Constructing Social Problems essay
Social problems are the points of contact between a large variety of human characters and morals. Every group of people has its own opinion, and very often such a variety of opinions leads to an emergence of social problems. Social problems are also very dependent on external (outside of public and natural) factors and causes. Moreover, social problems, under certain conditions, can revive the society, without giving it a possibility to be “bored” and do nothing. Thus, the main aims of the assignment are to explain the statement that social problems are socially constructed and to identify a social problem for further research and discussion.
Despite the fact that social problem seems to be an objectively existing social condition – a flaw in the social order, from the standpoint of common sense, it is impossible to define the term, without resorting to subjective assessments, to feelings of people and their thoughts that some matters are a social problem.
Spector & Kitsuse used the idea of social construction to refocus the attention of sociologists on the subjective nature of social problems (Spector & Kitsuse, 2010). That is, instead of determining the objective qualities common to the different conditions, which are defined as social problems, Schneider claimed that the problems have in common only the label of a “social problem” (Schneider, 1985). The condition becomes a social problem when it is constructed that means recognized and identified, and called a social problem. Spector & Kitsuse denote this process as the process of claims making; they define social problems as the activities of individuals or groups expressing discontent and allege demanding nature regarding some alleged conditions (Spector & Kitsuse, 2010). Thus, the study of social problems should focus not on conditions by themselves, but on definition processes, when one or other conditions begin to be identified as problematic. The concept of “social construction of social problems” means, therefore, the processes by which certain social conditions are a matter of public concern.
Identifying a social problem, it is good to dwell on the problem of poverty. On the one hand, constructionists argue that the understanding of poverty as a social problem requires a different approach. For instance, there is nothing that would make it a social problem in the very nature of poverty because in many societies, poverty is seen as a natural part of the social order that is not considered a social problem. But it became obvious that the poverty is a socially constructed problem when it is taken another angle of observation of the problem. To explain, poverty becomes a social problem only when people define it as a cause of concern when they say that it is problematic. For example, the “war on poverty”, which began in the U.S. in 1960, has made the poverty the subject of more attention, and a more visible social problem. Thus, the problem of poverty was not only big but it also had a mass destructive character and influenced the life of many people.
Discussing the process of claims making in the context of this assignment, it is possible to show that all claims with certain requirements are an attempt to convince the audience of the existence of some particular social problems; these claims become a form of rhetoric. The answer to the question about the components that constitute a convincing rhetoric varies depending on the time and place of the claims making, however constructionist research revealed a set of elements characteristic of many modern claims requirements. Social problems are often illustrated with the use of certain examples that typify usually a problem in melodramatic form – showing the terrible suffering of the victims, the inhumanity of “villains”, etc.
Thus, we have explained the statement that social problems are socially constructed, and gave an example of a socially constructed problem with its description and interpretation.
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