Social Constructionalist Analysis

Unlike the idea of the essentialist perspective of believing in the innate essence of everything visible and tangible, the constructionalist perspective adopts the idea regarding the origin of reality as being shaped by society including time. Commonly, the concept of time is hardly discussed, much less thought of as something more than always present or as a way of organization. Yet time had to undergo a beginning and a process to reach its current state. The idea of time highlights the progression needed in order to become a reality. It was not something that simply was nor originated naturally. Time is ingrained into the mind of societies after a progression of social construction. Slowly, but steadily, the concept of time came to be what
Roy as “the historical process by which our experiences become put into categories and treated as things” (2001, 5). This is to say that there is not a difference between society and reality and that reality is not something other than the interaction between people. It also explains the categories we place people in through gender, race or even occupation. These categories have become as real as can be due to the importance societies place on them. Social construction follows the constructionalist perspective with the belief that our realities are shaped by society. According to W. I. Thomas and D. S. Thomas who formulated the Thomas Theorem, “If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences”(1928, 52). The same applies to the concept of time. At one point, time underwent a process commonly known as reification, but what really cemented its reality was giving time an actual
Due to the strict rituals, bells became a general marker to record the passing of time. The bells influenced towns and cities, and they became responsible for spreading the new innovation. Clock towers began to sprout in towns and cities creating both a sense of prestige and a sense of communal identity as it brought the citizens together through the new connector of time. Even though a new marker was now in place, nature continued to be the most important aspect of the development of time. Despite the new evolution in the time, the moon and the sun remained the epicenter. The importance of nature continued to expand to naming the days of the week primarily after the names of the