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What is a Social Construct?
What is a Social Construct?
Anything/any concept made up by society to convey an idea
Does not exist outside of society - only has meaning because people assigned value to it
Based on human interaction
Plato's allegory of the cave (See Analogies, Allegories, Thought Experiments)
Concepts that are not based on objective reality, but rather, human interaction.
Language and collaboration create meaning
Innovations/inventions are not socially constructed!
Important note: Social constructs are “real” even if “ made up
Not subjective reality (individual), but rather social reality
Have real impact on people’s lives
Examples of Social Constructs
Examples of Social Constructs
Rights
Virtues (i.e. honesty, humility)
Foundational principles
Morals
Language + Culture
"Classes"
Political Ideologies, arguments, borders
Marriage
Social constructs
A Deeper Dive
A Deeper Dive
Economics and Class
Money + currency are man-made concepts
Class division reflects ideas rather than actual demographics
Tend to exclude care work (disproportionately women)
91% of Americans self-identify as “middle class”
The State and Ethnicity
Political states, ideologies, and borders are socially constructed
Race and ethnicity are not scientifically based but rather socially (different culture)
E.g. “White” becoming more expansive (European? Latina? American? Australian?)
Why Do They Matter?
Why Do They Matter?
Social constructs help society define concepts as acceptable, right, wrong, and so on. They exist purely to make life easier/more convenient.
They create a sense of unity when decisions are made and people can understand one another. Social constructs serve as a way to join ideas, and turn things from subjective to objective.
If society agrees something deserves to have value (ex. paper money representing the concept of financials as a whole), it can exist independent of context.
Language is socially constructed. People in history decided putting certain sounds together should have certain meanings, leading to effective communication
The value of Money is not a physical object. Paper money is used to represent the idea of value, because it's intangible otherwise.
The idea of what's "morally right" is dictated by society. In order to fit in, people adopt ethics and base decisions off how others will best perceive them.
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