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Author Bio

Richard Dubé holds a PhD in sociology and is currently a full professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa. His main fields of interest are sociology of law, philosophy and epistemology, system theory from the perspective of Niklas Luhmann, and the transformation and reform of social organizations. His current research focuses on the theories of punishment, on the non-evolution of the criminal justice system, and the political and legal constructions of public opinion and victim expectations about sentencing.

Keywords

Ontological Inquiry, Constructivism, Criminology

Abstract

The first objective of this article is to acknowledge the significant contribution of constructivism in its ability to critically challenge what realism often takes for granted as certain or as the truth. The second is to explore how it could go much further, beyond thinking and into being. Having concerned itself mostly with epistemology and the transformation of our ways of thinking, constructivism has come to neglect ontology and the possible transformation of our ways of being. Such an ontological turn is considered important for the reform of higher education.

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