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Week1_UnderstandingSocialProblems.pptxCurrent Social Problems
Week 1
01/06/2022
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Identity List Activity
Understanding ourselves in relation to sociology
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Illustration by James Yang, Teaching Tolerance
Race
Learning Style
Ethnicity
Religion
Age
Gender
Geography
Mental Health
Sex
Politics
Job/Career
Disabilities
Education
Health Status
Relationships
Family Type
Caretaker Status
Social Class
Examples:
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The Sociological Imagination
The ability to connect the most basic, intimate aspects of an individual’s life to seemingly impersonal, remote, and structural current and historical forces
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The Sociological Imagination
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The cause is within the individual
Has to do with one’s character
A private matter
Transcends the individual
Social structure and institutions (how society is set up)
A public (social) matter
Personal Trouble
Public Issue
We typically view unemployment as a personal trouble.
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Individualism
The idea that in life people pursue their own ends, people follow their own ideas and have total agency
Individualistic Bias
People think that good things that happen in their own lives are wholly a result of their own behavior and merit and bad things as something outside of their control
BUT, people tend to see bad things in other people’s lives as a result of their behaviors and faults
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Exercise:
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Think about one struggle and one achievement in your life. Use your sociological imagination to describe the social forces that might have played a part in their existence.
How would your reflection be different if you interpreted these events with an individualistic bias?
Reflect
Discuss
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Social Phenomenon
Anything created by interactions between people (created by society as opposed to nature)
The sociological perspective allows us to see how people’s actions create and are influenced by social phenomena
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Sociological Theories
Perspectives/Paradigms/Theories
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Functionalism
Emile Durkheim
Social stability, socialization, social integration
Social institutions perform important functions for society
Slow social change is best for a stable society; rapid social change disrupts the social order
Social problems serve their own functions in society
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Conflict Theory
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Inequalities based on class, race, and gender, among other things
Drastic social change is the only way to reduce inequalities
There are fundamental structural faults in society that create and perpetuate inequalities
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Symbolic Interactionism
Herbert Blumer
Individuals construct roles for themselves as they interact
We negotiate definitions of situations and socially construct our own realities as things occur
Symbols, such as words and gestures, are important to come to a shared understanding of an interaction
Social problems come about because of interactions between individuals
Problematic and/or deviant behavior is learned, as are perceptions of social problems
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Feminist Perspective
Mary Wollstonecraft
The feminist perspective focuses on gender inequalities
Women are treated as subordinate in many areas, including social, economic, and political spheres
Liberal feminists: gender inequalities come from differential gender socialization
Marxist feminists: gender inequalities come from the rise of capitalism
Radical feminists: gender inequality is present in all societies
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Intersectionality
Kimberlé Crenshaw
Intersectionality focuses on the intersections of inequality (race, class, and gender) and dynamic relationships
Mutual inter-construction of gender, race, class, and nation
Naturalized hierarchies; place and space
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Critical Race Theory (CRT)
Derrick Bell
Race is socially constructed, not biologically natural.
Racism in the United States is normal, not aberrational: it is the common, ordinary experience of most people of color.
Legal advances (or setbacks) for people of color tend to serve the interests of dominant white groups. Thus, the racial hierarchy that characterizes American society may be unaffected or even reinforced by ostensible improvements in the legal status of oppressed or exploited people.
Members of minority groups periodically undergo “differential racialization,” or the attribution to them of varying sets of negative stereotypes, again depending on the needs or interests of whites.
According to the thesis of “intersectionality” or “antiessentialism,” no individual can be adequately identified by membership in a single group. An African American person, for example, may also identify as a woman, a lesbian, a feminist, a Christian, and so on.
The “voice of color” thesis holds that people of color are uniquely qualified to speak on behalf of other members of their group (or groups) regarding the forms and effects of racism.
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The Macro – Micro Divide
Macrosociology
Concerned with social dynamics at a higher level of analysis across the breadth of society
Structural-level, can seem abstract
Microsociology
Seeks to understand local interactional contexts; methods of choice are ethnographies, participant observation, and in-depth interviews
Individual level, agentic
Macro
Micro
Questions?
Understanding Social Problems
What is a social problem?
It is a social condition or issue that disrupts society
It has negative consequences for large numbers of people
It is widely thought of as something that needs to be addressed
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Objective vs. Subjective
For something to be considered a social problem…
it must have negative consequences for large numbers of people (objective component)
there must be a perception that the condition needs to be addressed (subjective component)
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Social constructionist view
Many negative conditions and behaviors exist
But they are only considered social problems if there is a perception that they should be considered social problems
Examples?
When is a social problem a social problem?
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Think-pair-share
What do you think is one of the most important social problems facing our society right now? Explain your answer.
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Stages of a social problem
Stage 1: Emergence and Claims Making
Calling attention and influencing public perception
Stage 2: Legitimacy
Research-based (empirical) evidence
Stage 3: Renewed Claims Making
Reasserting claims and criticizing official responses
Stage 4: Developing Alternative Strategies
Organizing independently from the government and established interests
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Sources of change
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Social problems are persistent but can change
Social science theory and research as source of change
Actions taken by individuals and groups
Creating, changing, and enacting public policy
Lessons learned from other nations’ experiences
Social Problems in the United States
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The US ranks below most of its democratic peers on several social indicators
The US government gives less attention to and spends less on helping their citizens than other democratic governments
2-minute write-up
Considering the many social problems currently existing in our society, have you participated in any volunteer or other activity involving a social problem? If so, why did you do so? If not, why have you not participated in such an effort?
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Social Research Methods
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Survey
Most common way of gathering data
Experiments
Typical experiment consists of experimental and control groups in order to get at causality
Observation (field research)
Qualitative research that results in rich descriptions and in-depth analyses of behavior
Existing data
Data gathered by individuals, groups, or organizations other than the individual conducting the analysis (e.g., US Census data)
The Scientific Method
Social research must follow the scientific method, at a minimum
Formulating hypotheses
Gathering and testing data
Conducting robust analyses
Drawing conclusions
Research should be conducted as objectively as possible
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Small group discussion
Have you ever been a respondent or subject in any type of social science research project? If so, how did it feel to be studied?
Which research method sounds most interesting to you? Why?
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Discussion Question Examples
Types of Discussion Questions
Avoid creating questions that can be answered with a yes/no; questions that start with “is” or “does.”
Does symbolic interactionism explain all human behavior?
This is a question that can be answered with a yes or no. We don’t want that! We want people to discuss.
Instead, ask questions that start with “how”, “why”, or “in what way.”
How can we apply intersectionality to problems facing us in our current political climate?
In what way does conflict theory allow for the discovery and understanding of mechanisms that lead to inequality in the workplace?
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What’s coming up?
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ONE: First Perusall reading assignment due tonight by 11:59pm
TWO:
From now on, Perusall assignments will be due on Wednesdays by 11:59pm
THREE: Next week we will discuss Poverty & Social Class. Post questions on Canvas for Wednesday’s discussion.
