Social Construction of Technology
Technology

…almost everything is negotiable: what is certain and what is not: who is a scientist and who is a technologist; what is technological and what is social; and who can participate in the controversy. (Pinch & Bijker, 1984)

The Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) is a theory within several areas including philosophy of technology, sociology of science, and science & technology studies. The theory was developed in the 1980s by Bijker and Pinch. The theory takes the position of social constructivism with respect to technology, and factors such as its meaning, its function, and its design. SCOT is additionally a theory taught to students in the hard and applied sciences, such as engineering and information technology. SCOT is sometimes referred to as technological constructivism, which is a direct response to technological determinism, a significant aspect of the issue of technology to consider in conjunction with SCOT. The theory…...

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References:

Bijker, W.E. (2009). Chapter 15 -- Social Construction of Technology. Olsen, J.K.B., Pedersen, S.T., & Hendricks, V.F. (eds) A Companion to the Philosophy of Technology. Blackwell Publishing Limited: Oxford, UK.

Bijker, W.E., & Hughes, T.P., & Pinch, T.J. (1987). The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press: Cambridge, MA.

Communicationista. (2009). Technological Determinism vs. Social Construction of Technology. Web, Available from:   2012 October 27.http://communicationista.wordpress.com/2009/12/16/technological-determinism-vs.-social-construction-of-technology/ .

Forlano, L. (2012). Social Construction of Technology. Social Science Research Council -- The Media Research Hub, Web, Available from: 2012 October 28.http://mediaresearchhub.ssrc.org/icdc-content-folder/social-construction-of-technology/.

Social Construction Theory of Reality by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman Applied to the novel "Tom Sawyer" by Mark Twain
Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman's book entitled, "The Social Construction Theory of Reality" discusses how an individual and the society is related to the construction of reality in life as one perceives it to be. Berger and Luckman present various elements that influence the construction of 'reality' of an individual. The book basically provides three important factors or elements vital to the discussion of the Social Construction Theory of Reality: the discussion of how knowledge is conceived, conceptualized, and accepted in real, everyday life; the Society as Objective Reality; and the Society as Subjective Reality. The discussion of how knowledge is acquired and developed is important in discussing the theory because as quoted in the book, "the sociology of knowledge is concerned with the analysis of the social construction of reality."…...

Social Construction of Deviance
Deviance is generally a learned behavior, and a social construction. In the report on college binge drinking, that is seen by the finding that two out of every five students in a four-year college are binge drinkers. That was true for each of the years in which the survey was conducted. When looking at frequent binges, meaning at least three times in a two-week period, the number of college age drinkers still stands at one out of every five. When people live around colleges where there is a significant amount of binge drinking, they are more likely to experience problems as a consequence of that drinking. Additionally, students at that college can expect to experience disruptions due to the binge drinking of students, whether they are part of that culture or not. That is an important issue to consider, because it implies that it is not just…...

Social Construction of Difference
Allan Johnson's article discusses how various forms of difference in American society are socially constructed. He begins his argument by referring to a comment made by American novelist James Baldwin who once suggested that there in reality were no blacks or whites, but only the perceptions of blackness and whiteness.

Johnson and Baldwin do not reject the physiological differences people may have, but Johnson's powerful argument suggests that there are social meanings we attach to our physiological differences which have become more significant in our lives. And that is the essence of social construction. A "white" person is not simply someone with a white complexion of the skin, but in our society we attach a whole set of characteristics and behavioral traits that we presumably believe belong to a white person. It is this premise that allows many people to say that certain and certain groups of people…...

Social Construction of ace and Gender
The purpose of this article is to explore the methods by which Social Construction of ace and Gender are reproduced in the 21st century. In the past, commonplace social practices of discrimination such as segregation in schools, restrictive covenants and redlining in housing, "whites only" drinking fountains, blacks on the back of the bus, and the KKK left no question about the role of racism in controlling and regulating of society. However, in a post-civil rights society racism is often covert and people can choose to be oblivious as to how it is manifested (achlinski, 2009). This study is premised on the existence and the consistence perpetuation of racism in the U.S. And the subsequent profiling of roles based on race and gender. The historical development of this phenomenon of addressed whilst mentioning some of the laws that have been developed to curb this vice,…...

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References

Wedding, C., R. (2010). Defending Whiteness: Protecting White Privilege in Post-Civil Rights Society. London: Springer.

Rachlinski, J. (2009). Does unconscious racial bias affect trial judges? London. Routledge Gurin, P. (2008). Defending Diversity: Affirmative Action at the University of Michigan. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Irons, J. (2010). Reconstituting Whiteness: The Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. Nashville, Tenn: Vanderbilt University.

