Читать книгу The Sage Handbook of Social Constructionist Practice - Группа авторов - Страница 149

Despite all the technology and innovations available to us, we do not see the human need and search for belonging going away. We believe that people will always have the need to connect, to be heard, to be in relationships, and to attend to those relationships. We also see that social constructionist practitioners will continue the turn toward social justice by attending to fairness in our small and daily interactions.

One of the perils we see in our world today is the trend toward polarizing into a few camps or tribes. Facing an unparalleled number of possibilities and choices can feel overwhelming, and a move toward a simpler world may appear enticing. A proliferation of ideas may seem like too much and a desire may grow to limit choices – to reassert dichotomies, to pick between ‘this or that’. This limiting of options (rather than expanding options) would reduce the potential to improve our world, a circumstance that would maintain the inequities and marginalization that a majority of persons on the planet persistently face.

This analysis of the present and the forecast into the future makes the case for continuously finding applications for social constructionist ideas, especially the inclusion of multiple ideas and perspectives, using language that is inclusive and appreciative of varied ideas, and being clear in our decision-making. If these ideas can be made manifest in our everyday personal and professional worlds, we can provide evidence for their continued applicability, utility, and development as we work together toward creating a better world.

Practitioners with boundless creativity and ingenuity find a home in social constructionist thinking and it is applying these ideas in our lives that justifies and encourages us to continue to nurture and develop those ideas. These performances of social constructionist practices provide verification of the importance of those ideas in our world. The world is made better by social constructionist thinking if that thinking spurs actions. The performances of social constructionist thinking outlined in this section underwrite the importance of social constructionist ideas now and into the future. If we hope to continue the evolution of social constructionist thinking in a skeptical world, the products of that thinking need to proliferate.

Social constructionist thinking does not predict an end or a completion – it is always unfinished, worthy of more reflection, and capable of re-direction. This helps us to create pathways to respond to uncertainty and challenges that cannot be foreseen, an indispensable resource in contending with what may lie ahead.