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Social Constructivism vs. Social Constructionism
Social Constructivism is concerned with how individuals mentally construct their worlds4 in a social context. This includes using categories/classifications supplied by social relationship (Fletcher (Ch.8) in Fayolle, 2007: 164, 168). This emphasis is the one most frequently applied in entrepreneurship research (Fayolle, 2007: 13).
Social Constructionism primarily refers to an ontological position about the social world that asserts social phenomena, their categories, and meanings are developed by social actors at a particular time, particularly through interaction, and are in a constant state of revision or reconstruction as changes in a situation (place, time, actors) warrant (Bryman & Bell, 2011: 22-24). In recent years the concept has been used to describe researchers’ own accounts of the social world and so it can have an epistemological aspect (ibid.).
The social construction of reality emphasizes “the shared processes and negotiated understandings in which people constantly engage to create meaning” (Fletcher (Ch.8) in Fayolle, 2007: 163). The strength of these ideas in research derives from having roots in several intellectual traditions (e.g. symbolic interactionism, social phenomenology) (ibid.), which can lead to confusion about what is being socially constructed – meanings, time, identities, the self, lived experiences, or social reality. Social Constructivism and Social Constructionism are two dominant emphases in this perspective.
Bryman & Bell (2011: 22) use the terms constructivism and constructionism interchangeably and this seems to be a common practice (Fletcher (Ch.8) in Fayolle, 2007: 163). But Fletcher and other scholars distinguish between them as involving different levels of analysis. Social Constructivism looks inward to understand how each individual’s cognitive processes (i.e. making sense of phenomena, developing meaning, learning) lead to constructing their own understanding of reality. Thus, there are likely multiple interpretations of any investigated phenomenon regarding human activity (e.g. various entrepreneurial activities). Social Constructionism, in contrast, is outward-looking and directed to how a collective understanding of activities is interactively co-constructed through dialogic, social, and relational processes. Thus, they are fundamentally different and not interchangeable.
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