Question
What is a social construct?
Answer
A social construct is this idea that has been created and accepted by people in a society as per the dictionary. Professor and philosopher, Dr. Paul Boghossian, says that we as a society, create these social structures to try to make sense of the world around us, to create this common understanding.
Dr. Ron Mallon uses this simple equation to explain, X socially constructs Y. X is an entity. It could be a person, people, community, institution, culture, etc. Whoever or whatever X is, "they" have the ability to create these ideas.
How does a social construct become real, and how does a cycle come about from these social constructs? What these philosophers say is that X constructs Y, Y is this idea, and then "they" start to do things that make Y solid. Think about it as laying bricks. "They" start to create things that reinforce this construct so that eventually we start to take it for truth, and so over time, there is a continual reinforcement until the point where we do not think of it as something that is not fact.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the webinar, Ageism 101, presented by Makieya Kamara, MSW, MNL, LCSW
