Social constructivism in the context of "Social reality"

An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within society. This criterion differentiates ethnic conflict from other forms of struggle.

Academic explanations of ethnic conflict generally fall into one of three schools of thought: primordialist, instrumentalist or constructivist. Recently, some have argued for either top-down or bottom-up explanations for ethnic conflict. Intellectual debate has also focused on whether ethnic conflict has become more prevalent since the end of the Cold War, and on devising ways of managing conflicts, through instruments such as consociationalism and federalisation.

Queer theory is a field of post-structuralist critical theory which is broadly associated with the study and theorization of gender and sexual practices that exist outside of heterosexuality, and which challenge the notion that heterosexuality is what is normal. It emerged in the early 1990s out of queer studies (formerly often known as gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. As an academic discipline, queer theory itself was developed by American feminist scholars Judith Butler and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. Other scholars associated with the development of queer theory are French post-structuralist philosopher Michel Foucault, and American feminist author Gloria Anzaldúa.

Following social constructivist developments in sociology, queer theorists are often critical of what they consider essentialist views of sexuality and gender. Instead, they study those concepts as social and cultural phenomena, often through an analysis of the categories, binaries, and language in which they are said to be portrayed.