The Varieties of Social Construction

A review of eleven volumes in the Sage series, Inquiries in Social Construction, reveals a field that is marked by a great variety of positions, fundamental disagreements, and few common themes. Among the more important of the latter is an emphasis on the discursive constitution of knowledge and the related demystification of scientific authority. Fundamental disagreements exist on the meaning and scope of 'discourse'. For some, discourse is essentially conversation and its reach more or less unbounded. For others, relationships of power, whether displayed at social or at somatic sites, constitute an irreducible reality beyond discourse.