Notes - Social Construction and the law

Social Constructionism


I. OVERVIEW 

Social constructionism stems from epistemological position - not an 
explanatory theory. It has many roots. It focuses on how people put together
a social world, the meanings they give it and take from it, and the
ways we INTERPRET the social world as we create and re-create it.

II. TYPICAL THEORIES

  --phenomenology
  --symbolic interaction
  --existential sociology

II. MEMES

Social construction of our reality occurs in several ways. One way is
by memes, or "cultural DNA:"

    Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping
    from body to body via sperms or eggs,
    so memes propogate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from
    brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be
    called imitation (Dawkins, 1976: 206).

Memes are cultural replicators, "brain worms" (like "ear worms")
or cultural information snippets in our brain that provide icons or models
by which we create our culture.  Examples of memes include tunes, ideas, 
clothes, or fashion. Like bacteria, memes may or may not be good for the host. 

Explain:  "Osama Obama;" "Hillary's cackle" (and images conveyed and how
it replicates other images that we pepetuate and act upon)

EXAMPLE: RELIGION AND LAW - ROE V. WADE AS A MEME
 --socialization
 --culture wars
 --legal battles
 (tie to Al Qaeda kids)

IV. SOME ISSUES

  --Objectivism v. Subjectivism
  --Agency v. Social structure
  --Realism v. Subjectivism

V. SOME READINGS

A. Frohmann and Mertz: "Legal Reform and Social Construction: Violence, 
Gender, and the Law."

Key points  (p 840):

   "Thus, as with our review of the scholarship on rape reform efforts, we
   have moved from examinations of efficacy and process to broader questions
   about the intersection of legal reform with organizational cultures and 
   deepseated social attitudes. With both rape and battery, we see that legal 
   reforms have been able to improve efficacy and process to a certain degree, 
   but that further attention to institutional and social contexts is required 
   to bring about the thoroughgoing changes envisioned by the early reformers"
   (840)

  The cultural,
  economic, and social roots of gender and race inequality are too deep.73 Not
  only is change at the level of statute and official policy necessary, but in
  addition it will require substantial rethinking of institutional structures and
  ideologies to successfully combat violence against women. (850)

B. Buffinton: Periodization and it's discontents

C. Roby (see handout)

Return to Jim Thomas's homepage

Page maintained by: Jim Thomas - jthomas@math.niu.edu