1. The dependence of meaning (and/or identity) on the specifics of particular sociohistorical, geographical, and cultural contexts, social and power relations, and philosophical and ideological frameworks, within which the multiple perspectives of social actors are dynamically constructed, negotiated, and contested. Such approaches are often perceived by realists as radical relativism. See also contextualization.
2. Social situatedness: the notion that the development of individual intelligence is dependent on its embedding in a social (and cultural) context. It derives from the work of Vygotsky in the 1920s.