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

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

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

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

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

Works cited Berger,Peter, and Thomas Luckmann. The Social Construction of a Reality: A treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Anchor Books. 1966. Print. Bruffee, Kenneth. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence and the Authority of Knowledge. 1999. Johns Hopkins University Press. Print.