The Social Problem Process Essay - due in 12 hours

CHAPTER 1: THE SOCIAL PROBLEMS PROCESS

■ Defining Social Problems

■ Objectivist definition

■ Locates a harmful condition

■ Attempts to measure (count) the characteristics of that harmful condition

■ Problems with objectivist definition

■ We worry about some conditions but sometimes the measures do not show that the

worry is all that harmful to that many people

■ We don’t worry about other harmful conditions when the measures show that the harm

is significant to a large number of people

■ Not everyone may agree why a condition is harmful because individuals use different

objective standards to identify that a condition is harmful

■ The definition of harm varies from condition to condition; no one standard is used to

define this key term

■ Constructionist definition (also known as subjectivist approach)

■ Conditions are viewed as problems not because of objective standards but because

people think they are problems

■ Conversely, if people do not perceive a condition to be troublesome, they will not define it

as a social problem; what matters is people’s response to and perceptions of troubling

conditions

■ So the list of social problems changes over time as people’s opinions shift

■ Different countries will have different lists of social problems because their distinct

experiences and cultures will shape what they see as troubling

■ Therefore, this definition focuses on people’s claims about conditions

■ Constructionism

■ Ways in which people assign meaning to world

■ Language plays a key role in the construction process, because individuals learn about

and typify their world through naming it and talking about it

■ The social problems process (constructionism)

■ Begins with the recognition that the only thing that social problems have in common is that

some people have defined/constructed them that way

■ Key terms

■ Claim: Statement or action or nonverbal gesture that highlights a troubling condition

■ Claimsmaking: When an individual or a group says that a condition should be perceived

as troubling, in other words, as a social problem

■ Claimsmakers: People who feel that something is wrong and that something should be

done about it

■ Natural history of a social problem: Interactive social process by which some individuals or

groups state claims about a troubling condition in order to attract the attention of

policymakers and the general public, in order to make change

■ Stage 1: Claimsmaking

■ Stage 2: Media coverage

■ Stage 3: Public reaction

■ Stage 4: Policymaking

■ Stage 5: Social problems work (implementation, often on a microscopic, interactive level)

■ Stage 6: Policy outcomes