperative approach different from the latter. Practical implications –The paper supports the understanding that applying experiential learning through inter-disciplinary and inter-professional learning is regarded as an approach beneficial for educators, institutions and learners, within the context of EE. Originality/ value – This paper offers a holistic conceptual framework of Social Constructionism that draws on the ‘Gestalt Approach’, and highlights the harmony between the ontological, epistemological and methodological underpinnings of Social Constructionism. The paper demonstrates the relevance of the proposed framework in EE research within the context of an empirical study, which is different in that it focuses on the delivery aspect of EE by considering the views of the providers (educators), an hitherto under-researched area. Paper type – Research paper Key words: Enterprise education, research philosophy, Social Constructionism, relative realism ontology, transactional epistemology, Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Gestalt approach

Constructing futures: a social constructionist perspective on foresight methodology

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the relationship between a particular epistemological perspective and foresight methodology. We draw on a body of social theory concerned with the way that meaning is produced and assimilated by society; specifically, the social construction of knowledge, which is distinguished from its nearneighbour constructivism by its focus on inter-subjectivity. We show that social constructionism, at least in its weak form, seems to be implicit in many epistemological assumptions underlying futures studies. We identify a range of distinctive methodological features in foresight studies, such as time, descriptions of difference, participation and values, and examine these from a social constructionist perspective. It appears that social constructionism is highly resonant with the way in which knowledge of the future is produced and used. A social constructionism perspective enables a methodological reflection on how, with what legitimacy, and to what social good, knowledge is produced. Foresight that produces symbols without inter-subjective meaning neither anticipates, nor produces futures. Our conclusion is that foresight is both a social construction, and a mechanism for social construction. Methodologically, foresight projects should acknowledge the socially constructed nature of their process and outcomes as this will lead to greater rigour and legitimacy

On how to achieve reference to covert social constructions

What does it mean to say that some features, such as gender, race and sexual orientation, are socially constructed? Many scholars claim that social constructionism about a kind is a version of realism about that kind, according to which the corresponding kind is a social construction, that it, it is constituted by social factors and practices. Social constructionism, then, is a version of realism about a kind that asserts that the kind is real, and puts forward a particular view about the nature of the kind, namely, that it is constituted by social factors and practices. Social constructivists about human kinds such as gender, race and sexual orientation often make an additional claim, namely, that these kinds are social constructions but they are typically believed to be biological kinds (that is, people are typically wrong about the nature of these kinds). Ron Mallon (2017) calls social constructions that are (falsely) taken to be biological kinds covert social constructions. This paper is about how we could have terms in our natural language that come to refer to covert social constructions

Construction of Social Reality as Thought Movement (Theoretical Review on Social Construction of Reality Peter L. Berger)

The concept of constructivism/constructionism is vague but very influential to knowledge. The thoughts in line with it are social construction of reality, social constructionism, social constructionist, social constructivism, social constructivist. Simply, they\u27re called social construction or coconstruction. One model of this theory is the one introduced by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. This theory was also known as dialectic theory. Hence, this article will discuss about the main idea or thought of Peter L. Berger. The main ideas are society as objective and subjective reality. This article also presents limitedness of this theory and criticism against it

