ABSTRACT
Endress emphasizes the integrative perspective of social constructivism, which rests on a threefold paradigm that links the socially channeled processes of communicating, interpreting and legitimating, and acting. Endress identifies communicative constructivism, the sociology of valuation and evaluation, and practice theory as continuations of the paradigm that deepen specific parts of the comprehensive idea underlying Berger and Luckmann’s classic work. However, from his point of view, none of these three continuations have come anywhere near replacing that book’s comprehensive theoretical framework: Whereas communicative constructivists put emphasis on the “reality-generating potency” of conversation, one of the most central notions of The Social Construction of Reality, sociologists of valuation and evaluation focus on the moral dimension of communication, in line with Luckmann’s understanding of moral communication as an evaluative performance. And finally, theorists of practice question the meaningfulness of action and the processes of institutionalization and objectivation that have been linked to social constructivism from the very beginning. With an empirical focus on catastrophes, Endress endeavors to show that, compared to Berger and Luckmann’s comprehensive project, current studies on communicative construction, evaluation processes and practices are too narrow to replace the sociological perspective of The Social Construction of Reality. This would require an integrative analytical perspective on social phenomena.
