Sociology of Social Problems

“crisis is the order of the day”; issues & troubles• Starvation, poverty

• War

• Disease

• Apathy/alienation

• Racism

• Pessimism

•Job loss

•Divorce

•Victimization

•Time crunch

How do you know something is a Social Problem?• Affects group, large number, or society

• Bad or harmful– Judgment– Implies values: abstract beliefs about good/bad,

right/wrong, preferred• (norms: rules to guide behavior)

• Subjective or objective?

Sociology as science

• An attempt to gain the power and effectiveness of knowledge recognized in natural sciences

• Need to base conclusions on empirical facts

• But humans are subjects in society– (Recently: well, okay, we’re subjects in nature,

too!)

Sociology as science

• Need empirical (observable, objective) facts

• But also need to explain and show the significance of these facts

• Weber: use subjectivity for significance, objectivity in observation

The question of bias

• Whose side are we on? (Becker, 1967)

• Is it possible to not have personal and political sympathies?

• To do research not affected by them?

• Why isn’t all research considered biased?

Hierarchy of credibility• “…credibility and the right to be

heard are differently distributed through the ranks of the system.” (6)

• Status: position based on amount of prestige

• Status order: a hierarchy

Rank in order of status:• Student

• Professor

• TV talking head (e.g., Bill O’Reilly)

• President of U.S.

• President’s Press Secretary

• Janitor

Everybody knows• “The sociologist who favors officialdom

will be spared the accusation of bias.” (8)

• Why?

• “definition of reality” questioned some loss of political power

Definition of reality (what “everyone knows”)• “Officials” are “responsible”

• People have earned their positions.

• Therefore they deserve our respect.

• The check is in the mail.

• The government never lies.

Read page 13 carefully

What “everybody knows”• Ideology: a system of taken-for-granted

ideas, having the effect of supporting a system of power relations

• “Free will” and “human nature” two powerful ideologies in U.S. today (Heiner: 11-12)

• Both involve “unthinking acceptance of the hierarchy of credibility”

Free will ideology• Individual choices and efforts determine fate

(http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda?harcsda+gss04 )

• Choices are not determined by social structure

• Strong basis in religious faith (Judeo-Christian) and capitalism

• Problems: neglects social patterns: constraints, influences on ideas

Human nature

• Religious or biological determinism

• Examples:– “the poor will always be with us”

– “people are greedy; that’s human nature”

• Problem: fails to account for cross-cultural patterns

Two ways ideology asserts itself• “everybody knows” (ideology per se)

• “in my experience” (anecdote reinforcing ideology)

• Contrast this with generalizable, empirical evidence

How does Heiner resolve the problem of bias?

• Critical constructionism

• Synthesis of two sociological approaches: critical perspective (conflict theory) and social constructionism

Critical perspective

• 1970’s students, now professors

• Conflict perspective: focus on inequalities as source of problems

• Social movement based

• Advocate radical change in social system

Social constructionism

• Grew in 1970’s, very influential in ’90s

• Focus on how problems become defined

• Problems as process, subjective definition as key

“A problem is a phenomenon regarded as bad or undesirable by a significant number of people, or a number of significant people who mobilize to eliminate it.”

(Heiner: 3)

Why this approach?

• Problem of subjectivity in defining problems

• Social constructionism provides a position that is more objective by focusing on others’ definition of problem

• Critical perspective considers structures of power and influence

Heiner’s illustration of constructionist model (figure 1.2, p. 6)

A

B

CD

Heiner’s illustration (modified)

A

B

CD

Critical constructionism• Emphasizes the role of elite interests

in problem construction– Problems in the “mainstream” view, i.e.

those that the media promote

– Media reflect elite interests

Critical constructionism• Informed by Gramsci’s work

– Elite (capitalist class in capitalism) maintains cultural hegemony

– This allows them to shape ideology (“common sense,” taken-for-granted assumptions, such as “human nature” argument)

– Gramsci: counterhegemony is possible

Critical constructionism

• Counters human nature argument with cross-cultural comparisons: “human nature” is variable

Critical constructionism• American extreme individualism is a form

of hegemony– It encourages the kinds of freedom that permit

corporate dominance– Freedom from regulation or social control over big

business allows their power free range

• Ironic, given conditions of those below the elite; Cf. What’s the Matter With Kansas?

Globalization

• Tendency toward ethnocentrism:– Judging other cultures by one’s own cultural standards– Americans viewed as particularly so

• Globalization renders this a dangerous view: Jihad vs. McWorld– Global economy– Political conflict– Cultural homogenization

Sociological imagination• C. Wright Mills’ seminal work (1959)

– Personal troubles of milieu– Public issues of social structure

• “What we experience in various and specific milieux…is often caused by structural changes.”

• Institutions are “intricately connected with one another”

“To be aware of the idea of social structure and to use it with sensibility is to be capable of tracing such linkages among a great variety of milieux. To be able to do that is to possess the sociological imagination.”

-C. Wright Mills, Sociological Imagination (11)

Shafer’s model for critical analysis of social problems