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Now in its third edition, this successful book introduces students to the area of social science theory and research known as social constructionism. Using a variety of examples from everyday experience and from existing research in areas such as personality, sexuality and health, it clearly explains the basic theoretical assumptions of social constructionism. Key debates, such as the nature and status of knowledge, truth, reality and the self are given in-depth analysis in an accessible style. Drawing on a range of empirical studies, the book clearly defines the various different approaches t

Cover Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Figures and Tables -- List of Contributors -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Philosophical Assumptions of Constructionism -- 3 Relativism, Subjectivity and the Self: A Critique of Social Constructionism -- 4 Extending Constructionist Social Problems to the Study of Housing Problems -- 5 Constructing the Meaning of Social Exclusion as a Policy Metaphor -- 6 Housing Pathways - A Social Constructionist Research Framework -- 7 Necessary Welfare Measure or Policy Failure: Media Reports of Public Housing in Sydney in the 1990s -- 8 Organisational Research: Conflict and Power within UK and Australian Social Housing Organisations -- 9 Social Constructionism and International Comparative Housing Research -- Index

In Contemporary Social Constructionism, Darin Weinberg provides a detailed, critical overview of the key themes of this school of thought, which explains how phenomena and ways of thinking develop in their social contexts. Weinberg traces the multiple roots of social constructionism, and shows how it has been used, critiqued, and refined within the social and human sciences. Contemporary Social Constructionism illuminates how constructionist social science developed in relation to positivism, critical and hermeneutic philosophy, and feminism

Scholars of practical theology are increasingly regarding the discipline as one whose scope extends beyond the bounds of an applied theology. The concept of action, or practice, plays a central role in this new understanding. At the base of theological reflections by scholars of practical theology are the practices, and these are analyzed empirically. The aim of the discipline is to transform these practices and develop a hermeneutical action theory or a hermeneutical-empirical approach to human actions. As a result of its focus on practices, practical theology is closely linked to the social sciences. Within the social sciences, social constructionism is a growing theory. Although its forms vary, this theory is one to which not only social scientists, but also researchers in the psychology and sociology of religion, adhere. This volume demonstrates the importance of reflection on the emerging concept of social constructionism in the social sciences by scholars of practical theology

"In Contemporary Social Constructionism, Darin Weinberg provides a detailed, critical overview of the key themes of this school of thought, which explains how phenomena and ways of thinking develop in their social contexts. Weinberg traces the multiple roots of social constructionism, and shows how it has been used, critiqued, and refined within the social and human sciences. Contemporary Social Constructionism illuminates how constructionist social science developed in relation to positivism, critical and hermeneutic philosophy, and feminism and then goes on to distinguish the concept from postmodernism and deconstructionism. In addition, Weinberg shows how social constructionists have contributed to our understanding of biology, the body, self-knowledge, and social problems. The result is a contemporary statement of social constructionism that shores up its scientific veracity and demonstrates its analytic power, promise, and influence. The book concludes with a look toward the future of the concept and its use."

Drawing upon the wider critical and discursive turn in the human sciences, Social Constructionism, Discourse and Realism explores comprehensively the many claims about what we can know of `reality' in social constructionist and discursive research in psychology. Relativist versus realist tensions go to the heart of current theoretical and methodological issues, not only within psychology but across the social and human sciences. By mapping the connections between theory, method and politics in social research and placing these within the context of the broader social constructionist and discursive debates, the internationally renowned contributors offer the reader an invaluable survey of the debates.

A review article on books by: Edward Stein (Ed), Forms of Desire: Sexual Orientation and the Social Constructionist Controversy (New York & London: Garland Publishing, 1990); Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York & London: Routledge, 1990); & Celia Kitzinger, The Social Construction of Lesbianism (London & Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1987 [see listings in IRPS No. 67]). Stein presents a range of essays illustrating the debate in sexuality research between social constructionists & essentialists. Kitzinger seeks to challenge social science perspectives, not only of lesbianism, but in general. Butler moves from questions that assume stable primary identities to those concerning the construction & critique of those identities. G. Castaneda

The paper is written with a degree of irony: it treats a sociological approach as if it were a client presenting itself for psychoanalysis, and argues that using Melanie Klein's developmental theory the approach can be seen as a manic psychosis - a defence against entering the depressive position. It is suggested that sociologists find it difficult to recognise the limitations of their discipline - the depressive position - one reason being that we do not actually exercise power over anybody; social constructionism enables us to convince ourselves that the opposite is true, that we know everything about how people become what they are, that we do not have to take account of other disciplines or sciences, but we can explain everything. The paper ends by suggesting that its own argument can be treated as a psychoanalytic version of a manic psychosis and that a non-psychotic theory is one which knows its own limitations.