social constructionism
the epistemological position, associated mainly with postmodernism, that any supposed knowledge of reality (e.g., that claimed by science or that provided by concepts such as good and bad) is in fact a construct of language, culture, and society that has no objective or universal validity. That is, knowledge is contingent on humanity’s collective social self rather than on any inherent qualities that items or ideas possess. Social constructionists thus seek to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived reality by looking at how various phenomena are created, understood, and accepted by the social institutions and contexts in which they exist. See also situated knowledge.