Theory of Constructed Groups

Zooming in from communities: the idea that any social group, from a corporate department to a friend circle, is an active construction where roles (leader, clown, skeptic), norms (inside jokes, unspoken rules), and purpose are negotiated and performed. The group doesn't exist before this interaction; it is constituted by it. "Team spirit" isn't a gas that fills the room; it's a practice the team builds through specific actions.

Example: "The project 'team' was a disaster until we unconsciously used the Theory of Constructed Groups. We instituted a stupid Monday meme ritual (building a norm), assigned Nick to be the official progress nag (constructing a role), and started calling ourselves 'The Bug Slayers' (narrating an identity). The same people became a functional group through these tiny acts of construction. The group wasn't the people; it was the pattern we built between them."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Hegemony

The concept, from Gramsci, that a ruling class maintains power not just through force, but by constructing the cultural and ideological "common sense" of an era. Hegemony is built when the dominant group's worldview—its values, beliefs, and social structures—becomes so normalized in media, schools, and everyday life that it's seen as the natural, inevitable order, not as one constructed arrangement among many. Consent is manufactured by making the constructed feel like the given.

*Example: "The idea that working a 9-5 for a corporation is the 'normal' path to a good life is a triumph of constructed hegemony. It wasn't always so. Through 20th-century media, education, and suburbia, this specific life model was built as the default dream. The Theory of Constructed Hegemony shows how questioning it feels like questioning reality itself, because the construction is so complete it hides its own seams."*

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Humanity

The radical historical observation that who and what is included in the category "human" has been repeatedly constructed and redrawn. Ancient Greeks constructed humanity as excluding barbarians; Enlightenment thinkers constructed it around "rationality," often excluding colonized peoples; modern law constructs it around the moment of birth. "Humanity" is not a biological fact with fixed moral implications, but a moral club whose membership rules we argue over and rebuild.

*Example: "In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court constructed Dred Scott as non-citizen, ruling Black people could not be part of the American political 'humanity.' The Theory of Constructed Humanity shows that such rulings aren't just wrong applications of a fixed idea; they are active, violent acts of construction—drawing the boundary of the human community to exclude and dominate. Who counts as fully human is the most consequential construction site of all."*

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Globalization

The view that "globalization"—the dense interconnection of economies, cultures, and politics—is not an inevitable, natural force like the weather, but a political project built by specific policies. Trade agreements, container shipping standards, international financial regulations, and telecom treaties are the deliberate architectural plans. The "global village" feels like a reality, but it is a constructed infrastructure that could be built differently, or dismantled.

Example: "Your phone, with parts from 12 countries, feels like proof of 'natural' globalization. The Theory of Constructed Globalization points to the blueprint: the 1990s WTO agreements that slashed tariffs, the ISO shipping container specs, and the U.S. Navy's protection of sea lanes. This connectivity isn't gravity; it's a carefully engineered system. Calling it 'inevitable' just hides the power of the engineers."

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026

Theory of Constructed Industrial Revolution

The argument that the narrative of the "Industrial Revolution" as a sudden, inevitable, and monolithic turning point is itself a historical construction. It lumps together disparate, localized technological changes (in textiles, steam, iron) into a single, epic story of "Progress" to serve national myths and ideological narratives (like the triumph of capitalism). This construction obscures the alternatives, the brutal costs, and the fact that it wasn't a "revolution" to those living through its decades of messy, uneven change.

*Example: "Textbooks present the Industrial Revolution as a neat before-and-after: farms to factories. The Theory of Constructed Industrial Revolution says that story was built later by historians and boosters to explain the rise of British power. For a spinner in Manchester in 1790, it wasn't a 'revolution'; it was a confusing, brutal shift in daily grind. The sweeping narrative constructs a destiny from what was, in the moment, a chaotic, contested, and far from inevitable mess."*

by Abzu Land January 31, 2026