social construction
... In this extract, Clarke and Cochrane use ‘motherhood’ as an example to explore the links between the labelling of things and processes of social construction. ... It is argued that the concept of social construction is essential in social science when evaluating and defining social problems and the way in which they are built up through social processes. ... Language creates social interaction, it implies intention and is the result of our knowledge and understanding of the world we live in. However, this concept of social construction and language has been expanded and put into a more central context, which we may call social constructionism, whereby important characteristics, of any given society, are defined by the values, norms and attitudes of behaviour that surround them, beginning with the process of naming or labelling and resulting in the way in which we act upon these meanings.