Constructing Social Reality by Michael Karlberg

An urgent read for those willing to think deeply about the challenges confronting us in these perplexing times and arise to new forms of constructive action. Far from leaving us hopeless in the face of such threats, he offers insights which make human oneness, and the spiritual and material prosperity of humankind, seem within reach. In this text, he systematically resolves key normative tensions in Western philosophy, supporting the kind of radical transformation of thought needed to bring today's society back from the existential threat of self-destruction. Penn, PhD, Author of Overcoming Violence Against Women and Girls: The International Campaign to Eradicate a Worldwide Problem (Rowman & Littlefield), and co-editor of Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Human Dignity and Human Rights with Hoda Mahmoudi (Emerald Publishing) In Constructing Social Reality: An Inquiry into the Normative Foundations of Social Change, Michael Karlberg adroitly leads us to understand that true social change requires change in our ontological and epistemological assumptions, that is, change at the level of how we understand reality and how we understand knowledge. Indeed, students, scholars, and practitioners in a wide variety of disciplines will find in Constructing Social Reality many unique and refreshing insights that address the normative and epistemic debates that have eroded confidence in values-driven social action. He achieves this by describing - in lucid, systematic, and accessible ways - how confidence in our ability to perceive, evaluate, and act upon socially embedded truths and enduring collective values might be restored. This, his most recent book, clears a discursive path out of the thick forest that has gathered in the fertile fields of social epistemology, normative values, and social change. His current research explores theories of social change and their translation into movement practice.When the paradigm-shifting scholars of this age are remembered, Michael Karlberg will be among them. His most recent book, Constructing Social Reality builds on that work by examining the relativism, cynicism, and materialism the culture of contest gives rise to and how this undermines struggles to construct more peaceful and just social forms. His first book, Beyond the Culture of Contest, examines the socially unjust and ecologically ruinous consequences of organizing dominant social institutions and practices in a competitive manner. He has published in such journals as Peace and Change, Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice, Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies, and the International Journal of Peace Studies.

His scholarship examines prevailing conceptions of human nature, power, social organization, and social change – and their implications for the pursuit of peace and justice. Michael Karlberg is a professor and chair of Communication Studies at Western Washington University.

Constructing Social Reality by Michael Karlberg