ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of constructivist theories, their application in the study of security, and their relation to the field of critical security studies. Rather than portraying ‘constructivism’ as a monolithic theoretical approach, the chapter instead makes the case that social constructivist approaches to security are best thought of as a plurality of approaches that converge around some key assumptions but diverge on others. Although they might be argued to share, at a minimum, the assumption that security and insecurity should be conceived of as socially constructed, different variants of constructivism diverge on the precise implications and significance of that claim. The chapter reviews these issues, with a particular focus on the contributions of (critical) constructivist theories to (critical) security studies.