Chang, D., A. (2010). The Color of the Land: Race, Nation, and the Politics of Landownership in Oklahoma, 1832-1929. Chapel Hill, N.C: University of North Carolina

Social Construction of Race and Reality
Herman Melville's Benito Cereno is a story of race relations and a narrative of racial formation. The theories and definitions set out by Michael Omi and Howard Winant in their article "Racial Formation in the United States" can easily be applied to Melville's novel. First, Benito Cereno details a slave revolt aboard a Spanish merchant ship off the coast of South America. The historical, political, economical, and social settings of Benito Cereno are at the root of the problems that Omi and Winant delineate. Indeed, the authors note on page 61 "It was only when European explorers reached the Western Hemisphere...that the distinctions and categorizations fundamental to a racialized social structure, and to a discourse of race, began to appear." In "discovering" new faces and races, the European explorers were suddenly faced with a paradigm threat. On the one hand, cultural and religious ideals dictated…...

What is not tested is whether or not women have the skills or abilities for the sport, just the chromosomes. This double standard pervades sports as well as other sectors of life creating scientific gender bias rather than understanding. This has created a double consciousness of sorts in women's psyches wherein on job or at the sport they are one way and outside of it they are another. The author states that gender division does not arise from simply a biological standpoint but from the "exigencies of the social order." For the most part this means that most women will in some way play to the social order as they have programmed to do so in order to have some feedback of efficacy and self-worth as a human being. Lorber believes that by deconstructing the existing bipolar categories that new categories based on similarities and differences in behavior will…...

Meaning of Technology Pinch and Bilker (1987) formed the basis of the social construction of technology. They argue that people design and give meaning to technologies, and decided which to adopt and which to reject. An example of this can be found with the smartphone, in a couple of key ways. First, the development of the smartphone itself. The initial concept evolved not from phones at all, but from the adoption of telephone technology for things like pagers, which then became the personal digital assistant. Companies like Palm and Blackberry were producing early smartphones in this format by adding telephones to existing devices that were designed to perform a number of digital functions. Connecting those devices to the world via telephone technology was an innovation. The later addition of Internet access was the next step in this evolution, and came about not longer after other mobile phones were starting to add…...

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References

Pinch, T. & Bijker, W. (1987) The social construction of facts and artifacts. The Social Construction of Technological Systems. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. In possession of the author.

Yousefikhah, S. (2017) Sociology of innovation: Social construction of technology perspective. Ad-Minister. Vol. 30 (Jan-June 2017) 31-43.

race?
Racial Formation

Racial Formation as part of everyday life experience

The Evolution of Modern Racial Awareness

Introduction to the racist reactions

Social Construction Theory

Development of the Social Construction Framework

Propositions related to the social construction of target groups

Racial Rearticulating of political issues

The Far Right

Neo-Conservatism

This report basically centers on a fundamental issue in society that the human race faces which is that of race. The judgment of a person on the basis of their skin color and their place of origin is something that has become quite a problem for some people, while others gain a competitive edge through this distinction. This report aims to discuss this issue while giving an insight into how this creates problems for the minorities and the marginalized groups. It is also discussed how the government and the policy making groups react to this racism and how the formation of policy is greatly influenced by these beliefs of people. Some…...

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Work Cited:

Omi and Winant, Introduction to racist reactions, Race and Reaction, 1994

Bacchi, C.L., 1999, Women, Policy and Politics: London, Sage

Bobrow, Davis B, and John S. Dryzek, 1987, Policy Analysis by Design, Pittsburg

Buchanan, James M, 2001 Politics as public choice, New York, Liberty House

The social construction of the environment is a concept that refers to the ways in which societies and cultures perceive, understand, and interact with the natural world around them. It suggests that our understanding of what represents the natural environment is not a simple reflection of the physical world but rather a product of societal norms, values, beliefs, and practices. In this essay, we explore the various dimensions of environmental social construction and its implications for how humans interact with their surroundings.



At the most basic level, social constructionists argue that our perceptions of the environment are filtered through cultural lenses that shape what we see and how we understand it (Berger & Luckmann, 1966). For instance, different cultures have distinct ways of categorizing and valuing parts of the natural world, which influences their environmental behavior (Douglas, 1966). The Western concept of wilderness,…...

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References:

1. Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor Books.

2. Bullard, R. D. (1990). Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Westview Press.

3. Connelly, J. (2007). Environmental justice in Latin America: Problems, promise, and practice. MIT Press.

4. Cronon, W. (1995). The trouble with wilderness; or, getting back to the wrong nature. Environmental History, 1(1), 7-28.

5. Crutzen, P. J., & Stoermer, E. F. (2000). The Anthropocene. Global Change Newsletter, 41, 17-18.

6. Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. Routledge.

