Across Social Realities: Critical Reflections on Recognition, and Representation

In contemporary Social Science, the concepts of recognition and representation are not merely theoretical concerns, but fundamental to understanding how social realities are constructed, experienced, and challenged among communities. Social reality refers to shared perceptions, beliefs, values, and social constructs that shape how people understand and interact within a society through ongoing social interactions and cultural transmission (Kaldis, 2014). While this reality is not fixed or purely objective, it is actively created and maintained by individuals and groups who interpret and reinforce social roles and behaviors.

The concept of the ‘social construction of reality’ developed by Berger and Luckmann (1966), remains a foundational framework for understanding how societies produce and maintain shared meanings. According to this theory, social reality emerges through habitualization, where repeated behaviors become routine, and institutionalization, where these routines are perceived as objective and taken for granted. This view emphasizes that what we consider ‘real’ is not fixed or universal but shaped by cultural context and social interaction (Kaldis, 2014; Miller & Nowacek, 2018).