Social Construction of Reality
 
 
 

                           A division exists within sociology between those who stress
                           the externality and independence of social reality from
                           individuals and those who emphasize that individuals
                           participate fully in the construction of their own lives.
                           Following Émile Durkheim, some argue that societies
                           possess social realities of their own which cannot be
                           reduced to the aggregate effect of individuals' actions.
                           According to this school of thought social phenomena have
                           an objective existence outside of individual members of
                           society and exert a force which shapes individual
                           behaviour. It is assumed that it is possible objectively to
                           measure such phenomena.

                           Sociologists on the other side of the theoretical divide
                           stress the fact that social reality is actively constructed
                           and reconstructed by individual actors. Sociologists
                           working from within this perspective argue that social
                           phenomena do not simply have an unproblematic objective
                           existence, but have to be interpreted and given meanings
                           by those who encounter them: they have to be socially
                           constructed. From this perspective, all knowledge of the
                           world is a human construction rather than a mirror of some
                           independent reality. The 'objective' measurement of social
                           phenomena is actually a social construction grounded on
                           the subjective meanings given to a situation by those
                           doing the measuring. DA
 

                           See also critical theory; discourse; ethnomethodology;
                           individualism; phenomenological; sociology; positivism;
                           social fact; sociology of knowledge; structure-agency
                           debate; symbolic interactionism; understanding; values.
                           Further reading T. Bottomore and , R. Nisbet (eds.), A
                           History of Sociological Analysis; , P.S. Cohen, Modern
                           Social Theory.

                           Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought, © Bloomsbury 1993