Social problems (Joel Best)
Chapter 1: the social problems process
Two ways to define social problems:
1. social problems as harmful condition: the objectivist outlook
2. social problems as topics of concern: the subjectivist outlook
1. social problems as harmful conditions: the objectivist outlook
- conditions that somehow harm society
- ‘a social problem is a social condition or pattern of behavior that has negative consequences for
individuals, our social world or our physical world’
- Some conditions have the characteristic of ‘negative consequences’ that make them social problems
- Objectivist = because it tries to couch the definition in terms of objectively measurable characteristics
of conditions, once we define social problems as having negative consequences, we can look around
until we spot a condition with negative consequences and then identify it as a social problem
Difficulties with objectivist definitions:
o Conditions that might be deemed harmful aren’t always identified as social problems
(take sexism – it is harmful but many people believe that their religions or traditions
justify such discriminatory social arrangements, now it is seen as a social problem
but just recently)
o Although we may argue that racism, sexism and heightism all have analogous effects
on society, as social problems these three forms of discrimination have not received
the same degree of attention. The different treatment of these three forms of
discrimination makes it difficult to argue that there is an evenly applied objective
standard for identifying what is or is not a social problem.
o The same condition may be identified as a social problem for very different reasons:
people may disagree about why a certain condition is harmful. Take obesity: some
see it as a social problem because it leads to discrimination, others because it harms
individuals and is a drain on societal resources. Is it a discrimination/civil rights
problem or medical/public health problem? These different views on obesity
illustrate that even people who agree that a particular condition is a social problem
may disagree about the sork of social problem it is.
o Very different objective standards may be used in identifying a condition as a social
problem (1. Discrimination against obese people is unfair and should be discouraged
2. Latter view sees obesity itself as a source of harm and calls to reduce obesity
o Lists of social problems include wildly diverse phenomena: they range from
problems affecting particular individuals (suicide or mental illness) to global trends
(overpopulation, globalization, climate change). Any objective definition that tries to
cover such a broad range of topics must be fairly vague and speak in the most
general terms about harm. Harmfulness becomes a conceptual umbrella – ranging
from pain experienced by someone who knew someone who committed suicide
through economic and ecological costs that might be incurred as global
temperatures rise.
2. Social problems as topics of concern: the subjectivist outlook.
- Subjectivist approach = it defines social problems in terms of people’s subjective sense that something
is or isn’t a problem, if people don’t think that heightism is a social problem then it isn’t one, if people
consider climate change a social problem, then it is; it depends on point of view; it is not an objective
quality of a social condition, but rather the subjective reactions to that condition that make it a social
problem
- Therefore, social problems should not be viewed as a type of social condition, but a s a process of
responding to social conditions
- Social problems are the activities of individuals to some putative conditions, efforts to arouse concern
about conditions within society; study of social problems should not focus on conditions but on claims
about conditions
- Studying poverty as a social problem requires asking how and why people came to consider poverty
problematic
,Thinking systematically about social problems requires adopting a subjectivist approach that focuses on the
process by which people identify social problems. That process requires social construction.
Social construction
Social construction = the way people assign meaning to the world, language is essential to understand the
world, learning a language is a social process: we don’t invent our language, rather, we learn it from our
parents (the way that they assign meanings to the world), language is flexible: as people learn new things about
the world, they devise words with new meanings. Int his way people continually create (construct) fresh
understandings about the world (it is a social process and social construction); social constructions are
categories people give to things (is pluto a planet or not? Planet is a social construction, a category that people
use to assign meaning to the world)
Probably every human society has categorized people as either male or female. But people who don’t fit this
categorization are dealt with differently in different societies. So, even something as apparently straightforward
as sorting people into males and females is a social process of constructing meanings. The subjective meanings
given to these categories vary from society to another.
Because we understand world through language – sociologists view all knowledge as socially constructed.
UFO abductions are also social constructions, in the sense that this term was created and disseminated by
people, but the implication – that the only unprovable claims are socially constructed – is wrong. Poverty is also
social construction – like everything else we know about.
