social constructionistn.adj.
/ˌsəʊʃl kənˈstrʌkʃn̩ɪst/, /ˌsəʊʃl kənˈstrʌkʃənɪst/, U.S. /ˌsoʊʃ(ə)l ˌkənˈstrəkʃənəst/ Chiefly Sociology.
A. n.
A theorist of social constructs; a proponent or adherent of social constructionism.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [noun] > other branches
social history1814
social geography1828
social dynamics1843
social statics1843
socio-economics1893
genetics1896
biosociology1897
social engineering1899
social morphology1899
psychosociology1902
socionomics1902
political sociology1905
sociobiology1912
social planning1913
social constructionist1925
futurology1946
sociobiology1946
structural anthropology1950
squalorology1961
proxemics1963
future research1969
women's studies1969
future study1971
social constructionism1976
social constructivism1981
1925 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 31 191 The earnest social constructionist is enabled to view the present problems of institutions more clearly, and to attempt to settle them by calm reasoning rather than by authority or emotion.
1972 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 77 1251 It may be these emphases that give the social constructionists so much leverage, rather than those of definitions of situations, subjective meanings, and concrete, everyday behavior.
1991 L. Faderman Odd Girls & Twilight Lovers 8 The ‘social constructionists’ (who believe that certain social conditions were necessary before ‘the lesbian’ could emerge as a social entity).
2003 Isis 94 789/2 Many social constructionists are also historians.
B. adj.
Of or relating to social constructionists or social constructionism.
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > study of society > [adjective] > other branches
social-historical1858
biosociological1894
psychosociological1900
sociobiological1904
sociotechnical1920
proxemic1963
social constructionist1967
social constructivist1982
1967 J. D. Douglas Social Meanings Suicide xiv. 252 A social constructionist theory of meanings clearly differs from the usual building-block approach in its emphasis on the fundamental significance of the ways in which specific events, symbols, etc., are related by individuals to each other to determine the meanings of something to those individuals.
1986 H. Rose in J. Mitchell & A. Oakley What is Feminism? 177 My similarly grounded story comes from listening to a radical male sociologist develop a social constructionist account of old age.
2000 C. Tavris in M. S. Kimmel & A. Aronson Gendered Society Reader 21 Today, in this social-constructionist age, the study of gender has entered what Mary Crawford and Jeanne Marecek..call the ‘transformationist’ era.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1925