Race as a Social Construction

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 115-133
Author(s):  
J. L. A. Garcia ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Ian Hacking ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Linguistic History ◽  
Linda Alcoff

This paper raises serious problems for the commonly held claim that races are socially constructed. The first section sketches out an approach to our construction of institutional phenomena that, taking Searle’s general approach, restricts social construction proper to cases where we adopt rules that bind relevant parties to treat things of a type in certain ways, thus constituting important roles in, and parts of, our social lives. I argue this conception, construction-by-rules, helps distinguish genuine construction from other activities and relations and also solves a problem raised against simplistic conceptions. The second shows why and how Sally Haslanger, Linda Alcoff, and Glenn Loury have explained race as a social construct. The next points out problems for their and other accounts, including circularity, difficulties arising from conceptual and linguistic history, and non sequiturs. After returning to Haslanger in more detail, I proceed critically to engage work by Ian Hacking, Lawrence Blum, Luc Faucher and Edouard Machery, and Charles Mills. The following sections move from specific accounts in the literature to offer general arguments that viewing races as products of social construction threatens to mislead in numerous ways. At the end, I discuss the significance of the issue and challenge whether social constructionist accounts are genuinely liberating.

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.

Discourse analysis and social construction

1990 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 77-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Bazerman
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Social Activities ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Literary System ◽  
Special Language

Complex social activities—such as maintaining a legal system, fostering a literary system, or developing communally validated knowledge—rely on language as the medium through which these activities are accomplished. Law, literature, science, religion, politics, and even economics are socially constructed through discourse. Special language tools and uses have developed in conjuction with the rise of these activities. Thus, we may well say that the construction of legal language is part and parcel of the construction of the legal instructions that order social lives, and that the language acts using legal language were developed in coordination with the elaboration of roles, responsibilities, and relationships of legal actors.

scholarly journals The Relevance of Causal Social Construction

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Marques
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Stereotype Threat ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Poor Performance ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Social Kinds ◽  
Performance Effects ◽  
Social Causes

AbstractSocial constructionist claims are surprising and interesting when they entail that presumably natural kinds are in fact socially constructed. The claims are interesting because of their theoretical and political importance. Authors like Díaz-León argue that constitutive social construction is more relevant for achieving social justice than causal social construction. This paper challenges this claim. Assuming there are socially salient groups that are discriminated against, the paper presents a dilemma: if there were no constitutively constructed social kinds, the causes of the discrimination of existing social groups would have to be addressed, and understanding causal social construction would be relevant to achieve social justice. On the other hand, not all possible constitutively socially constructed kinds are actual social kinds. If an existing social group is constitutively constructed as a social kind K, the fact that it actually exists as a K has social causes. Again, causal social construction is relevant. The paper argues that (i) for any actual social kind X, if X is constitutively socially constructed as K, then it is also causally socially constructed; and (ii) causal social construction is at least as relevant as constitutive social construction for concerns of social justice. For illustration, I draw upon two phenomena that are presumed to contribute towards the discrimination of women: (i) the poor performance effects of stereotype threat, and (ii) the silencing effects of gendered language use.

scholarly journals A critique of the social constructionist and relativistic cultural conception of child abuse

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16
Author(s):  
Christopher O Akpan ◽  
Samuel Akpan Bassey
Keyword(s):  
Child Abuse ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Reality ◽  
Critical Methods

Some social scientists and philosophers tend to think that 'child abuse' is a socially constructed and culturally relativistic term than an objective phenomenon. This stems from the divergent cultural views of what characterize abuses. This work argues that child abuse necessarily should not be considered as a social construct. Using the textual analytic and critical methods of philosophizing, the work explores a few relevant but intriguing facts of child abuse and more importantly the challenges connected with socially constructed and culturally relativistic conceptions of this phenomenon. The paper submits that; if humans could appeal to 'nature eye-view' they could perceive the natural bonding relationship which culminates in the congenial protection of the young by parents; hence, would agree that any aberration of such relationship would constitute abuse. This work would engage readers to understand child abuse as a prevalent cross-cultural reality, and to that extent, instigate them to condemn it wherever it occurs.

