Book Review: The Social Construction of Reality — By Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
This is one book; I love reading it again and again. Here I am presenting a review of this book which may prompt you to read it once. Some of the words and phrases will seem little heavy but I have retained them to keep the originality. If you have any Interest in Knowledge and Knowledge Management you will burn all your other texts and pick up this one for sure.
This book is the most original treatise on "Knowledge".
This book has great implication for knowledge management systems of organization. It describes the sociology of knowledge theory by describing as how we in society create and maintain reality. This process is done at both individual and societal level.
The book is divided into three parts:
The foundations of knowledge in everyday lifeSociety as Objective RealitySociety as Subjective Reality
This book describes three steps involved in reality construction:
Externalization : Society is a human productObjectivation : Society is an objective realityInternalisation : Man is a social product
The foundations of knowledge in everyday life
Reality is defined as a quality appertaining to phenomena that we recognize as having independent of our own volition, while knowledge is defined as the certainty that phenomena are real and that they possess specific characteristics. Knowledge is the accumulated and passed on understanding of reality for societies. This part of the book deals with the concept of every day knowledge. This knowledge enables us to understand here and now realities. In the words of Berger and Luckmann:
“As sociologists we take [the reality of everyday life] as the object of our analyses. Within the frame of reference of sociology as an empirical science it is possible to take this reality as given, to take as data particular phenomena arising within it, without further inquiring about the foundations of this reality, which is a philosophical task”
To analyze the every day life the book suggests phenomenological analysis. It presents an interesting observation of consciousness. It is always intentional and different objects confront consciousness as different reality. Everyday reality is postulated as best reality. Everyday reality seems ordered and independent and is described as “here and now” in space and time. It is structured spatially and temporally. Temporality is intrinsic to consciousness.
Reality of everyday life is shared with others. In face to face situations, there is the greatest room to share information. The book describes a continuum of social interaction in which social part of everyday reality varies towards anonymity as we move farther from here and now. The two sides of continuum are face to face and complete anonymity. The importance of knowledge is emphasized in a great manner. It is postulated that language becomes repository for vast accumulations of meanings and experiences. It is observed that language originates in and has primary reference to everyday life. It has objectivity. It forces social interactions into patterns and typifies the experiences. Language bridges different zones of reality and integrates them into a meaningful reality, which includes spatial, temporal, and social variations. Biographical and historical experiences are objectified, retained, and accumulated.
Society as Objective Reality
This part of the book covers following concepts:
InstitutionalizationLegitimation
Human being is not limited to a certain physical environment. They have unspecialized and undirected drives which can be applied to a wide and variable range of objects. It is argued that each individual is born into a world where others have a strong sense of what the reality of this world is - a sense which they have learned from their predefined others like parents teachers etc. There are shared definitions of reality and established patterns of acting which become taken-for-granted as "reality". As these definitions and patterns are established and taken for granted, a shared sense of reality is constructed, confirmed and reproduced. However, although this shared sense of reality is continuously renewed by those who `inhabit' it, the complexes of ideologies and routines -that is, the social institutions - appear to take on a life of their own. Man’ self-production is a social enterprise as they together produce the human environment
“Homo sapiens = Homo Socius”
Social order is ongoing human production and no social order can be derived from biological sphere, but the necessity for social order stems from human biological constitution, so we must turn to institutionalization of this biologically necessary, socially determined social order.
The concept of habitualization is propounded as the prerequisite of institutionalization. The people face various choices, it is the way they handle it and when habitualized gives rise to institution. Institutions arise where there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized action by types of actors. Reciprocal typification of actors is built up in the course of a shared history. Institutions control conduct by setting up predefined patterns of conduct.
Externalisation, Objectivation and Internalisation are regarded as three dialectically related moments in the production of social reality. Continuously, each person is seen to be externalising social reality. They are involved in creating or maintaining particular institutions. Simultaneously, a sense of objective reality is being constructed. Finally, in the process of externalisation and objectivation, the individual is being constructed as a social product. That is to say, the person is acquiring the knowledge and social identity associated with the institutional role.
