The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

Peter L. Berger · Thomas Luckmann

Apr. 2011 · Open Road Media

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A watershed event in the field of sociology, this text introduced “a major breakthrough in the sociology of knowledge and sociological theory generally” (George Simpson, American Sociological Review).
 In this seminal book, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann examine how knowledge forms and how it is preserved and altered within a society. Unlike earlier theorists and philosophers, Berger and Luckmann go beyond intellectual history and focus on commonsense, everyday knowledge—the proverbs, morals, values, and beliefs shared among ordinary people. When first published in 1966, this systematic, theoretical treatise introduced the term social construction,effectively creating a new thought and transforming Western philosophy.

Autoren-Profil

Peter L. Berger (1929–2017) was an award-winning scholar and author and one of the most important modern American sociologists. Berger graduated from Wagner College in New York in 1949 before receiving his master’s degree and doctorate from The New School in New York in 1950 and 1954, respectively. Berger was a professor emeritus of religion, sociology, and theology at the University of Boston and director of the Institute for the Study of Economic Culture, which studies relationships between economic development and sociocultural change. Berger’s works include Invitation to Sociology (1963), The Social Construction of Reality (1966) with Thomas Luckmann, The Sacred Canopy (1967), and A Rumor of Angels (1969).
 Thomas Luckmann (b. 1927) studied sociology at the University of Vienna and the University of Innsbruck in Austria before studying at The New School in New York. He has taught at the University of Konstanz in Germany, and Harvard, Yale, and Stanford Universities, among others.