Deconstruction (other than literary and physics)

Deconstruction reffers to several concepts and practices:

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1. In the context of the physical construction, deconstruction (building) is the practice of manually taking down a building and in a way which preserves valuable building materials for re-use. It is more labour intensive than demolition, but has cost and environmental benefits. The ReBuilding Center in Portland, Oregon is an example of an organisation carrying out deconstruction.

Related Topics:
Deconstruction (building) - Demolition - ReBuilding Center

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2. When new definitions of psychiatric disorders are created, and old definitions superseded (see Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), research that was performed under the old definitions has to be carefully unpicked, partly to persuade scientists that it needs replacing, and partly to work out which aspects of the old research are applicable to the new definitions. An example of this was the transition from "Attention Deficit Disorder" to "Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder", between DSM-III and DSM-IV.

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3. Creationist attempts to disprove evolutionary theory often amount to deconstruction, because they involve re-interpretation of existing data, and creation of a new framework within which to fit it. Attempts from within conventional science to add a nuance, or supersede a detail, in existing evolutionary theory, would not usually be called deconstruction because they do not involve major re-interpretation.

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It is an important aspect of the trial-and-error development of complicated structures. It involves (a) recognition that an aspect of the structure is suboptimal; (b) the decision to try re-creating it in a different way; (c) careful, and usually limited, dismantling of part of the structure in order to preserve useful parts. The critical difference from is that the dismantling is done with care, usually with a view to what can be constructed from the parts. Despite the term, an idea of the new structure usually exists before dismantling occurs, and is used to guide the dismantling.

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Deconstruction often takes place in fields that involve a tree structure of dependencies (logical or physical). In this case, "destruction" would be a good description of chopping off branches and shredding them. "Deconstruction" would involve working inwards from the twigs toward the trunk, carefully testing each branch or branch point to see whether it met some new rule. If it didn't, it would be removed, but usually not discarded without consideration of whether it could be re-used to fill the space according to the new rule.

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