The book Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann (1967), “The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge,” has two following concepts on society as objective reality:
1. Institutionalization
2. Legitimation
Human being is not limited to a certain physical environment. They have unspecialized and undirected drives which can be applied to a wide and variable range of objects. It is argued that each individual is born into a world where others have a strong sense of what the reality of this world is - a sense which they have learned from their predefined others like parents teachers etc. There are shared definitions of reality and established patterns of acting which become taken-for-granted as “reality”. As these definitions and patterns are established and taken for granted, a shared sense of reality is constructed, confirmed and reproduced. However, although this shared sense of reality is continuously renewed by those who ‘inhabit’ it, the complexes of ideologies and routines -that is, the social institutions - appear to take on a life of their own. Man’ self-production is a social enterprise as they together produce the human environment
“Homo sapiens = Homo Socius”
Social order is ongoing human production and no social order can be derived from biological sphere, but the necessity for social order stems from human biological constitution, so we must turn to institutionalization of this biologically necessary, socially determined social order.
The concept of habitualization is propounded as the prerequisite of institutionalization. The people face various choices, it is the way they handle it and when habitualized gives rise to institution. Institutions arise where there is a reciprocal typification of habitualized action by types of actors. Reciprocal typification of actors is built up in the course of a shared history. Institutions control conduct by setting up predefined patterns of conduct.
Externalisation, Objectivation and Internalisation are regarded as three dialectically related moments in the production of social reality. Continuously, each person is seen to be externalising social reality. They are involved in creating or maintaining particular institutions. Simultaneously, a sense of objective reality is being constructed. Finally, in the process of externalisation and objectivation, the individual is being constructed as a social product. That is to say, the person is acquiring the knowledge and social identity associated with the institutional role.
The concept of legitimation is dealt at great length. Its parallel can be drawn from the concept of power and authority. The book argues that institutional world needs legitimation. We give meaning to institutions through the process of remembering and interpretation. Effective institutionalization will require less coercion. People do mostly what they are expected to do. Some institutions are grouped together, but they need not be. Here the concept of integration of institutions is dealt. Logic is not inherent to institutions. Language is the fundamental superimposition of logic on the objectivated social world. Legitimation is built by and is expressed through language. The logic is part of the socially available stock of knowledge, and taken for granted.
Individuals perform institutionalized actions within context of their biographies, and they see their biographies as coherent. So integrated institutions are brought together and experiences in an individual’s life. Not only institutions, but knowledge about institutions must be studied to understand them. Common sense knowledge is more important than theoretical systems in such analysis. Such knowledge defines institutionalized areas of conduct, and designates all situations falling within them.
Knowledge provides the individual with a ‘symbolic universe’ and enables individual to organise and get experience. The effect of the symbolic universe is to ensure that the reality of everyday life retains its paramount reality. In the absence of a symbolic universe which renders subjective experience real, it is argued that the individual experiences the terror of meaninglessness. Because social reality is inherently precarious, there is always the possibility that legitimation which obscure this precariousness will collapse - for the individual or for society. In this light the legitimation of institutional order is seen to be necessary to keep chaos away.
High stratification of modern industrial societies in terms of status and access to resources is arguably caused by plurality of `sub-universes of meaning’. This plurality is seen to pose problems for the development of legitimation which has relevance or plausibility for the entire society. Pluralism promotes skepticism and innovation which is inherently subversive of the taken-for granted reality of the traditional status quo.
In order to preserve any symbolic universe or sub-universe, outsiders have to be kept out and at the same time any special privileges or recognition granted by the outside society are retained. This is done through various techniques of intimidation, rational and irrational propaganda, mystification and, generally, the manipulation of prestige symbols. On the other hand, insiders have to be kept in - a task which requires an array of practical and theoretical procedures which check any temptation to escape from the sub-universe. However, the most effective methods are those which successfully represent the institutional order as a non-human, immutable facticity - the product of divine will or economic circumstances which dictate a certain course of action. This phenomenon is called reification.
Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1967). The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Anchor Books.
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