The concept of legitimation is dealt at great length. Its parallel can be drawn from the concept of power and authority. The book argues that institutional world needs legitimation. We give meaning to institutions through the process of remembering and interpretation. Effective institutionalization will require less coercion. People do mostly what they are expected to do. Some institutions are grouped together, but they need not be. Here the concept of integration of institutions is dealt. Logic is not inherent to institutions. Language is the fundamental superimposition of logic on the objectivated social world. Legitimation is built by and is expressed through language. The logic is part of the socially available stock of knowledge, and taken for granted.
Individuals perform institutionalized actions within context of their biographies, and they see their biographies as coherent. So integrated institutions are brought together and experiences in an individual’s life. Not only institutions, but knowledge about institutions must be studied to understand them. Common sense knowledge is more important than theoretical systems in such analysis. Such knowledge defines institutionalized areas of conduct, and designates all situations falling within them.
Knowledge provides the individual with a `symbolic universe' and enables individual to organise and get experience. The effect of the symbolic universe is to ensure that the reality of everyday life retains its paramount reality. In the absence of a symbolic universe which renders subjective experience real, it is argued that the individual experiences the terror of meaninglessness. Because social reality is inherently precarious, there is always the possibility that legitimation which obscure this precariousness will collapse - for the individual or for society. In this light the legitimation of institutional order is seen to be necessary to keep chaos away.
High stratification of modern industrial societies in terms of status and access to resources is arguably caused by plurality of `sub-universes of meaning'. This plurality is seen to pose problems for the development of legitimation which has relevance or plausibility for the entire society. Pluralism promotes skepticism and innovation which is inherently subversive of the taken-for granted reality of the traditional status quo.
In order to preserve any symbolic universe or sub-universe, outsiders have to be kept out and at the same time any special privileges or recognition granted by the outside society are retained. This is done through various techniques of intimidation, rational and irrational propaganda, mystification and, generally, the manipulation of prestige symbols. On the other hand, insiders have to be kept in - a task which requires an array of practical and theoretical procedures which check any temptation to escape from the sub-universe. However, the most effective methods are those which successfully represent the institutional order as a non-human, immutable facticity - the product of divine will or economic circumstances which dictate a certain course of action. This phenomenon is called reification.
Society as Subjective Reality
This part deals with the process of internalization. It is argued that internalization of reality involves primary socialization, secondary socialization and maintenance and transformation of subjective reality. In society individual is born with a predisposition toward sociality, but he becomes a member of society. New members begin by apprehend the world. They take over others’ objectified subjective behavior and their definitions of shared situations, and defines them reciprocally. This becomes the objective reality for the new member. The foregoing process describes primary socialization. It describes the objective world of child which he develops through the mediation of significant others.
Primary socialization thus can be very different to different children. It includes emotional learning. This process leads to development of an identity by the child. Through primary socialization, the individual moves from internalizing concrete roles to more generalized roles. This process of attaining the generalized other marks the internalization of society.
The stage of primary socialisation ends when the individual has acquired all characteristics of member of society. In this stage individual is is recognised by others to display forms of behaviour and understanding which are recognised by those in authority to express a stable and continuous understanding of the identity and society. Here language plays an important role in providing a shared symbolic universe through which experience is objectified
Secondary socialization is subsequent process on an already socialized individual. Society identity and reality are all crystallized at the same time with the learning of language. Generalized other represents a correlation of externalization of internal reality. Language is considered important piece of primary socialization. It is seen as programs for life and enables structure for understanding life. In Secondary Socialization the detachment from the identity and emotionality becomes important. The concept of objective reality as home is very useful. Any secondary socialization process must be guided towards that home for the purpose of maintenance and transformation of Subjective Reality. It is observed that everyday subjective reality is threaded in marginal situations that are difficult to bracket into objective reality. The book describes two general types of reality maintenance, (1) Routine maintenance and (2) crisis maintenance