Constructionism approach = Once we recognize that social problems are social constructions and that what the
conditions constructed as social problems have in common is precisely that construction, then it becomes
apparent that social problems should be understood in terms of a social problems process = the study of social
problems should focus on how and why particular conditions come to be constructed as social problems. Why
do people decide that something needs to be done about some conditions and how do they decide exactly
what should be done?
The basic framework
Claim = constructing a social problem involves a process of claims-making – someone must bring the topic to
the attention of others by making a claim that there is a condition that should be recognised as troubling, that
needs to be addressed, claims-making is what all social problems have in common
Claimsmakers = people who make claims, the ones who seek to convince others that something is wrong and
that something should be done about it, not all claimsmakers are equal: we treat some claims more seriously
than others (because they are more plausible or presented by people we respect)
troubling conditions = conditions that become subjects of claims, the world troubling focuses our attention on
people’s subjective reactions: a condition is troubling when it bothers someone
Subjectivist stance can be confusing, because:
1. People sometimes wrongly imagine that social construction refers only to imaginary, nonexisting
phenomena (but all human knowledge is socially constructed and so are social problems)
2. We must acknowledge that sociologists are themselves engaged in social construction, they devise
their own categories that they use to classify the world
Natural history = refers to a sequence of stages that tends to appear in lots of different cases, the story of civil
rights movement’s campaign against segregation illustrates this general phenomenon, the natural history of a
social problem, six stages (social problem process):
1. Claimsmaking
2. Media coverage
3. Public reaction
4. Policymaking
5. Social problems work
6. Policy outcomes
Basic natural history model of the social problems process:
, 1. Claimsmaking
Claimsmakers make claims, they argue that a particular troubling condition ought to be
recognized as a social problem and that somebody ought to do something about that
problem (social movement activists and demonstrators, protests)
Claims = arguments, efforts to persuade others that something is wrong
Claims can also come from experts (not only activists)
2. Media coverage
Bring attention to the larger audience
Stories, photographs, reports, broadcasts, television news, internet
3. Public reaction
General public then learns about claims either directly from claim makers or indirectly from
media reports
Understanding public reactions often involves public opinion polls to measure people’s
attitudes
4. Policy making
Social policies are the means that society adopts to address troubling conditions
Laws can be changed, new standards can be made (for clear water)
Policymakers respond to claimmakers, media coverage and public opinion, but their own
considerations also shape the policies they create
5. Social problems work
Policies have to be implemented, carried out by police officers, social workers, teachers –
whoever is responsible for enforcing particular policy
Social problems workers confront issues as practical matters, they must deal with particular
cases and address a messy real world that is complicated
6. Policy outcomes
Reactions to the social problems process
Some outcomes relate directly to the ways in which social policies are implemented
Are the new policies creating new problems?
Measuring policy impact, measuring effectiveness, but how?
Often such complaints and questions lead to new claims and the social problems process
begins anew
Resources and rhetoric affect each stage of social problems process:
, Resources
- Society’s members are not equal, some have more money than others, more power, more status,
education
- There is competition: claimmakers compete to attract attention to their claims, claims compete for
media coverage and attention from the public and policymakers
- Resources affect this competition, generally people with more money and power and other resources
find it easier to have their claims heard (money for lobbyists to access policy makers
Rhetoric
- Study of persuasion, social problems construction is rhetorical – whenever people make claims they
try to convince others that something is a problem and that specific action needs to be taken
- Arguments evolve with each stage in the social problem process – every problem is construed and
reconstrued
- Even people who are allied in a claimsmaking campaign may adopt different rhetoric
- Rhetoric involves appeals to emotions and reason, claimsmakers try to elicit emotional reactions
(horror or sympathy) to get people to share their concerns
- So social problems claims are not static – they shift and morph at each stage in the larger social
process as the rhetoric changes
- The larger culture makes particular claims more or less compelling
Feedback form various stages is also important!
A social constructivist approach to social problems focuses on the process by which people identify social
problems.
Objectivism = a school of thought that defines social problems in terms of objectively measurable
characteristics of conditions
Subjectivism = a school of thought that defines social problems in terms of people’s subjective sense that
something is or isn’t troubling
Social construction = the process by which people continually create-or construct- meaning
Social problems process = the process though which particular troubling conditions come to be constructed as
social problems
Constructionism = a sociological approach that focuses on the process of social construction
