Words constrain our perceptions and experiences. Our language
builds our thoughts and is a powerful tool to describe the world.
The words used in language represent an ambivalent tool that we
can use to express our own perceptions, emotions and thoughts,
and at the same time, they determine our experiences and social
imaginary (cf. Castoriadis, 1975), using a previously established
corpus of meanings and order. We can, however, do things and
transform the world using language as a tool. Defining a social
problem in a certain way leads to a specific possible solution, which
is dependent on the way the problem is defined. Furthermore,
we have to acknowledge that the perspective of those that pose
the problem (such as individuals, groups, communities and so on) is affected by their view of the social system within which
they perceive the problem (Foerster, 2003).peer-reviewe