7. Escobar, A. (1996). Constructing nature: Elements for a poststructural political ecology. Futures, 28(4), 325-343.

Whiteness as a Non-ace
Paradoxes of Whiteness

History of Domination

Problems of Whiteness Studies

Me too ism"

The study of Whiteness is fraught with controversy. While many theorists confuse Whiteness studies with studies on racism, other theorists believe Whiteness is a social reconstruction. This paper endeavors to explore the idea of Whiteness being a social reconstruction. Whiteness privileges will be identified as well as characteristics of Whiteness that allows it to continue to survive in an era where political correctness and affirmative action are present in people's minds. Examples of whiteness in different life areas will be examined and "me too ism" as a defence and reaction on the part of white people will be investigated.

BODY

The controversy regarding Whiteness has not been laid to rest. While many theorists argue that it cannot be separated from the theme of racism, other analysts believe Whiteness is a social construction and racism is merely a result of this…...

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References

Clark, Kendall. (January 8, 2001) My White Problem -- And Ours. http://monkeyfist.com/articles/734/plain

Clark, Kendall. (June 28, 2001) The Global Privileges of Whiteness. http://monkeyfist.com/articles/764/plain

Jensen, Robert. (July 19, 1998) "White Privilege Shapes the U.S.," in Baltimore Sun. http://racerelations.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Erjensen/freelance/whiteprivilege.htm

Kuchta, Tod M. (1998) The Dyer Straits of Whiteness.  http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/postmodern_culture/current/9.1r_kuchta.html

Integration of Social Construction Overview
We all function in settings with people drawn from all walks of life – be it in church, at the workplace, at the gym, in school, etc. At my place of work, I work alongside persons who are essentially socially different. This is to say that my organization has made it possible for a social construct to be created with the primary aim of achieving superior organizational goals and objectives. This text concerns itself with the social construction at my place of work that brings together people who happen to be diverse from a social perspective.
Discussion
a) Nature of Integration
The integration of the social construction of gender, class, race, culture, religious beliefs, as well as sexuality at my workplace could be conceptualized in terms of the organizational commitment to equal employment opportunity and diversity of the workforce. It is important to note, from the onset, that these ideals…...

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References

Ezbilgin, M. (Ed.). (2009). Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work: A Research Companion. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

McGuire, D. (2014). Human Resource Development (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: SAGE.

Moodian, M.A. (Ed.). (2008). Contemporary Leadership and Intercultural Competence: Exploring the Cross-Cultural Dynamics within Organizations. Washington, DC: SAGE.

Thomas, D.C. & Mark, F.P. (2017). Cross-Cultural Management: Essential Concepts (4th ed.). Washington, DC: SAGE Publications.

West, M.A. (2012). Effective Teamwork: Practical Lessons from Organizational Research (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Sociocultural Perspective on Childhood
"Children's capacity to choose appropriate behaviour is influenced by their developmental ability, temperament, interactions, life experiences and environmental factors." (Government of South Australia, 2004)

Children's behavior is a reflection of a constellation of different factors, including but not limited to: genetics, environment, and epigenetics (the ways in which the environment interacts with and affects biology). The concept of what is a 'badly' behaved child is not a universal construct. During the Middle Ages, children were often viewed as potentially malevolent creatures in need of civilizing; in the Victorian era they were often viewed with sentimentality (Porter, 2009, p. 11). Both of these contrasting beliefs have lingered on in our own era, as well as other culturally-constructed ideas, including the notion of children as possessing a limited capability (Porter, 2009, p. 12). Many of our beliefs about childhood are actually quite contradictory, such as the idea that children are…...

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References

Doherty, J. (2009). The social and moral world of the child. In Child development: Theory

and practice 0-11. London: Longman, 377-423.

Kenninson, P, Goodman, P., Metcalf, C. (2008). Constructing childhood and child abuse

In Children as victims. Exeter: Learning matters, 2008: 1-14

Introduction Although genetics certainly do define the physical features and characteristics of individuals, “race” itself is an arbitrary classification, much as geo-political boundaries are. Geopolitical boundaries are “real” in the sense that they can be delineated on a map and often are defined by geological features like mountain ranges or rivers. Yet the “reality” of geographic boundaries is tenuous, and they mainly have ramifications for political relationships and regional power struggles. Much in the same way, race can be based on distinct biological features like skin color or facial features but those physiological traits are only clustered for purposes of labeling and stereotyping, justifying social hierarchies, and political expediency. Race is a category of convenience, one that attempts to link specific biological markers like skin color or facial features with cultural components such as ethnicity. More importantly, the construction of race as a deterministic classification has direct implications for social, political,…...

