THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS - Pearson

1 THE STUDY OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS3Q2,000 years ago the Roman poet Juvenal wasin despair. Muggings in the street, womenengaged in traditionally male sport and menmarrying each other had convinced him thatthe SOCIAL fabric was tearing. He became abrutal critic of all he saw, explaining his acer-bic writing thus It is difficult not to writesatire, when you look at broken society. The ancient idea that society is brokenfinds a spokesman in each generation. DavidCameron has decided that in this generation,that spokesman is him. The Leader of theOpposition has claimed repeatedly that welive in a broken society.

2 It is a claim that oughtto be are good political reasons for aparty leader seeking power to assert thatsociety is broken. This does not make theobservation correct. Crime and SOCIAL break-down are perpetual concerns. Anyone whobelieves modern experience to be novelshould try reading Henry Mayhew. Or try read-ing Charles Dickens. Or look at the engrav-ings of William Hogarth. Or read Tacitus forthat matter. That SOCIAL PROBLEMS have alwaysexisted does not diminish their importance, ofcourse. But it does call into question the roleplayed by recent changes in, for example ,family structure or a decline in biggest problem with the brokensociety claim is statistical.

3 The singer LilyAllen pleaded last week on her website: Please can everyone stop stabbing eachother in the UK. Sometimes, when followingthe news it seems as if everyone is indeedstabbing everyone else. Of course, they arenot. The Metropolitan Police recorded 70 knifekillings last year: the same as a decade is 70 killings too many, but numbersmatter. There is a big difference between argu-ing, as Mr. Cameron does, that society is bro-ken, and believing, as we do, that there arebroken individuals, families and communities,having an impact on the law-abiding anddecent majority. If SOCIAL breakdown is general,policies are needed to alter behaviour of theaverage citizen; if the problem is concentrated,so should be resources and attention.

4 Arguingthat mainstream society has gone baddemonises the average teenager, the averagefamily, the average public space, the averageentrepreneur. Mr. Cameron s broken societyrhetoric is in danger of leading him is good to hear a Tory leader speak ofsocial PROBLEMS with passion and determina-tion. There is too much crime, too muchpoverty; and million people are claimingout-of-work benefits. Mr. Cameron is alsoinnovative and right to argue that socialchange need not always involve regulationand public spending. There are broken com-munities that urgently need attention.

5 ButBritain is not a broken A SOCIAL PROBLEM?HOWDO SOCIOLOGISTS USE THEORETICAL PARADIGMS TO FRAMETHEIR THINKING?WHATIS THE ROLE OF RESEARCH ANDSOCIAL POLICY IN UNDERSTANDINGSOCIAL PROBLEMS ?CHAPTERA lmostChapter 14get the topic: WHAT IS A SOCIAL PROBLEM?letting political ideology influ-ence our point of view? Theseare the core questions that thischapter strives to the idea of a brokensociety is nothing new to any-one who has turned on the tele-vision. But can we trust themedia or our political leaders toprovide a perspective fromwhich we can truly investigatethese issues? This book seeks toinvestigate the area of socialproblems from the point of viewof sociology.

6 Like any other sci-ence, sociology is thorough,orderly, and logical. It engagesin the task objectively, withoutbias. The American SociologicalAssociation defines sociologyas the STUDY of SOCIAL life, SOCIAL change, and the socialcauses and consequences ofhuman behavior. 2---David Cameron is a conservative politician in GreatBritain who regularly views SOCIAL PROBLEMS as a sign thatsociety is falling apart. Family breakdown, murder,and SOCIAL unrest always seem to be popular topics forpoliticians to bring up. PROBLEMS really any worse todaythan they were 100 years ago?What makes something asocial problem? When I was incollege, a SOCIAL problem meantI didn t have a date on Fridaynight.

7 To a sociologist, a socialproblemis an issue that nega-tively affects a person s state ofbeing in a society. Often, socialproblems raise considerabledebate and controversy. Howcan we understand the prob-lems of society? What can wedo about these PROBLEMS ? Canwe do this objectively withoutProminent American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916 1962) arguedthat people must understand how extraneous factors contribute to individ-ual situations. To do this, we must practice sociological imagination the ability to look beyond the individual as the only cause of success andfailure and see how society influences a person s notedthat this macro(large-scale) point of view helps us understand how histo-ry and SOCIAL structure affect people.

8 Mills noted that we often see socialissues from our personal viewpoints only, interpreting actions at facevalue a micro(small-scale) view. Using only a micro point of view is detri-mental to a clear understanding of the world and can negatively influenceour perception of of assuming the worst, we should use our sociological imagi-nation and pause to consider that the man on the corner might be therefor a number of reasons. Maybe he really is a drug addict or simply again, he may be a victim of recent layoffs. Perhaps he s a casualtyof globalization, as his former employer downsized staff to hire cheap over-seas labor.

9 He may even be mentally ill and unable to hold a job. Can wereally assume that we understand a person merely from seeing him on theside of the road? As Mills argued, the goal of sociology is to move beyondour own perceptions and toward a sociological imagination. Without con-necting what we know about society to the individual, we run the risk ofwrongly placing blame and misconstruing the way we interpret events. Ineveryday life, we make this mistake regularly, but sociological STUDY is notthe same as our everyday common sense. The Sociological ImaginationWe re tuned into the news and we ve heard the reports: The recent finan-cial crisis is the worst global recession since the Great Depression.

10 Newsreports are filled with headlines of the housing collapse, the credit crunch,banks in trouble, and the Big Three automakers bankruptcy. It s likely thatyou or someone you know has been directly affected by the economicdownturn through job loss or bankruptcy. What other SOCIAL PROBLEMS doyou think will develop as a result of the current recession?Consider this: you pull up to an intersection and notice a man with amakeshift sign; he s holding out an empty coffee can to the windows ofstopped cars. He looks weary, but certainly strong enough to work. At firstglance, do you immediately assume that his situation is entirely a conse-quence of drug addiction or laziness?