SOCIAL PROBLEMS

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• Dr. Don Davis

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS Three Definitions

• A social problem exists when an influential group
  defines a social condition as threatening its
  values, when the condition affects a large number
  of people, and when the condition can be remedied
  by collective action.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS Three Definitions

• A social problem is a condition that undermines
  the well-being of some or all members of a
  society and that is usually a matter of public
  controversy.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS Three Definitions

• A social problem as a condition caused by
  factors endemic to a particular society that
  systematically disadvantages or harms a
  significant number of the societys population.

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SUBJECTIVE CONCERNS vs. OBJECTIVE CONCERNS

• SUBJECTIVE CONCERNS
• An important key element of the definition of any
  social problem is what we call a subjective
  concern. Social problems are highly subjective,
  and sometimes do not involve the entire public,
  or even a majority of citizens. It also explains
  why social problems generally change from year to
  year, and decade to decade.

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SUBJECTIVE CONCERNS vs. OBJECTIVE CONCERNS

• OBJECTIVE CONCERNS
• The other criteria one needs to have a social
  problem is the objective condition. The
  objective condition reflects the very real and
  measurable characteristics of the social problem.
  i.e. Verifiable facts that most Americans
  believe to be true about the problem.

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THE FOUR STAGES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• STAGE ONE PROBLEM DEFINITION
• Groups in society attempt to gain recognition by
  a wider population (and the press and government)
  that some social condition is offensive,
  harmful, or otherwise undesirable. These groups
  publicize their claims and attempt to turn the
  matter into a political issue.

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THE FOUR STAGES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• STAGE TWO LEGITIMACY
• When the groups pressing their claims are
  considered credible and their assertions are
  accepted by official organizations, agencies, or
  institutions, there may be investigations,
  proposals for reform, and even the creation of
  new agencies to respond to claims and demands.

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THE FOUR STAGES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• STAGE THREE REMERGENCE OF DEMANDS
• Usually, the original groups are not satisfied
  with the steps taken by official agencies they
  demand stronger measures, more funding for
  enforcement, speedier handling of claims, and so
  on. They renew their appeals to the wider public
  and the press.

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THE FOUR STAGES OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

• STAGE FOUR REJECTION AND INSITUTION BUILDING
• The groups usually decide that official responses
  to their demands are inadequate. They seem to
  develop their own organizations or
  counterinsitutions to press their claims and
  enact reforms.

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SOCIAL PROBLEM ASSERTIONS

• People see social problems differently (Iraq war,
  abortion).
• Definitions of social problems change over time
  (global warming).
• Many but not all social problems can not be
  ultimately solved (crime, violence, poverty).
• Various social problems are related (poor economy
  leads to spouse abuse, drug addiction, etc.).
• 5. Sometimes, solving one problem creates a new
  problem (computers).

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS THEORY SOCIAL PATHOLOGY

• At the University of Chicago during the late
  1800s and early 1900s, Chicago school
  sociologists like Robert Park argued that social
  problems were the result of a social pathology, a
  social disease. At that time, human society was
  seen as analogous to a vast organism, whose
  individual many parts maintain social stability.
  For functionalist sociologists at the time,
  social problems arise when either individuals or
  social institutions are considered to be sick
  (hence the term social pathology). In this view,
  European immigrants who failed to adjust to
  American urban life were considered to be the
  source of the illness, insofar as they affected
  the health of the larger society.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS THEORY SOCIAL-DISORGANIATION

• After World War II, social-disorganization
  theory became a more important theory for
  functionalists sociologists trying to understand
  social problems. Many sociologists believed that
  the social pathology viewpoint could not fully
  explain the widespread existence of these social
  problems. So, they developed a new concept that
  eventually became known as social disorganization
  theory. This theory viewed society as being
  organized by a set of expectations or rules.
  Social disorganization results when these
  expectations fail, and it is manifested in three
  major ways 1) normlessness, which arises when
  people have no rules to tell them how to behave
  2) culture conflict, which occurs when people
  feel trapped by contradictory rules (children of
  immigrant parents) and 3) breakdown, which takes
  place when obedience to a set of rules is not
  rewarded or is punished.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS THEORY CONFLICT PERSPECTIVE

• The conflict perspective rejects the idea that
  social problems can be corrected by reforming
  institutions that are not functioning well. The
  conflict perspective is based on the belief that
  social problems arise out of major contradictions
  in the way societies are organized,
  contradictions that lead to large-scale conflict
  between those who have access to the good life
  and those who do not. This perspective owes much
  to the writing of Karl Marx who wrote in the
  Communist Manifesto and other works that
  developed the ideas of modern socialism, which
  many countries of the world still practice. For
  conflict theorists, crime and other deviance is
  the result of differences in the power of
  different groups or classes in society.

