2. The Social Construction of a Reality: A Treatise in the Construction of Knowledge. Berger & Luckmann
Definition
Basic Concepts
- Social stock
- Semantic field
- Social everyday reality
- Signs and language
Society as Objective Reality
-Institutionalization
-Social (institutional) objective worlds
-Division of labours
-Symbolic universes
Society as Subjective Reality
Identity
Socialization
Primary
Secondary

3. What is Social Construction?
Mental representations
Habit, institution, and knowledge
Social reality is therefore said to
be socially constructed

4. Basic Concepts Social stock of knowledge
Max Scheler, Karl Mannheim, Werner Stark, Karl Marx, Max Weber
Focused too much on scientific knowledge,
For B&L, it involves just a small part of social knowledge.
Semantic fields
The general body of knowledge is socially distributed, and classified in semantic fields.
The role of language
Social Everyday Reality
“…is characterized by intersubjectivity.” (p. 23-25).
Signs and Language
They provide interoperability for the construction of everyday reality

5. Society as Objective Reality
Institutionalization “Social order is a human product, or more precisely, an ongoing human production” (p.52).
- Social objective worlds
- Division of labour
Symbolic universes
=> Universe-maintenance
Society as Subjective Reality
Socialization:
Primary & Secondary Socialization
Conversation/communication
Identity

6. Conclusion
"Knowledge is a social construct, a consensus among the
members of a community of knowledgeable peers”. Kenneth
A. Bruffee.

7. Works cited
Berger,Peter, and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of a Reality: A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books Print.
Bruffee, Kenneth. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge Johns Hopkins University Press. Print.