The aim of this article is to address the relation between a usercentred objective and social constructionism and the possibility to refine usercentred fundamentals by enhancing the awareness of the relation between humans and the constructed environment. Through social constructionism we could enter a bit deeper into questions like; (1) reality’s subjective character especially concerning tech...

The UNESCO Statements on Race of the early 1950s are understood to have marked a consensus amongst natural scientists and social scientists that 'race' is a social construct. Human biological diversity was shown to be predominantly clinal, or gradual, not discreet, and clustered, as racial naturalism implied. From the seventies social constructionists added that the vast majority of human genet...

This paper starts out with the discussion of two metaphysical assumptions on which IS research can be based, namely positivism and constructionism. While positivism believes in the existence of an objective and measurable world, constructionism holds that the world is a social construct. Depending on the metaphysical basis, the IS researcher chooses a methodological approach. Traditionally, pos...

As a growing number of faculty use constructivist and constructionist approaches to teaching in SL, little research exists on the many ethical considerations and legal implications that affect course development. Following the experiences of the instructor and five students, their 12-week journey is documented through interviews, journals, blogs, weekly course activities, SL class dialogs, and ...

In this chapter, the major fields of scholarship and research in the humanities and social sciences that have examined the social role of scientific medicine in western societies are reviewed for the theoretical developments which have occurred since the mid-20th century. Particular attention is paid to the emergence of social constructionism as a dominant perspective appropriate for engaging i...