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SOCIAL PROBLEMS THEORY VALUE CONFLICT THEORY

• Because traditional conflict theory could not
  explain all the kinds of conflict that occurs
  around us everyday (for example, families will
  have disputes over everything from food to which
  television show is going to be watched landlords
  and tenants will argue over how their rental
  property is to be maintained). In these cases,
  such conflict often focuses not on deep-seated
  class antagonisms but on differences in values.
  Value conflict theorists therefore define social
  problems as conditions that are incompatible
  with group values. Such problems are normal,
  they add, since in a complex society there are
  many groups whose interests and values are bound
  to differ. From the value conflict viewpoint,
  many social problems needs to be understood in
  terms of which groups hold which values and have
  the power to enforce them against the wishes of
  other groups. Once this has been determined,
  this approach leads to suggestions for
  adjustments, negotiations, and compromises that
  will ease or solve the problem.

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SOCIAL PROBLEM THEORY INTERACTIONIST PARADIGM

• Whereas functionalist sociologists point out
  that deviant individuals who do not adhere to
  societys core values are more likely to become
  criminals, conflict theorists explain the same
  deviance is the result of conflict over access to
  wealth and power. Interactionist sociologists,
  on the other hand, offer an explanation that gets
  closer to the individual level of behavior.
  Research based on this perspective looks at the
  processes whereby different people become part of
  a situation that the larger society defines as a
  social problem. The interactionist approach
  focuses on the many ways in which people actually
  take on the values of the group of which they are
  a part.

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SOCIAL PROBLEM THEORY SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

• The social construction approach argues that
  some claims about social problems become dominant
  and others remain weak or unheeded. Our
  perceptions of what claims about social problems
  should be heeded develops through the activities
  of actors and institutions in society that shape
  our consciousness of the social world. The
  press, television, radio, universities and
  colleges, and government agencies are examples of
  institutions that have a stake in defining what
  social problems are. Journalists, television
  commentators, editorial writers, professors, and
  scientists who appear before camera, and
  political lobbyists are all involved in selecting
  some claims and rejecting others. By doing so
  they construct the way we think about issues.

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SOCIAL PROBLEM THEORY SOCIAL PROBLEMS THE
MEDIA

• Because of the importance of the media in
  understanding social problems, most college
  social problems courses in America now spend
  several class periods discussing the media.
  Whether it be an agent of propaganda or the
  provider of immoral or socially irresponsible
  images or sounds (television and radio), the
  media itself has become a major social problem.
  Sociologist Barry Glassner argues that the
  medias passion for sensational stories about
  crime and violence and the publics ever-growing
  appetite for sensational coverage of violence
  actually mask important changes in social
  problems and divert public attention from
  problems that can be addressed through social
  policy. The recent killings in schools, for
  example, occurred as the actual rate of murder
  was decreasing rapidly, but the public was
  shocked by a few sensational crimes and generally
  over-reacted to school crime and demanded
  measures that infringed on personal freedoms.

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SOCIAL PROBLEM THEORY BEYOND LEFT RIGHT

• While conservative and liberal positions are
  often seen as on the opposite ends of the
  political spectrum, in this class we will
  acknowledge gray areas and middle- ground. We
  might also see that alternatives to both
  political approaches are possible. A third way
  of addressing social problems is by taking a
  creative position that neither liberal or
  conservative views share. For example, on the
  issue of gun control, one might state that while
  Americans have the right to bear arms, some arms
  should be illegal to purchase or that all
  hand-guns in the home should have child safety
  locks. Either way, sociologists try to keep
  their own personal views in the background in
  order to assess the objective conditions and
  subjective concerns of a social problem. An
  enlightened sociological stance on social
  problems tries to go beyond the ideological
  division in society by examining the consequences
  of different policies. By adopting a
  sociological view of issues, individual
  sociologists do not have their own moral
  positions.

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AMERICAS RANKING OF IMPORTANT SOCIAL PROBLEMS