Advanced Introduction to Social Constructivism

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas.

Advanced Introduction to Social Constructivism examines an influential strain of social thought holding that human powers and socio-political arrangements are ‘co-constitutive’: people make society what it is, society makes people what they are, and social construction makes the world as we know it. ‘Making’ the world shapes what we accept and craft as meaning, understanding, knowledge, truth, reality, institutions, and power. Chapters illustrate these dynamics, encouraging readers to question assumptions and imagine new possibilities.

Key Features:

• Discusses how social realities, truths, and facts are created and contested
• Explores the roles of meaning, power, and language in constructing understanding
• Sketches the rise of constructivist scholarship in a dozen fields of study
• Engages with the ethical implications of social construction and interdisciplinary perspectives
• Evaluates why certain descriptions of reality feel natural and inevitable, yet are at root socially constructed
• Draws on examples from everyday life, art, science, media, and contemporary politics

This Advanced Introduction invaluably helps students and scholars of philosophy, sociology, political science, international relations, and education keenly engage and deeply navigate contemporary discussions and perspectives on social constructivism and socio-political possibilities.

Nicholas Onuf, Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics and International Relations, Florida International University and Kurt Burch, Professor, Department of Political Science, Normandale Community College, USA