Social constructivism and the social construction of world economic reality

Author(s):  
Sungjoon Cho
Author(s):  
Christina Rowley ◽  
Jutta Weldes

This chapter examines the role of identity in constructing U.S. foreign policy. Using a critical social constructivist approach, it argues that particular conceptions of U.S. identity constitute U.S. interests, thus providing the foundations for foreign policy. After providing an overview of the influence of interests on foreign policy, the chapter considers the basic assumptions of critical social constructivism, taking into account the social construction of reality and the concepts of discourse and articulation. It then analyses discourses as sites of power, identity, and representation, along with the importance of identity in U.S. foreign policy. It also looks at U.S. presidents’ articulations of state identity and foreign policy over the last six decades.


Episteme ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85
Author(s):  
John Dupré

The topic of this paper is social constructivist doctrines about the nature of scientific knowledge. I don't propose to review all the many accounts that have either claimed this designation or had it ascribed to them. Rather I shall try to consider in a very general way what sense should be made of the underlying idea, and then illustrate some of the central points with two central examples from biology. The first thing to say is that, on the face of it, some doctrine of the social construction of science must self-evidently be true. The notion of science as progressing through the efforts of solitary geniuses may have had some plausibility in the seventeenth century, but it has none today. Science is a massively cooperative, social, enterprise. And surely it is constructed. Scientific knowledge doesn't grow on trees; it is produced through hard work by human agents. Putting these two banal points together we conclude that science is socially constructed.


10.14201/984 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Penalva Buitrago

RESUMEN: Este artículo ofrece un análisis filosófico de la idea de la construcción social de la escuela. Tomando como punto de partida algunas de las claves críticas que I. Hacking señala respecto del constructivismo, el autor ensaya una nueva ruta de análisis, no explorada por Hacking: el análisis del constructivismo social en los procesos educativos y en las instituciones educativas. Con ello se intenta poner de relieve cuestiones teóricas de fondo –principalmente de carácter ontológico– acerca de las cuales la comunidad pedagógica ha prestado escasa atención. El análisis se desarrolla en cuatro pasos: en primer lugar, se ofrecen las ideas de Hacking más relevantes al respecto; después, se expone una síntesis de la posición dominante acerca de la construcción social de la escuela. Seguidamente, se analizan los aspectos ontológicos implicados en tal idea, y, por último, se extraen las consecuencias educativas.ABSTRACT: This paper offers a philosophical analysis of the idea of the social construction of School. Taking as a standpoint some critical questions which I. Hacking proposed regarding constructivism, the author examines a new route, not explored by Hacking, i.e., the analysis of social constructivism in educational processes and educational institutions. In this way we expect to throw light on certain deep theoretical questions –of an ontological nature, mainly– to which the educational community has paid little attention. The analysis follows four steps: first, it describes Hacking’s most important ideas in this regard; second, it synthesises the dominant stance concerning the social construction of School. Third, it examines the ontological assumptions of this idea, and, finally, describes some educational consequences.SOMMAIRE: Cet article offre une analyse philosophique de la structure sociale des écoles. L’auteur, à partir de quelques idées critiques signalées par I. Hacking à propos du constructivisme, envisage une nouvelle approche pas explorée par Hacking: celle de l’analyse du constructivisme social dans les processus et les institutions éducatives. Cette approche a pour but de signaler quelques questions théoriques fondamentales –de nature ontologique principalement– très peu analysées par la communauté pédagogique. L’analyse se déroule en quatre étapes: en premier lieu, les idées fondamentales de I. Hacking sont exposées; en second lieu, une synthèse du discours dominant sur la construction sociale de l’école est offerte; en troisième lieu, les aspects ontologiques impliquées y sont développés et, finalement, en quatrième lieu, les conséquences éducatives y sont dégagées.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander J. Motyl

Although most contemporary theories of nationalism and identity formation rest on some form of social constructivism, few theorists of nationalism and identity formation interrogate social constructivism as a social construction – a social science concept “imposed” on the non-self-consciously constructivist behaviors of people, who generally do not believe they are engaging in construction. Since social constructivism – unless it is a metaphysics about what is real – is really about the concept of social construction, the first task of constructivists is to ask not how various populations have engaged in social construction but how social construction should be defined. As this article shows, constructivism is at best a run-of-the-mill theoretical approach – perfectly respectable, but no different from any other theoretical approach in the social sciences. It is only when social constructivism makes outlandishly radical claims – that all of reality or all of social reality is constructed – that it is unusual, exciting, and wrong.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-38
Author(s):  
HUBERT KNOBLAUCH

In this paper, I want to start with a short sketch on the development of the German sociology of knowledge which has been quite successful in the last decade. Thus success is very much due to its orientation to the “Social Construction of Reality”. Its reception led first to research on language and then to a turn from language to communication which led into what came to be called communicative constructivism. This turn took very much an empirical form, so that we shall sketch the programme implicit in the empirical movement leading to communicative constructivism. Before we address the general sociological background for this movement, i.e. communication society and refiguration, we shall outline its major theoretical features which distinguish communicative constructivism from its predecessor, social constructivism.


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