Why read The Reality of Social Construction?

Book cover of The Reality of Social Construction

Book description

'Social construction' is a central metaphor in contemporary social science, yet it is used and understood in widely divergent and indeed conflicting ways by different thinkers. Most commonly, it is seen as radically opposed to realist social theory. Dave Elder-Vass argues that social scientists should be both realists and social…

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Reality of Social Construction as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Oz Hassan

Author

This book blew open a question I’d been circling for years: how do we know what’s real in the social world, and who decides?

I first read the philosopher John Searle (who the book starts with) as a student, and it lit a fire, but this book turned that spark into something much more powerful. It showed me that reality isn't just "out there," waiting to be described—it's built through language, norms, and belief, and yet that doesn't make it any less real.

I loved how this book made space for complexity without sliding into postmodern fog. It gave me…

From Oz's list on The best books that explain why the West keeps getting the world wrong.