ABSTRACT
Theory orients us within the labyrinth of the social world by situating our naive taken-for-granted assumptions within an appropriate symbolic apparatus. The work of theory is often to reveal latent signifiers which, when taken together, constitute our apparently spontaneous opinions or clusters of knowledge. At the minimum, a good theory requires concepts. But as the editor of the aforementioned book, Gender Reckonings, explains, “a lot of what passes for social analysis of gender is conceptually weak. However, there is also the alternative fact that theory itself permits one to become stupid in the face of one’s already established paradigmatic assumptions. The chapter provides a provisional definition for the paradigm, the one that still remains dominant in American universities, namely ‘social constructionism.’.
