About Us

The Taos Institute ® is a non-profit (501c3) virtual educational organization founded in Taos, New Mexico, USA in 1993 and designed to advance social constructionist ideas and practices around the globe. We are a community of scholars, practitioners, students and change agents concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value. We are committed to exploring, developing and disseminating ideas and practices that promote creative, appreciative and collaborative processes in families, communities and organizations around the world.

Social constructionist theory and practice locates the source of meaning, value and action in the relational connection among people. It is through our social and relational processes that we construct the world. For more details, visit our Theoretical Background page.

We work at the interface between the scholarly community and societal practitioners from communities of mental health, social work, counseling, organizational change, education, community building, gerontology, healthcare and more. We develop and explore the ways in which scholarly research can enrich professional practices, and practices can stimulate scholarly inquiry.

We achieve our educational ends through conferences, workshops, courses, the Taos Institute Commons online community (free) featuring a variety of opportunities to come together in dialogue such as Taos Conversations, Community Meet & Greets, Irresistible Climate Conversations, and Dialogue with the Authors book discussions. We make available a wide range of free resources on social constructionist, relational, and appreciative ideas and practices including podcasts, videos, manuscripts and dissertations, and through Taos Institute Publications.

Our work is in creating promising futures through social construction and positive change one conversation at a time. We look forward to your participation in the dialogues.