Critical constructionism

Jorgensen & Phillips (2002) and Witkin (2011) argue that despite it being critiqued for being relativist, social construction is inherently a critical endeavour as the theory attempts to destabilise dominant and naturalised systems of meaning. As Jorgensen & Phillips (2002, p.

178) write, ‘an important discourse analytical aim is to unmask and delineate taken-for-granted, common-sense understandings, transforming them into potential objects for

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discussion and criticism and, thus, open to change’. Influenced by the works of Derrida (1976), the unmasking and deconstruction of taken-for-granted knowledge is regularly an explicit aim of constructionist research (Burr 2015; Smith 1988; Witkin 2011; Wood &

Middleman 2006). In these instances, the critical project attempts to denaturalise and deconstruct the unquestioned understandings of reality, proposing that our interpretation of the world is always contingent and therefore can be changed and alternative ‘realities’

are possible (Fook 2002; Witkin 2011). Witkin (2011) argues that questioning the taken-for-granted is a fundamental part of social construction theory. Drawing upon Foucault’s notion of ‘problematisation’, the author suggests that constructionist research needs ‘to not take for granted what is taken for granted, but to treat such beliefs and assumptions as ways of understanding that have gained a status that renders them relatively impervious or invisible to traditional analysis’ (Witkin 2011, p. 31). Therefore, within a constructionist approach, the unmasking and deconstruction of dominant assumptions, which in the case of this thesis are with regard to the relationship between social work and the news media, is argued to represent a critical research aim in its own right (Jorgensen & Phillips 2002).

More broadly, Giddens (1993) claims that all social research is inevitably critical and anthropological as it ‘requires immersion in a form of life’ by which the social researcher aims to better understand the focus of inquiry ‘within the metalanguage of social science’

(Blaikie 2007, p. 163). In doing so, social research has the potential to foster structural change by challenging or undermining the ability of dominant groups to promote a singular construction of reality as the correct one (Blaikie 2007; Giddens 1984). Therefore, the constructionist research process is inherently critical and structural analysis is implicit in the process, although it may not necessarily be an explicit aim (Blaikie 2007).

In order to study the relationship between news media coverage and social workers, the thesis draws upon two key concepts from constructionist thought: discourse and subject positioning.

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2.4 Discourse

The idea of discourse, a highly contested and debated term, is a key concept for this study that is influenced by a multi-theoretical stance drawing on aspects of Berger & Luckmann (1966), Foucault (1972) and Derrida’s (1976) work. Postmodernist, social constructionist and poststructuralist writers have further developed the idea of discourse that assumes that the ways we talk about our reality and the frameworks used for understanding our social worlds also construct them. Fook (2002 p. 63) defines discourse as the way ‘we make meaning of and construct our world through the language we use (verbal and non-verbal) to

communicate about it’. Discourses are expressed beliefs and ideas that are situated within social, institutional and cultural practices, and particular forms of subjectivity that constitute

‘the bodies and feelings of individuals’ (Burr 2015; Fook 2002, p. 64). Discourses become dominant through repetition in several mediums, including the news media, and as certain groups benefit from them (Sterk & Knoppers 2009). The power of dominant discourses is their ability to be seen as ‘truth’ and go unquestioned (Fook 2002; Witkin 2011).

Foucault (1972, p. 49) argues that discourses ‘are practices which form the objects of which they speak’. Foucault (1972) regarded ‘discourse as social structure, and discursive practice as social practice’ (Diaz-Bone et al. 2008, p. 1). This is understood by this study to represent that objects and events in the social world come into existence as meaningful entities through their representation in discourses (Burr 2015). Therefore, constructionist research prioritises the centrality of discourse in all forms of analysis. As Hall (2001, p. 72) wrote, discourses ‘constructs the topic. It defines and produces the objects of our knowledge. It governs the way that a topic can be meaningfully talked about and reasoned about. It also influences how ideas are put into practice and used to regulate the conduct of others’. As detailed previously, this thesis is also influenced by the work of Derrida (1976, p. 163) whose contentious assertion that ‘there is nothing outside the text’ captures the central assumption of a constructionist understanding of discourses and the central focus on

language. It is important to note that this does not negate the existence of a material world, but instead, that our engagement with this world is dependent upon the meaning that discourses give.

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In further developing the theoretical tradition, the thesis draws upon the work of Laclau &

Mouffe (1985) who have contributed to social constructionism through the use of discourse theory to further theorise what constitutes macro-structures. The authors propose that through the hegemonic practices of discourse, reality appears as natural, and therefore non-contingent. They argue that discourses fix meanings in particular ways, excluding all other possibilities, and through myths about society and identity ‘the discursive constructions appear as natural and delimited aspects of reality’ (Jorgensen & Phillips 2002, p. 186). Laclau

& Mouffe (1985) also propose the challenging of ‘hegemonic closures’ through

deconstruction in order to demonstrate, that ‘which we see as objective and natural are, in reality, contingent combinations of elements which could always have been articulated differently’ (Jorgensen & Phillips 2002, p. 186). The work of Laclau & Mouffe (1985) helps to better understand the processes by which discourses in relation to news media coverage become dominant within the professional community and how they can be deconstructed.

In summary, this study understands news media and social work discourses as being the product of externalisation and objectivation resulting in emergent properties with their own causal powers that are not merely the sum product of subjective experience, interpretation and action. These discourses are seen as structures that construct social work as a

profession, defining, creating and also limiting the capacity for action.

In order to better understand the relationship between discursive constructions of the profession in the news media and social workers’ professional identity, this thesis draws upon the constructionist concepts of subjectivity and subject positioning.