ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the complex of social construction ideas. It considers how these ideas have been used in social work and social action, before going on to examine the problems and potentialities of social construction ideas for social work theory and practice. Social construction is a complex of ideas, and a number of strands of debate offer ideas relevant to social work. The chapter examines three other sociological uses of social construction: the social construction of social problems, phenomenological and related sociologies and the social construction of human categories. It argues that social construction concepts have been explicitly applied in debates of direct concern to social work and social action and have in fact been used within social work and social action, at these different levels and using both interpretations. Social construction’s particular contribution is to assert the priority of social relationships in the formation of knowledge and explain how those relationships contribute to knowledge formation.
