Social constructivism
Petr Ocelík
MEBn4001 / MEBn5001 / MEB427
31th October 2019
Outline
• Constructivism as a social theory
• The construction of social reality (John Searle)
• Discourse
• Frame
• Some examples
Constructivism as a social theory
• Idealism: social world is primarily created and driven by ideas
• Interpretativism: social phenomena do not exist independently of our
interpretations of them
• disputed whether this rules out causal explanations or not
• Thus: social world is being constructed
• Social constructivism is not an IR theory
• It is a social theory that provides an explanation or understanding of
social organization as such
Strong vs. weak constructivism
• Weak constructivism:
• Allows causal explanations
• Allows objective knowledge
• (Differentiates between brute and social facts)
• Strong constructivism:
• Rejects the concept of causality
• Rejects the possibility of objective knowledge
• (There are only social facts)
John Searle: The Construction of Social Reality
• Brute vs. social/institutional facts
• Function assignment
• Individual vs. collective intentionality
(~ subjectivity vs. intersubjectivity)
• Regulatory vs. constitutive rules
Brute vs. social facts
• Brute facts:
• Mind-independent
• Independent on other facts
• Social facts:
• Mind-dependent
• Dependent on social context, i.e. language, actions etc.
Language games
Social and institutional facts
• Social facts:
• Facts by agreement
• Depend on collective intentionality
“...any case of collective intentionality involving two or
more animals.” (Searle 2003)
• Institutional facts:
• A subset of social facts
• Collective intentionality + function assignment
Collective intentionality / intersubjectivity
• The intersubjectivity is established through convergence of
expectations about self and Others
→ social facts always exceed individual level
→ social facts are always intersubjective
• E.g.: I can really play ice hockey (I) only if
we have shared understandings (intersubjectivity)
of my role (Me) as well as of role of others (Other)
in the game and about what constitutes the game
Star Trek: Next Generation
S05, E02 “Darmok” (1991)
First encounter: “Temba, his arms wide”
Collective intentionality / intersubjectivity
• The intersubjectivity is established through convergence of
expectations about self and Others
→ social facts always exceed individual level
→ social facts are always intersubjective
• E.g.: State can engage in int. negotiations (I) only if
it has shared understanding (intersubjectivity)
of its role (Me) as well as of role of others (Other)
in the negotiations and about the negotiations’ rules
Function assignment
• The function of a given object is not inherent, it is assigned to the
object by its use
• A parallel with Wittgenstein’s “tool theory of meaning”
• General form of a status function:
X counts as Y in context of Z
• E.g.: boots (X) count as goal posts (Y)
while playing ice hockey at a pond (Z)
Regulatory vs. constitutive rules
• Regulatory rules govern existing activities
→ activities do not depend on them
• Constitutive rules not only regulate, but also
create/constitute given activities
→ activities do depend on (are made of) them
• Any examples of constitutive rules in
international politics?
Social construction (vs. recall Schelling’s segregation model)
Sovereignty as a social construction
Sovereignty as a social construction
Discourse
Discourse
• Discourse: an institutionalized use of language and other meaning
systems (images, gestures etc.)
• Discourse provides, more or less, coherent account of some issue
• It shapes how we speak and think about the issue
→ power is exerted and maintained through discursive operations
• We are embedded in a plurality of overlapping discourses
Malthusian discourse
Frame / framing
• Frame: a shared interpretative scheme through which actors
understand and promote certain version of reality (Entman 1993)
• Actors – via framing – strategically emphasize or suppress certain
aspects of a given issue
• The purpose of framing: promote own interpretation of the issue →
make it hegemonic (critically unquestioned)
Framing: climate change
Framing: climate change
(Counter)framing: climate change
Constructivist analysis: mini-case
• Framing of unconventional natural gas resources (UNG) in Russian
foreign policy in 2009 - 2011
• RQ: how is the meaning of UNG constructed? Through which frames
it is promoted?
• For details:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S03014215140021
71
Concluding remarks
• Constructivism challenges materialism and essentialism
• Every institution is historically and socially conditioned
→ subversive potential
• Constructivism links the use of language with power relationships
→ emancipatory potential
• Constructivism accepted as a (mainly) ontological framework by many
post-rationalist approaches (critical approaches, post-structuralism,
to some extent New materialism)