Though claiming that various features of humans are "socially constructed" has become something of a fad in sectors of the humanities and social sciences, usually not a lot of evidence is provided to justifiy social construction claims. "Social construction" itself is often too ambiguous a concept. After weeding out ambiguities, Paul Boghossian has come up with a definition of social construction that is more in line with the interests of social construction scholars themselves. I'll paraphrase his definition thus: what is meant by saying that a thing is socially constructed is that it was created intentionally by a particular society to address its interests, and is contingent upon the whims of that society in such a way that it wouldn't have come about otherwise (e.g., if that society had different interests, or if another, different society had done the construction). Some socially constructed things are cross-cultural. Money, for instance, was constructed independently by some societies to exchange goods, and because most societies today have an interest in exchanging goods efficiently, money has become almost universal. But if the money-using societies had different interests, money could have never come into existence. So it is clear enough that money is socially constructed.
Why gender is NOT socially constructed
Why gender is NOT socially constructed
Why gender is NOT socially constructed
Though claiming that various features of humans are "socially constructed" has become something of a fad in sectors of the humanities and social sciences, usually not a lot of evidence is provided to justifiy social construction claims. "Social construction" itself is often too ambiguous a concept. After weeding out ambiguities, Paul Boghossian has come up with a definition of social construction that is more in line with the interests of social construction scholars themselves. I'll paraphrase his definition thus: what is meant by saying that a thing is socially constructed is that it was created intentionally by a particular society to address its interests, and is contingent upon the whims of that society in such a way that it wouldn't have come about otherwise (e.g., if that society had different interests, or if another, different society had done the construction). Some socially constructed things are cross-cultural. Money, for instance, was constructed independently by some societies to exchange goods, and because most societies today have an interest in exchanging goods efficiently, money has become almost universal. But if the money-using societies had different interests, money could have never come into existence. So it is clear enough that money is socially constructed.