Social Constructionisms Approaches to the study of the Human World

This book aims to provide a comprehensive yet accessible introduction to social constructionism as a theory. It introduces the basic concepts in social constructionism and presents the different traditions of social constructionist theory, using examples from everyday life to bring theory closer to practice. It features figures, summary information boxes, questions, and sections for further reading to make it as accessible as possible.

TITUS HJELM lectures at the Department of Comparative Religion and Sociology of Religion, University of Helsinki.

Introduction: the Construction of Social Reality * An Example of the Social Constructionist Approach: The Satanism Scare * The Construction of Everyday Life: the Sociology of Knowledge * Constructing the Self and the Other: The Perspective of Social Psychology * Language and Power: critical Constructionism * Moralities and deviance: The Sociology of social problems * Comparing the Approaches * Language, Culture and Social structure * Critiques of Social Constructionism * Social Constructionism: theory and methodological Applications Introduction: the Construction of Social Reality * An Example of the Social Constructionist Approach: The Satanism Scare * The Construction of Everyday Life: the Sociology of Knowledge * Constructing the Self and the Other: The Perspective of Social Psychology * Language and Power: critical Constructionism * Moralities and deviance: The Sociology of social problems * Comparing the Approaches * Language, Culture and Social structure * Critiques of Social Constructionism * Social Constructionism: theory and methodological Applications