Feuilleton loves, contributions of social constructionism

O amor tem sido objeto de estudo de perspectivas críticas que buscam a reconstrução de categorias, classificações e normas generalizantes no cotidiano. Para problematizar o dispositivo amor, buscamos o diálogo com os estudos construcionistas e com as epistemologias feministas tendo a literatura de Folhetim como material de análise. Para isso, analisamos a prosa poética, centrada em personagens femininas, publicados no início do século XX. A análise considerou três eixos: (1) os espaços narrativos em que se dão as tensões entre público e privado; (2) as personagens, pelas quais indagamos acerca das características femininas e masculinas, buscando entrelaçamentos entre emancipação e as práticas sociais da época e (3) as imagens do amor que atravessavam as narrativas. Pudemos aventar a tese de que este gênero de literatura coloca em circulação modalidades de subjetivação de amores que produzem espaços e modos de existência moduladores dos usos dos espaços público e privado, e das relações de gêneros no cotidiano.O amor tem sido objeto de estudo de perspectivas críticas que buscam a reconstrução de categorias, classificações e normas generalizantes no cotidiano. Para problematizar o dispositivo amor, buscamos o diálogo com os estudos construcionistas e com as epistemologias feministas tendo a literatura de Folhetim como material de análise. Para isso, analisamos a prosa poética, centrada em personagens femininas, publicados no início do século XX. A análise considerou três eixos: (1) os espaços narrativos em que se dão as tensões entre público e privado; (2) as personagens, pelas quais indagamos acerca das características femininas e masculinas, buscando entrelaçamentos entre emancipação e as práticas sociais da época e (3) as imagens do amor que atravessavam as narrativas. Pudemos aventar a tese de que este gênero de literatura coloca em circulação modalidades de subjetivação de amores que produzem espaços e modos de existência moduladores dos usos dos espaços público e privado, e das relações de gêneros no cotidiano.O amor tem sido objeto de estudo de perspectivas críticas que buscam a reconstrução de categorias, classificações e normas generalizantes no cotidiano. Para problematizar o dispositivo amor, buscamos o diálogo com os estudos construcionistas e com as epistemologias feministas tendo a literatura de Folhetim como material de análise. Para isso, analisamos a prosa poética, centrada em personagens femininas, publicados no início do século XX. A análise considerou três eixos: (1) os espaços narrativos em que se dão as tensões entre público e privado; (2) as personagens, pelas quais indagamos acerca das características femininas e masculinas, buscando entrelaçamentos entre emancipação e as práticas sociais da época e (3) as imagens do amor que atravessavam as narrativas. Pudemos aventar a tese de que este gênero de literatura coloca em circulação modalidades de subjetivação de amores que produzem espaços e modos de existência moduladores dos usos dos espaços público e privado, e das relações de gêneros no cotidiano.Love has been the subject of study of critical perspectives that seek the reconstruction of categories, ratings and generalizing standards in daily life. To problematize the love device, we seek dialogue with constructionist studies and feminist epistemologies having Folhetim literature as an analysis material. For this, we analyzed poetical short stories, focusing on female characters, published in the early twentieth century. The analysis considered three areas: (1) the narrative spaces that give the tensions between public and private; (2) the characters for which we inquire about the feminine and masculine characteristics, we seek entanglements between emancipation and social practices of the time and (3) images of love that cro-34ssed the different tales. We entertained the idea that this genre of literature puts into circulation modes of subjectivity loves producing areas and modulating modes of existence of the uses of public and private spaces, and gender relations in daily life

Social Constructionism: A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Session 4: Meta Perspectives in Practice. Presenter: J. Christopher Hall, PhD, University of Louisville (2005) - "Social Constructivism : A Unifying Metaperspective for Social Work"The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Relationship Quality in the Context of Computer-Mediated Communication - A social constructionist approach

This paper contributes to possible answers to the question: What are the effects of computermediated communication on relationship qualities in organizations? To answer this question without oversimplifying the phenomena an adequate research methodology has to be found. First, the interrelationship between computer-mediated communication (CMC) and relationship quality is reviewed. CMC-theory will be described from three main perspectives and the risks and chances for relationship quality will be shown. The review indicates that most studies in the field are founded on a positivistic basis. Relationships are treated as static dyads neglecting contextual factors. Thus, the insight into relational processes in computerized environments remains limited. As an alternative a research methodology based on the epistemological stance of social constructionism is proposed. It will be explained, how the researchers’ view can be broadened by applying the method of the ‘narrative interview’ in practice based studies in computer-mediated contexts. In the concluding part, the contribution of this approach to research and practice will be discussed.Computer-mediated communication, relationship quality, social constructionism

Genres, user attitudes and prospects for learning through video on the WWW

Building upon the notion that TV and video programmes will soon be accessible via the World Wide Web, there is the question of if and how it can bring added value for education. How will these two genres (working on the Internet vs. relaxing on the sofa) go together? From a post-modern point of view, the mass media (such as TV) contribute to the supposed mechanism of 'social constructionism'. However, the programme makers have a major control over the underlying message that is articulated, whereas constructionism for learning is a more conscious process by which students 'build' new knowledge through experimentation and conceptualizatio

The role of philosophical context in the development of theory: Towards methodological pluralism

The research strategy dictates the major direction of the research and constitutes one of the important decisions made by the researcher. However, researchers’ understanding on theory at the outset of the research guides the design of the research. The paper presents an overview of the involvement of theory within different research philosophies, approaches and methods. The relationship between data and theory is an issue that has been long debated. Moving from data to theory is commonly discussed in social constructionism with inductive approach and ideographic methods. However, within positivism philosophy with deductive approach and nomothetic methods, moving from theory to data is common. However, the growing concept of philosophical pluralism and methodological pluralism challenges the polarised views on philosophies and approaches, which suggests that methodologies are best used in complementary way