Nancy J. Hirschmann on the Social Construction of Women's Freedom

Hypatia ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 182-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marilyn Friedman
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Previous Discussion ◽  
The Social ◽  
Conceptual Problems

Nancy J. Hirschmann presents a feminist, social constructionist account of women's freedom. Friedman's discussion of Hirschmanns account deals with (1) some conceptual problems facing a thoroughgoing social constructionism; (2) three ways to modify social constructionism to avoid those problems; and (3) an assessment of Hirschmann's version of social constructionism in light of the previous discussion.

The Social Construction of Human Kinds

Hypatia ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 716-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ásta Kristjana Sveinsdóttir
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
General Framework ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Metaphysical Claim ◽  
Human Kinds ◽  
Response Dependence ◽  
Human Kind

Social construction theorists face a certain challenge to the effect that they confuse the epistemic and the metaphysical: surely our conceptions of something are influenced by social practices, but that doesn't show that the nature of the thing in question is so influenced. In this paper I take up this challenge and offer a general framework to support the claim that a human kind is socially constructed, when this is understood as a metaphysical claim and as a part of a social constructionist debunking project. I give reasons for thinking that a conferralist framework is better equipped to capture the social constructionist intuition than rival accounts of social properties, such as a constitution account and a response‐dependence account, and that this framework helps to diagnose what is at stake in the debate between the social constructionists and their opponents. The conferralist framework offered here should be welcomed by social constructionists looking for firm foundations for their claims, and for anyone else interested in the debate over the social construction of human kinds.

Social Constructionism and Relativism: An Aporia?

Dialogue ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 303-321
Author(s):  
ABIGAIL KLASSEN
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructionist

I analyze the extent to which the theoretical cogency and practical efficacy of descriptive and ameliorative social constructionist programs are affected by relativism in the context of competing analyses of some purported social construction X. My task in this paper is successful if it can explain, organize, and clarify how relativism concerning the question ‘What should our concept of X be?’ affects social constructionist programs, and ameliorative versions of social constructionism especially. In this paper, I aim to make clearer to those not well-versed in this field what is at stake in these programs and why these programs should not be easily dismissed.

scholarly journals LEGAL DISCOURSE IN THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONIST PARADIGM (construction of interethnic relations)

2016 ◽  
pp. 117-123
Author(s):  
T. V. Dubrovskaya
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Discursive Practice ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Object Of Study

The paper presents some results of the research that is aimed at revealing the mechanisms of discursive construction of international and interethnic relations in different types of discourse. The object of study in this fragment is the legal discourse, which is viewed within the paradigm of social constructionism. The author consolidates studies of law as discursive practice and outlines an appropriate methodological perspective, which presupposes the interpretation of legal discourse in social and axiological context, participation of society in legal-discursive practices, and the essential role of legal discourse in power relations. To perform the analysis of the ‘Strategy of State national policy of the Russian Federation’, the author applies the categories of social actor, implicature, specifying and vagueness, which are typically exploited in Critical Discourse Analysis. The results demonstrate that the document in question categorises the participants in interethnic relations and constructs a few pairs of interacting parties. The state is represented as a key actor in interethnic relations. The document also operates the discursively opposite mechanisms of specifying and vagueness to problematise certain aspects of the relations. Axiologically laden abstract categories and implicature also construct interethnic relations.

scholarly journals The Social Construction of “Religion” and Its Limits: A Critical Reading of Timothy Fitzgerald

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Schilbrack
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Critical Reading ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Conditions

Abstract Several theorists argue that the concept of “religion” is not a cultural universal but rather emerged under particular historical and political conditions in the modern post-Reformation west. “Religion,” they say, is a social construction. What are the implications of this view of the ontology of religion? My aim in this paper is to critically engage the arguments of Timothy Fitzgerald—a social constructionist about religion who combines, in my judgment, insight and confusion on the issue—in order to trace out the values and the limits of this approach.

scholarly journals Employment, environmental pollution and working class life in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina

2013 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanesa Castán Broto
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Political Ecology ◽  
Bosnia And Herzegovina ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Local Economy ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
The Social

