'Social construction' is a central metaphor in contemporary social science, yet it is used and understood in widely divergent and indeed conflicting ways by different thinkers. Most commonly, it is seen as radically opposed to realist social theory. Dave Elder-Vass argues that social scientists shou[...]
The problem of structure and agency has been the subject of intense debate in the social sciences for over 100 years. This 2010 book offers a solution. Using a critical realist version of the theory of emergence, Dave Elder-Vass argues that, instead of ascribing causal significance to an abstract no[...]
Argues that versions of realist and social constructionist ways of thinking about the social world are compatible with each other.[...]