ABSTRACT
Investigating the social environment allows the theorist to understand why particular issues are labeled 'security issues.' Invoking Wittgenstein, constructivists argue that the limits of our language represent the limits of our world. This chapter analyzes some leading constructivist security texts. It examines how each work characterizes security and discusses how constructivism is employed to understand this version of security. The chapter explores what a study of security looks like according to the author(s) of the specific work in question. It describes the general approach to the idea of security. After summarizing the similarities and differences in these constructivist security texts, the chapter also attempts to outline the successes and failures of these alternative approaches to the study of security loosely grouped under the rubric 'constructivism.' However, the constructivist project has not been without its problems.
