The causes of social injustice matter as much as the nature of social injustice.

What is it about?

People don't always understand when theorists say that certain kinds of things are socially constructed. The feeling is that those kinds of things are real, and important, and saying that they are socially constructed seems to mean that they are made up things. In this paper, I discuss two current alternatives of how to understand that there are socially constructed kinds of things, and I defend the importance of one of these alternatives -- an explanation of the real social causes that led to the existence of certain kinds of things.

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Why is it important?

There are different kinds of things that people have defended are socially constructed. In public discussions, these views tend to be ridiculed - aren´t we talking about real things, that are not made up by us? Explaining and understanding the causal social processes by which certain kinds of things, or events, or properties, come to exist is important. It is important because these are often processes that have unfair discriminatory outcomes. It is normal to regard the real existence of those kinds of things as a sign that it is normal, or natural, that things are like this: for instance, that it is natural that women don't take up leadership positions. A proper understanding of the social causes that lead to there being fewer women in leadership positions, for instance, allows us to understand that these facts are not natural, or inevitable, and that they produce inequality and discrimination. A correct understanding of these events as socially produced is necessary to address social injustice.

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