It is all in the word: Constructivism and constitutionism

Constructivism is one of the most successful paradigms within the social and human sciences at the beginning of the new millennium. But it is a very disputed paradigm, and critical accounts of this domi-nating -ism are proliferating. Recently, the critics have become more visible, and the paradigm is now challenged seriously. Being critics of constructivism ourselves we welcome this tendency. How-ever, we are also critical of the critique since it tends to dichotomise the debate to an unnecessary degree, and, at times, does not admit the very fertile insights that are also part of the constructivist ap-proach. In the following we shall join the critique, but in doing so we will point towards a moderated view of the ways in which the world becomes meaningful to us. Our aim is to sketch out a theoretical perspective that benefits from both the insights of constructivism and its critics, and thereby is able to realise the full explanatory potential of both.