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"Though nominalism is a major presupposition in academia and western society, R. Scott Smith shows that nominalism undermines all knowledge whatsoever. In light of the many clear examples of knowledge that we do have, nominalism should be replaced by a realist view of properties"--

Social constructivism is one of the most prominent theoretical approaches in the social sciences. This volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first formulation in Peter Berger and Luckmann's classic foundational text, The Social Construction of Reality. Addressing the work's contribution to establishing social constructivism as a paradigm and discussing its potential for current questions in social theory, the contributing authors indicate the various cultural understandings and theoretical formulations that exist of social construction, its different fields of research and the promising new directions for future research that it presents in its most recent developments. A study of the importance of a work that established a paradigm in the international sociology of knowledge, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social theory, the history of the social sciences and the significance of social constructivism.

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The history of the conflict: from the Greeks to the Middle Ages -- Chapter 3: The history of the conflict: Descartes, the Enlightenment, and positivism -- Chapter 4: History rewritten: the 20th century constructivist interpretation of classic liberalism -- Chapter 5: The new enlightenment: Russell on organization and socialism -- Chapter 6: The new enlightenment: Chomsky on Cartesian linguistics and anarchist socialism -- Chapter 7: The new enlightenment: Skinner and the search for system -- Chapter 8: The new enlightenment: The abandoned road -- Chapter 9: Rationalist constructivism in protest song rhetoric -- Chapter 10: Retrieving history: liberalism and the study of spontaneous social orders -- Chapter 11: Retrieving history: the legacy of David Hume -- Chapter 12: Toward a rational theory of tradition: order, knowledge, tradition -- Chapter 13: Toward a rational theory of tradition: methodological and conceptual issues. .

Though nominalism is a major presupposition in academia and western society, R. Scott Smith shows that nominalism undermines all knowledge whatsoever. In light of the many clear examples of knowledge that we do have, nominalism should be replaced by a realist view of properties.

This book proposes a new institutional constructivist model, for social scientific and legal enquiries, based on the interrelations within the social and political world and the application of change in EU laws and politics. Much of the research conducted in social sciences and law examines the diverse activities of individuals and collectivities and the role of institutions in the social and political world. Although there exist many vantage points from which one can gain entry into understanding how agents in the world act, interact, shape and bear the world, socio-legal scientific epistemology has found monism and dualism to be convincing models. This book argues that current models do not capture the complexity of our micro-worlds, macro-worlds and meso-worlds. Nor can they account for the forms and patterns of socio-legal change. Mind, time and change are brought together in an attempt to contribute to socio-legal epistemology and to enhance its toolkit.