Social Constructionism and Conceptual Analysis in Sociology

Abstract

In this article, I reinterpret the social constructionist approach to the study of social problems from the perspective of conceptual analysis in sociology. The literature on social constructionism has argued that it already overcame the problem of ontological gerrymandering and all we must do is engage in empirical research. On the contrary, I argue that far too little attention has been paid to the methodological implications of the research on “claim-making activities.”

First, I point out that the main topic of the debate over social constructionism has not been the status of knowledge we acquire from the research on claim-making activities, but the selection of philosophical standpoints. Second, I reaffirm that social constructionism originally had a serious interest in the method of researching a particular problem, such as crime or child abuse, as a social problem, and society members' moral judgments on the condition of society. Subsequently, I explicate the idea of the conceptual analysis of sociology, which can afford a well-defined methodology to research social problems involving the original concern of social constructionism.

The aim of conceptual analysis is to elucidate concepts we use to understand who we are and what we do with detailed descriptions of the organization of practices. From this viewpoint, the social constructionist approach could be interpreted as a conceptual inquiry into members' methodologies that make claim-making activities intelligible as the very activity of claiming social problems.