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The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

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The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge is one of the most significant books of social science ever written - ranking with and beyond Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Emile Durkheim's Suicide, and more recently Walter Truett Anderson's more popularized take off of it entitled Reality Isn't What It Use To Be (1990). It has spawned a whole new cross-disciplinary school of social science - social constructionism. Originally written in 1967, the book was way ahead of its time with what now is called "postmodernism;" although neither of the author's views necessarily fit this term. In the arts and humanities, it resonates with the philosophy of 17th century Italian philosopher Giambatista Vico's book New Science ("the true and the made are convertible"), with the plays of Italian Luigi Pirandello (Right You Are If You Say You Are and Six Stories in Search of an Author), and with novelists Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Divine Inquisitor) and Robert Musil (A Man Without Qualities).

The sociology of knowledge a la Berger and Luckmann is not about the history of ideas, the economic origin of ideologies, the social process of education, the study of intellectuals, religious Gnostics, or secret societies, or social theories per se. Rather, the intriguing concern of the authors is what they call everyday knowledge or common sense knowledge that is constructed at different levels of society all the way from language, to family history and memories, to children's folk tales, proverbs, and legends, to workplace and professional ideologies, to formal theories and paradigms, and finally to what they call symbolic universes or over-arching world views. Again, this is reminiscent of Vico who wrote: "common sense is judgment without reflection, shared by an entire class, an entire nation, or the entire human race." To Berger and Luckmann reality (that which we can't wish away) is unknowable except through the prism of experience as interpreted through social enclaves or what they call plausibility structures.

Berger and Luckmann base their work on a set of fundamental propositions: (1) Man's consciousness is determined by his social being or by his "seat in life." (2) Knowledge must always be from a certain position or social location. (3) "What is truth on one side of the Pyrenees (mountains) is error on the other" (Blaise Pascal). (4) Consider social facts or institutions as things (Emile Durkheim). And (5) the sociology of knowledge must concern itself with everything that passes for knowledge in society.

Berger and Luckmann proceed from these propositions to discuss society as objective reality and society as subjective reality. They discuss three self-validating "moments" that construct our knowledge of reality: (1) externalization or projection (society as a human product); (2) objectivation or reification (society as objective reality); and (3) internalization and role alternation (man is a social product). The authors maintain that social institutions are perpetually precarious because they are humanly constructed, not biologically given. Human culture, produced by institutions, replaces instincts so well that culture is taken for granted as the same as our physical nature. As Berger and Luckmann put it: "man's relationship to his environment is characterized by world-openness." The authors don't mean that man is plastic, but that he is moldable within unspecific biological constraints.

Berger and Luckmann synthesize the views of a wide range of philosophers and social thinkers into an original product, in true constructionist fashion. But their systematic "theory" is not totalistic or totalitarian as is the theoretical systems of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, revolutionary thinker Karl Marx, the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin, or any other "know it all" system. Their approach reminds one of the classic parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant. Each blind man finds that they are touching or experiencing different parts of the body of the elephant and thus are led to think that the elephant is thin like a tail, or flexible like the trunk, or round and solid like its leg, or immovable like its torso. Only with Berger and Luckmann's approach the blind men may find that the elephant is hollow or man-made as in the fictional character of the wizard in the children's story of the Wizard of Oz. To Berger and Luckmann the world is a Hollywood stage front, a Russian Potemkin Village, but not a delusion. The authors explain that the next generation forgets, or is led to believe, that the social world is given when it was produced or manufactured. But it isn't manufactured mechanistically but is dialectically or interactively produced. The social order can be maintained by various techniques including intimidation, propaganda, mystification, or the manipulation of symbols (symbolic action). However, man is not a passive, but a reactionary creature that will not merely swallow social reality whole but will also often try and alter it. As the authors state man produces society, society becomes an objective, coercive, and reified (as in deified) reality, and, in turn, man becomes a social product of his own creation. Man experiences alienation when he forgets he created society or when he is powerless to control what he created. Man experiences what is called anomie when social worldviews no longer reflect reality.

Berger and Luckmann's book is highly readable but the terminology may be foreign at first and thus intimidating for some. If one wants to read a popularized version, Walter Truett Anderson's Reality Isn't What It Used to Be may leave one thirsting to read Berger and Luckmann's seminal book as well. Other books to explore might be Jodi O'Brien and Peter Kollock, The Production of Reality; William G. Roy, Making Societies; Walter Truett Anderson's sequel The Truth About the Truth; and Peter Berger's book on the social construction of sacred religious knowledge entitled The Sacred Canopy. And for a "light" introduction one might read Peter Berger's other classic entitled An Invitation to Sociology. But if you like reading a book that has depth of thought and classic understandings, don't miss reading Berger and Luckmann's The Social Construction of Reality first hand.

