THE SUPPOSED DECLINE OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM IN CRITICAL SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Abstract

Social constructionism has been one of the greatest contributions of social sciences to epistemology debates, which has led to numerous critics; it has been accused of irrational, nullifying the discussion and not allowing political and ethical positioning. On the other hand, supporters of social constructionism contemplate that the position of becoming hegemonic in social sciences have lost their critical capacity, besides that their emphasis on the symbolic has invisibilized the material component of social relations, advocating a post-constructionist scenario, replacing and updating the trend. In the first point, this essay will develop some aspects of antirealism, relativism and the ontological level of construction in order to defend the constructionism from critics and move away from the cartoon with which it has been described. From the steps toward a post-constructionist scenario, it will be argued that several of the ideas proposed by the new theories were already in the conceptions of social constructionism. With the objective to give ideas of social constructionism analyzed from the perspective of critical social psychology.