Social Fictionalism and the Politics of Interpretation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25365/jso-2026-9629Keywords:
Social construction, anti-realism, Fictionalism, power, assemblagesAbstract
Current political debates in many countries concern not just questions about the redistribution of resources but are also about the very nature of these countries, and about who belongs to them. Yet while these might seem like questions which have a social-ontological dimension to them, social ontology as a discipline has tended to focus on other types of social entities than nations or countries. This paper explores an anti-realism about such social entities coupled with a fictionalism about them (and possibly many other social entities as well), but where the reality of so-called sociomaterial assemblages is still recognized. On this approach, something like a politics of interpretation is an ever-present feature of social constructions like nations and countries. And while social fictionalism does not tell us which way to go on these political issues, it does help open them up for possible alternatives to dominant narratives.
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