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A dollar bill is an inked bit of paper. It is also legal tender, a kind of power or capacity to procure goods and services. If I give you a dollar bill, have I handed you two things, or one? A key type of claim we hear about such things or concepts is that they are “socially constructed.” Gender, race, money, laws, pets, families, and nations are typical examples. But what does it mean to be a “social construct”? Ontology is the study of what exists, and social ontology is the part that focuses on the social world. Our plan will be to 1) introduce social ontology via some influential recent theoretical frameworks, and then to spend some time on each of four topics that have long been core the subject: 2) social groups, 3) gender and sexual orientation, 4) race, and 5) disability.