ABSTRACT
The claim that 'discourse is all there is' is a logical conclusion of the argument that language does not label discrete entities in the real world that exist independently of it. This chapter teases out some of the theoretical issues that might helps to understand the nature of the claims that are being made by social constructionists and the disagreements between them. Ideology, has raised questions about truth and reality, and since it may also help to illuminate the issue of the relationship between discourse and power. The chapter talks about four ways of thinking about ideology, noting the issues that each of these raise for social constructionism. It outlines the questions about reality and truth that are thrown up by this brief discussion of ideology are problematic ones for social constructionism. Critical realists give more credence to the relativism idea, but differ in the specific ways that they conceptualise the relationship between reality, knowledge and language.
