From the social norm to dissidence. A disturbing epistemological transformation process

Abstract

This paper formulates an understanding of the epistemological transformation process in which individuals shift from carrying out a daily practice which is appropriate to the established social order, to a dissident practice. The research is based on the premises of social constructionism, giving a special attention to interactions, power relations and emotions as explanatory elements of all social phenomena. This approach aims to visualize what kind of relationships, interactions and situations have enabled this transformation, and what emotions and feelings have attended this change. The operationalization of this effective change in the lives of individuals is based on the social relations (economic, kinship, and political relations) which are maintained on a day-to-day basis, localizing, as empirical subjects of study, individuals belonging wholly or fragmentarily to groups dissident to such relations. Four formal and transverse (not substantive) elements are obtained from this comprehensive approach, allowing an understanding of this constituent process, of the possibility of dissident practice, and, ultimately, of epistemological transformation.

Keywords: epistemology; social relations; social constructionism; emotions; social dissidence.