I enjoy these dense books of ideas, but rarely come away from them as fulfilled and enlightened as I came away from this one. Building on the premise that most (if not all)of the knowledge we have, both objective and subjective, comes from the society we live in, the authors examine how knowledge forms and how it is maintained and modified by the institutions that embody it and individuals who embrace it. It gives a scientific grounding to the symbiotic relationship between an individual and his or her community. The book is scholarly, but accessable, with frequent commonplace examples to shed light on the ideas. And it is delightfully brief and to the point, with laudably little of philosophical tedium and academic backbiting that often weighs down such works

This is the second most influential book I have ever read. It influenced me because It showed me how one could deduce from everyday experience how humans create realities and have faith that their realities are real.

Read this book if you would like to understand what people mean when they tell you that something is socially constructed. Many college students and columnists act like "social construction" is a flaky or absurd contention, but once you read this book and understand what Berger and Luckmann are arguing, you will not be able to disagree with their major points.

Nevertheless, this is not an easy read. You have to think along with the authors, put down the book and ponder their examples, and otherwise participate in the classic.

That's a lot of work, but it will change your life!

I've always been passionately against books that are written in the most dry and academic manner, so I was a bit scared of this book to begin with, but it proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable (and educational, of course) read. My brain isn't very receptive of books that use lots of big words and fancy ideas, but the authors here have managed to construct this treatise with unbelievable clarity for the what they present, and also very often successfully implement a vein of humor. If you have any of the slightest interest in the topic, don't be scared of how academic and foreboding it may seem to the casual reader, as it is not as bad as it looks and very much so worth the effort!

I would like to add my voice to those who list this book as among the most important they have read. As for many, this book marked a turning point in my college education. Berger's "Invitation to Sociology" was a required text for my Intro to Soc course but that book led me to Construction. I was a philosophy major and reading about Hegel at the time. The coincidence of reading Hegel and Berger turned on a light for me. They both explained one another. Hegel was laying much of the ground work (and there are lots of excellent books that explain why that is) but Hegel is notoriously difficult. Berger's contemporary vocabulary opened my eyes to a successful interpretation of Hegel. Reading Berger was contemporary English instead of translated early 19th century German. At least it was contemporary for me at the time (early 70s). Today there are many phrases students will recognize as politically incorrect -- Berger was writing for a male academic audience. This is a shame since students do find it difficult and the additional discovery of sexist language adds insult to what may very well be viewed as injury. This book will enter a student into reflective thinking stage 6 and so causes all the depressing introspection that will go with that among the bright students. Which brings up a dilemma. Hegel was very positive. Rorty suggests that what he did was replace knowledge with hope. Agreed! While Berger is not clearly negative, there is no positive emphasis. As a result I always feel an obligation to encourage a positive approach to the powerfulness of this world view.

My collection of Berger books occupies a highly esteemed shelf in my library.

The Social Construction of Reality (1967)
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann

The Social Construction of Reality is a canonical text in the symbolic interactionist paradigm and a must read for any sociologist, especially those interested in identity construction, socialization, and social power. The basis of the text concerns the sociology of knowledge; a tradition which can be traced to nineteenth century Germany philosophy. That said, Berger and Luckmann contribute to the existent scholarship concerning the sociology of knowledge by explicating with unmatched precision and detail the ways in which knowledge is socially constituted and how knowledge and the resultant social institutions (based from such knowledge) create an `objective reality,' thus enabling a `reality' (e.g. institutional order) to exist independently of our subjectivity.

Berger and Luckmann define `reality' as a `phenomena that we recognize as having a being independent of our own volition' (page 13). The crux of their text (the various tenets of which won't be duplicated here) rest on the empirical assertion that human existence operates in a particular context of direction, order, and stability. Interaction (one facet of this order) then is confined to the ordering of constructed social reality; the ontology of which, Berger and Luckman argue is empirically knowable, however they contend is part of the future writing on the subject as this is not the focus of their theoretical premise.

