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In sociology, social facts are values, cultural norms, and social structures that transcend the individual and can exercise social control. The French sociologist Émile Durkheim defined the term, and argued that the discipline of sociology should be understood as the empirical study of social facts. For Durkheim, social facts "consist of ...
A social construct is any category or thing that is made real by convention or collective agreement. [1] [2] Socially constructed realities are contrasted with natural kinds, which exist independently of human behavior or beliefs. [1] [2] Simple examples of social constructs are the meaning of words and the value of paper money. [3]
For Searle, language was the key to the formation of social reality because "language is precisely designed to be a self-identifying category of institutional facts"; i.e., a system of publicly and widely accepted symbols which "persist through time independently of the urges and inclinations of the participants." [11]
For example, a flag is a physical social fact that is often ingrained with various immaterial social facts (e.g. its meaning and importance). [35] Many social facts, however, have no material form. [35] Even the most "individualistic" or "subjective" phenomena, such as love, freedom, or suicide, were regarded by Durkheim as objective social ...
In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals. [1] Likewise, society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles , with different functions, meanings, or purposes.
Social constructionism is a term used in sociology, social ontology, and communication theory.The term can serve somewhat different functions in each field; however, the foundation of this theoretical framework suggests various facets of social reality—such as concepts, beliefs, norms, and values—are formed through continuous interactions and negotiations among society's members, rather ...
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As far as traditional social science is concerned, this taken-for-granted world of social facts is the starting and end point for any and all investigations of the social world. It provides the raw, observable, taken-for-granted "data" upon which the findings of the social sciences are idealized, conceptualized, and offered up for analysis and ...