Are We Complicit? Talking Social Constructionism in the Age of Trump

by Owen Whooley

Like many, the presidential election has left me with a profound sense of unease. This unease operates on three registers, the combination of which concoct a veritable witch’s brew of angst.  The first is the unease I feel as a citizen, concerned about the state of our democratic institutions.  The second is the unease I feel as a sociologist, who despite claiming some expertise on, you know, society, didn’t see this coming (and worse, insisted throughout the election that a Trump presidency would never happen).  Both of these sources of unease have received their due attention in election post-mortems and hallway discussions with my peers.  However, it’s the last sources of disquiet that’s the bitterest to swallow, for it raises inconvenient questions regarding the way I think about the world.  I fear that I, as a social constructionist, have contributed to the mess in which we find…