Social Constructionism Informs Narrative Approaches to Mediation



  • Social construction theory presents an innovative approach to understanding the theory and practice of narrative mediation.

  • Social constructionist theory, in its most basic form, is grounded in four key assumptions, all of which build on one another.


    • First, social constructionist theory invites a critical stance towards taken-for-granted knowledge (Burr, 1995). That is, social constructionists challenge the conventional knowledge that has historically guided our understanding of the world, and of ourselves in it.

    • Second, social constructionists have proposed that the ways in which we commonly understand the world, including the categories, concepts, and language we use, are historically and culturally specific. This means that all knowledge is time- and culture-bound and cannot be taken as once-and-for-all "truth" or understanding.

    • Third, social constructionist theory asserts that knowledge is constructed through social processes; namely, it is fabricated through daily interactions between people. Thus, our current accepted ways of understanding the world, or what we commonly regard as "truth", are products of the social interactions people engage in on a daily basis. Finally, it is posited that these negotiated meanings, or 'social constructions', carry a number of possible actions or responses. In other words, knowledge and social action go together.


References:

Burr, V. (1995). An Introduction to Social Constructionism. New York: Routledge.

Gergen, K. (1999). An Invitation to Social Construction. London: Sage.
 
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