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References

Coates, T. (2013). What we mean when we say race is a social construct. The Atlantic. May 15, 2013.

Dempsey-Jones, H. (2018). Neuroscientists put the dubious theory of ‘phrenology’ through rigorous testing for the first time. The Conversation. Jan 22, 2018. http://theconversation.com/neuroscientists-put-the-dubious-theory-of-phrenology-through-rigorous-testing-for-the-first-time-88291

Gannon, M. (2016). Race is a social construct, scientists argue. Live Science. Feb 4, 2016. https://www.livescience.com/53613-race-is-social-construct-not-scientific.html

Hartigan, J. (2009). Is race still socially constructed? Science as Culture 17(2): 163-193.

Hodson, G. (2016). Race as a social construction. Psychology Today. Dec 5, 2016. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/without-prejudice/201612/race-social-construction

Johnson, H. (2017). The social construction of race in the United States. Medium. https://medium.com/@KnowledgeisPower/the-social-construction-of-race-in-the-united-states-c958cf5a6eb7

Lusca, E.L. (2008). Race as a social construct. Anthropology.net. https://anthropology.net/2008/10/01/race-as-a-social-construct/

Morning, A. (2014). Does genomics challenge the social construction of race? Sociological Theory 32(3): 189-207.https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/05/what-we-mean-when-we-say-race-is-a-social-construct/275872/

social construction relate critical incident stress? 2. Is CISM applicable emergency -emergency persons? Why ? 3. Why important distinguish CISM psychotherapy? Sources: Mitchell, J.
CISM: Questions

How does social construction relate to critical incident stress?

Stresses from critical incidents do not occur in a 'bubble.' Social pressures are critical components of interpersonal and environmental stress, spanning from the problems that arise from drug and alcohol abuse; emotional, physical, and sexual workplace violence; domestic violence and child abuse; post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. Tensions between different groups can lead to divisiveness and violence if not appropriately managed. Different cultural standards regarding sexual or other interpersonal behaviors can create miscommunication and escalating tensions in the workplace. Gender assumptions can result in female and child victimization, if a man feels he has a 'right' to 'treat' his family according to standards of patriarchal dominance. The trauma of war, living in high-crime areas, deprivation, or sexual…...

One recent news story in Canada that could be analyzed sociologically using concepts or theories is the controversy surrounding the recent discovery of unmarked graves at former residential school sites. This news has brought to light the long-standing issue of systemic racism and cultural genocide against Indigenous peoples in Canada.

In analyzing this news story, one could apply sociological concepts such as structural functionalism, conflict theory, or postcolonial theory to understand the historical and ongoing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous communities. One could also examine the role of power and privilege in perpetuating inequality and marginalization of Indigenous peoples within Canadian....

Essay Topics Related to Gender Roles

1. The Social Construction of Gender Roles

Discuss how gender roles are shaped by societal norms, expectations, and institutions.
Explore the ways in which culture, socialization, and media influence the construction of gender identities.
Analyze the impact of social change on the evolution of gender roles.

2. Gender Inequality in the Workplace

Examine the extent of gender wage gaps, occupational segregation, and glass ceilings in various industries.
Discuss the systemic barriers and biases that limit women's advancement in the workplace.
Analyze the role of legislation, affirmative action policies, and workplace culture in promoting gender equality.

3. Gender....

Qualitative Research Essay Topic Ideas

1. The Role of Reflexivity in Qualitative Research

The researcher's positionality and its impact on data collection and analysis
Strategies for enhancing reflexivity and minimizing bias
Ethical considerations in reflexive qualitative research

2. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) in Qualitative Research

Theoretical foundations and methodological approach of IPA
Applications of IPA in various research contexts
Strengths and limitations of IPA as a qualitative research method

3. Grounded Theory in Qualitative Research

Inductive and iterative nature of grounded theory
Techniques for data collection and analysis in grounded theory
The role of theory development and saturation in grounded theory research

4. Ethnography....

Essay Topic 1: The Intersectional Challenges of Womanhood

Introduction:
Explore the complex intersectionality of womanhood, examining how race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other factors shape the experiences and challenges faced by women.

Body Paragraph 1:
Discuss the historical and systemic barriers women have encountered in education, employment, and political representation. Analyze how these barriers have disproportionately impacted women of color, LGBTQ+ women, and women from marginalized communities.

Body Paragraph 2:
Examine the unique challenges women face in the workplace, including wage disparities, occupational segregation, and workplace discrimination. Discuss the gender stereotypes and biases that perpetuate these inequalities.

Body Paragraph 3:
Explore the intersectionality of gender and race, highlighting....