Knowledge, discourse and the methodological turn in Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's the social construction of reality

• Main Author: Ristić Dušan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Ethnography, SASA, Belgrade 2019-01-01
• Series: Glasnik Etnografskog Instituta SANU
• Subjects: sociology of knowledge; sociological discourse analysis; social construction; Peter Berger; Thomas Luckmann
• Online Access: http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/0350-0861/2019/0350-08611901077R.pdf

The aim of this article is to reconsider Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's book Social construction of reality in the context of the contemporary research in sociology of knowledge and sociological discourse analysis. The impact and reception of the book is differentiated from the impact of the term „social construction“. The assumption is that methodological turn in this book is very important for contemporary sociological research of knowledge and discourse. It is emphasized that methodological turn meant turn towards the study of language and meaning as the key tools in the process of objectivation of social reality, but also the new approach to knowledge and social reality. At the same time, the research impulses of the book opened the space for new sociological research. One of the prominent contemporary research agenda within the sociology of knowledge - Sociology of knowledge approach to discourse - is also presented, since it is developed after the influence of Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's Social construction of reality.