People's experiences of a polluted space are intimately linked with their relative concerns for quality of life and livelihoods. Thus quality of environment and security of employment are two closely related issues in social conflicts over environmental pollution. Rather than being implicated in a trade-off relationship, environmental quality and job provision are both part of the life of community residents. Bringing together the literature on the political ecology of environmental conflicts and the social constructionist literature on public perceptions of environmental risks, this article argues that the working class and disadvantaged sections of society are often confronted with alliances between the industry, institutions and other stakeholders which may serve to legitimate a particular configuration of things in which the appropriation of some resources by the industry is regarded as legitimate. However, these arrangements are unstable: they are subject to constant renegotiation between the social groups implicated. Thus, how the emergence of concerns about the local environment relates to preoccupations about the state of the local economy is related to a process whereby these relationships are constructed and re-negotiated. These questions are analyzed using a case study of environmental pollution from coal-energy production in the city of Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The case shows that both concerns for the environment and unemployment are articulated simultaneously in the context of industrial pollution, together with the redefinition of the socio-economic landscapes of post-industrial Tuzla.Keywords: Environmental pollution, employment, working-class life, social constructionism, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The social construction of social constructionism

Inquiry ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Slezak
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
The Social

Expanding the Vision of the Social Constructionist Debates: Creating Relevance for Practitioners

1995 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 395-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Franklin
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Science Methods ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Social Science Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practice Models ◽  
Social Work Practitioners

The term social constructionism has been associated with the research debates among academic social workers. Recently Atherton offered an analysis of the research debates in an attempt to communicate the significance of these debates to social work practitioners. He argued that these debates are tearing the profession apart. A major limitation of Atherton's analysis is that it failed to provide relevance for practitioners by making connections between underlying themes of the debates and important parallel developments within clinical practice fields. The author offers a different interpretation of the research debates, viewing them as a metadebate about science and social science methods. Drawing distinctions between social constructionism and constructivism expands Atherton's discussion, defining their relationship to both research and practice. Examples from practice models are used to illustrate how constructionism and constructivism are significant concepts and are being used across disciplines as metatheories for practice.

Bears, Zoos, and Wilderness: The Poverty of Social Constructionism

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Dombrowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Active Imagination ◽  
Short Article ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Construction Of Nature ◽  
In The Wild

AbstractIt is the purpose of this short article to defend the realism of Holmes Rolston and other environmental philosophers against the social constructionism of Neil Evernden and others who have written on the social construction of nature. This defense is attempted through appeal to a deceptively simple example: seeing a bear in a zoo.The following four claims are defended in the effort to show the deficiencies of the anthropocentrism of social constructionists like Evernden: (1) there is a difference between a bear in a zoo and one in the wild; (2) this difference legitimates the belief that the former is an attenuated version of the latter; (3) the danger posed by a bear in the wild is not due to an overly active imagination; and (4) experience of sublime beauty (in contrast to mere cuteness) in the presence of a wild bear is only partly of one's own doing.

scholarly journals CRITICAL-DISCURSIVE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM: WHAT IS THE STANDPOINT OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM RESEARCH?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janicce Martínez Richard
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Formal Theory ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
The Social ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Methodological Principles ◽  
Scientific Truth ◽  
Epistemological Relativism

An overview of critical-discursive Social Constructionism is presented, showing its historical development and its critique of any methodological approaches that do not take into consideration the social-historical reality. In particular, it criticises the dualistic ‘external object - cognitive subject’ position of the Positivist current that has its roots in the Enlightenment and later in Modernity, which leads to a conception of reason and scientific truth as supposedly incontrovertible realities outside of any historical and social construction. Finally, social constructionism is presented not as a formal theory grounded of strict methodological principles, but rather as an approach that attempts to show the limitations of certain scientific or methodological views, emphasising the importance of social construction through language and the relative relevance of different positions, from which a certain vindication of epistemological relativism emerges.

In defiance of an ageing culture

1999 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
MIKE HEPWORTH
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
Middle Years ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Uk

Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Declining to Decline: Cultural Combat and the Politics of the Midlife. Charlottesville and London: University Press of Virginia 1997, 276pp, $29.95 cloth ISBN 0-8139-1721-2.Margaret Morganroth Gullette is one of America's foremost critics of the concept of ageing as a universal and comprehensive process of decline which begins in the middle years. She is a formidable critic of biological essentialism, defender of social constructionism, and opponent of ‘middle ageism’. Her most recent book, published in 1997 and not yet available in the UK, has been widely acclaimed in the USA. This review article describes Gullette's analysis of the social construction of decline in the context of her previous writings on midlife and outlines her strategy for combatting the decline model of ageing into old age.

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