REFLECTIONS Social Construction and its Development: Liping Yang Interviews Kenneth Gergen Liping Yang & Kenneth Gergen Received: 13 October 2011 / Accepted: 9 January 2012 / Published online: 21 February 2012 # National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India 2012 Abstract Nanjing University psychologist Liping Yang interviews Kenneth Gergen on the development of social constructionist thought and practice. The conversation treats a variety of issues, including the development of construc- tionism as a new paradigm, qualitative research, education and other practices informed by constructionism, value loaded science, relativism, and the Taos Institute. Keywords Social construction . Positivism . Qualitative research . Relativism LY : As you know, I have been studying social construction- ism for 10 years, but I still have many questions to ask you. Sometimes you may find I ask questions on behalf of young students who don’t know social constructionism very well. Their questions may not be very difficult, but probably repre- sent common doubts about social constructionism. Maybe I can answer some of these questions, but your answers are the most authoritative. Students would like to accept your position and ideas. And also, sometimes I ask questions even on behalf of some positivists. They always stand on traditional empiri- cist grounds to criticize social constructionism. You may find this kind of question prejudicial and challenging. I hope our interview can clarify some of their confusions. So, you will hear different voices from various questions. It will sound much like a multi-voice song. KG: Thank you for such a song, but realize the ultimate aim here is not for me to be an authority. The ultimate aim is for a dialogue. I don’t mind serving as an authority for a time, but that is not my goal. If it is just one person who speaks, it is unfortunate and it’ s antithetical to the entire orientation. So, I will play the role of monologist and authority, but it is only temporary. I expect you, your students, and positivists as well to help this to become a dialogue, right? LY : That’ s great. Thank you. The developmental situation of the social constructionist movement LY : For most researchers, their recognition of social con- structionism began from reading your famous article “The Social Constructionist Movement in Modern Psychology”, which is regarded as an important indication of the emer- gence of social constructionist psychology. Since then, 26 years have passed, how is this movement developing? Probably there are not accurate numbers, but I think even a rude estimation would be valuable. So, would you mind if I ask some questions about how many American universities or colleges offer courses related to social constructionism nowadays? And how many articles or books in this field have been published in recent years? KG: You know, it is a complicated question in one way because I don’t know everything that has happened. It is also complicated in a second way, because (and this point is important and little understood) constructionism functions on two levels. First it is a metatheory of knowledge, similar to empiricism, for example, as a theory about all claims to knowledge. And secondly, it is a theory in practice, just as cognitive or psychoanalytic theory are theories in prac- tice. So at a metatheory level, constructionism says, let’ s realize everything we called knowledge is a communal Psychol Stud (April–June 2012) 57(2):126–133 DOI 10.1007/s12646-012-0146-x The interview was conducted at Swarthmore College on August 17– 20, 2011. L. Yang Psychology Department, College of Education Science, Nanjing Normal University, 122 Ninghai Road, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, People’ s Republic of China 210097 e-mail: lpy2908@yahoo.com.cn K. Gergen (*) Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1397, USA e-mail: kgergen1@swarthmore.edu