Berger and Luckmann argue, among other things, that the structure of everyday life is indeed ordered maintained through a symbolically constituted language system which they contend originates in everyday life through face-to-face interactions with significant others (e.g. primary socialization) and other members of society (e.g. secondary socialization). Language in this instance is capable of, ``making present' a variety of objects that are spatially, temporally, and socially absent from the `here and now,'' the embodiment of which concerns definitions (sometimes competing ones) that collectively serve as definers of social reality (page 54).

The primary focus of this text concerns teasing out what exactly constitutes the `reality of everyday life' specifically spotlighting the ways in which it is socially constructed and how knowledge (e.g., `common sense,'norms, values, etc., the totality of which is contained under the auspices of what they dub the `typification of habitualization') of human existence then guides conduct associated with particular routines and processes associated with everyday life; thus allowing for the reification of an existent albeit human created reality.

This text is a very interesting and at times challenging read and is highly recommended to the budding (or if missed), seasoned sociologist.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING

Blumer, Herbert. 1969. Symbolic Interactionism. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Brissett, Dennis and Charles Edgley (eds). 1990. Life as Theater: A Dramaturgical
Source Book. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.

Charon, J.M. 1979. Symbolic Interactionism: An Introduction, An Integration.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cooley, Charles Horton. 1983. "Looking Glass Self." In Human Nature and the Social
Order. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, Pp. 183-185.

Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York, NY:
Doubleday Press.

Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self and Society. Chicago, IL: University of
Chicago Press.

This book is an outstanding classic in theoretical, non-empirical Sociology of Knowledge - perhaps the ONLY real classic in that field. Berger and Luckmann present a beautifully concise description of how face-to-face communication with one's peers and community (or in B&G's terms, one's "plausibility structure") provides specific meaningful content to sense-percieved reality. The book proceeds in stages of complexity, beginning with the perception of self, and then a community of two, then three (where occurs for instance the institution of "parenthood", perceived to exist independently from the existence of parents) and so forth.

Along the way B&G explain in a series of very shrewd examples, how a community sharing a similar internalized "subjective universe" confer normative dignity and stability onto it. Also provided by a society are "therapeutic" systems to ensure "universe maintenance", thus decreasing the chances for conversion from one worldview to another (alternation) in the event of anomaly.

Maybe my favorite portion of this book is B&G's exposition of what occurs in an individual whose subjective universe is abandoned in favor of a new one: one's pre-conversion biography is subsumed (nihilated) in the new, post-conversion worldview. One mis-remembers one's pre-conversion biography in order to facilitate the new worldview's ability to "explain" the old one.

Damn good stuff!

Ever wonder what makes us what we are as individuals? Ever wonder what makes society what it is as a whole? This book is for you! One of the main ideas here is that society is built by a group of people (a nation, a state, a political party, a family, etc.) by people but becomes a thing that is seen by people as being reified. Therefore, people look at society as if it were like a brick wall, i.e. hard, unmovable, etc.

What gets people to the point of seeing the world as a unchangeable whole, almost like nature itself? The most important answer is that we're being socialized from our first day of existence. This socialization comes from our family, friends, teachers, everyone - even the people we meet and see everyday and never think about! They tell us who we are, where we are, what we are, what we do, who they are, what everything is, etc. Its absolutely amazing to think that our view of the world is what it is mostly because of our society, but that's the idea here. Society is constantly being constructed and reconstructed, enforced and reenforced, by people all the time.

A huge part of the reason for this is institutionalization. This means that a certain type of person does certain acts, in just such a way, in the right time of their lives, with the right education level, etc. This book has so many critical things to say about the world we live in. However, best of all in my opinion, the ideas are timeless.

The topics discussed in this book have been with us since the beginning of civilization and seemingly always will be. This isn't a book about modern times, it is a book about all times.

I was first introduced to this book in 1970, in a high school class. The concept of "reification", whereby a manmade item is given a cosmic status, was important to me then and still is now. As for some others, the book inspired me to become a sociology major. The thinking, along with the related book The Sacred Canopy, greatly challenged my religious beliefs, as the man-made quality all such beliefs and doctrines becomes apparent. The thinking has also helped me navigate through many conflicts without giving into the man-made reality of the majority. If one truly wants to be an individual, or believes in liberation, this book is essential.

This book led me into a life of sociology as it encouraged me to pursue and complete a Ph.D. in this discipline. On my first reading as an undergraduate, this book brought together many disparate ideas I had been thinking for sometime. I recently re-read it and still find it fascinating and important. It's contributions are detailed by other reviewers, I would only add that I consider a great bulk of the post-modernist movement to be summarized, detailed and challenged in a coherent and succinct fashion here.