Social Construction as Social Significance

2018 ◽  
pp. 34-53
Author(s):  
Ásta
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Meaning ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Social Categories ◽  
Ian Hacking ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social

Various ways in which a category of people can be said to be socially constructed is discussed before a conception of social construction that can underwrite the project of offering a metaphysics of social categories is offered. The author discusses several conceptions of causal social construction, including where the social is the cause and the effect, and where ideals or norms play a role in the construction. The type of social construction needed for the project of giving a metaphysics of social construction is constitutive social construction. The author offers her conception of constitutive social construction, the key component of which is an account of social meaning. Comparison with the accounts of social construction by Ian Hacking, Ron Mallon, and Sally Haslanger is made.

scholarly journals Causal Social Construction

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-99
Author(s):  
Riin Kõiv
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Biological Factors ◽  
Turn On ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social

AbstractIn the social constructionist literature, little has been said about what it means for social factors to cause X in such a way that X would count as causally socially constructed. In this paper, I argue that being caused by social factors – and thus being causally socially constructed – is best defined in terms of a contrastive counterfactual notion of causation. Unlike some plausible alternatives, this definition captures what is at stake in actual social constructionist debates. It makes transparent which factors the truth of a causal constructionist claim may depend on. By doing so, it sheds light on what the disagreements over whether X is causally socially constructed may turn on. It also helps us to see under which condition the claim that X is socially causally constructed is compatible with the claim that X is caused by biological factors.

scholarly journals What constitutes successful covert action? Evaluating unacknowledged interventionism in foreign affairs

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Rory Cormac ◽  
Calder Walton ◽  
Damien Van Puyvelde
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Covert Action ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
State Activity

Abstract Covert action has long been a controversial tool of international relations. However, there is remarkably little public understanding about whether it works and, more fundamentally, about what constitutes success in this shadowy arena of state activity. This article distills competing criteria of success and examines how covert actions become perceived as successes. We develop a conceptual model of covert action success as a social construct and illustrate it through the case of ‘the golden age of CIA operations’. The socially constructed nature of success has important implications not just for evaluating covert actions but also for using, and defending against, them.

scholarly journals Humans created God in their image? An anthropomorphic projectionism in the Old Testament

2018 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndikho Mtshiselwa ◽  
Lerato Mokoena
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Main Question ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Construct ◽  
Ancient Israel ◽  
The World ◽  
Genesis 1 ◽  
History Of ◽  
Old Testament Studies

The Old Testament projects not only a Deity that created the world and human beings but also one that is violent and male. The debate on the depiction of the God of Israel that is violent and male is far from being exhausted in Old Testament studies. Thus, the main question posed in this article is: If re-read as ‘Humans created God in their image’, would Genesis 1:27 account for the portrayal of a Deity that is male and violent? Feuerbach’s idea of anthropomorphic projectionism and Guthrie’s view of religion as anthropomorphism come to mind here. This article therefore examines, firstly, human conceptualisation of a divine being within the framework of the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism. Because many a theologian and philosopher would deny that God is a being at all, we further investigate whether the God of Israel was a theological and social construction during the history of ancient Israel. In the end, we conclude, based on the theory of anthropomorphic projectionism, that the idea that the God of Israel was a theological and social construct accounts for the depiction of a Deity that is male and violent in the Old Testament.

Service innovation as a social construction: The role of boundary objects

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Mele ◽  
Roberta Sebastiani ◽  
Daniela Corsaro
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Service Innovation ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Boundary Objects ◽  
Resource Integration ◽  
Shared Meanings ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Outcome Perspective

This article advances a conceptualization of service innovation as socially constructed through resource integration and sensemaking. By developing this view, the current study goes beyond an outcome perspective, to include the collective nature of service innovation and the role of the social context in affecting the service innovation process. Actors enact and perform service innovation through two approaches, one that is more concerted and another that emerges in some way. Each approach is characterized by distinct resource integration processes, in which the boundary objects (artifacts, discourses, and places) play specific roles. They act as bridge-makers that connect actors, thereby fostering resource integration and shared meanings.

Sex Offender Registration: Implications and Difficulties for Ireland

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne-Marie McAlinden
Keyword(s):  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Offenders ◽  
Sex Offender ◽  
Sexual Offending ◽  
Social Constructionist ◽  
Sex Offender Registration ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Criminal Justice Process ◽  
The Media

This paper explores the implications and difficulties of a system of sex offender registration for the two jurisdictions of Ireland. From the orthodox perspective, registration appears justified. Sexual offending has increase and this is used by the media to generate a ‘moral panic’. However, in terms of Blumer's (1971) developmental perspective, sexual offenders in the community have been socially constructed in Ireland, as a problem requiring specific action. This perspective most adequately explains the formulation of legislation. Arguments expounded in favour of registration include the supposedly high recidivism among sex offenders, the inadequacy of supervision provisions and the resulting need to ‘track’ the offender for public protection. Yet a plethora of obstacles which were not considered at the time the legislation was being formulated, such as cost and inadequate policing resources, may impede its effectiveness in aiding law enforcement and reduce it to symbolic significance only. Given these difficulties, I argue that registration is not an appropriate response to the problem of released sexual offenders in Ireland. Rather, from the social constructionist perspective, I suggest that it is better to ‘treat’ the sex offender through less formal and stringent means in the community, away from the criminal justice process.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document