Social Constructionist Inquiry: Context and Implications

Abstract

The present volume brings together contributions to an increasingly active movement in social inquiry. It would be misleading to say that the movement is also a new one, as its roots may properly be traced to earlier eras. However, in its current metamorphosis this movement contains implications of substantial significance. Not only are broad vistas of inquiry opened for study, but the very foundations of psychological knowledge itself are thrown into critical relief. When the implications are fully explored, it becomes apparent that this form of social inquiry could become foundational for understanding the nature of human knowledge. Both the philosophy and the science of human knowledge might give way to social analysis. Of course, these are bold conjectures, and as we shall see, to make good on them one may have to relinquish much that is sacred. However, it is the plausibility of these conjectures that I attempt to demonstrate in that which follows, while at the same time clarifying the contours and origins of this, the social constructionist movement.