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