Social Problems Theory and Research

Peter Conrad Sociology 208

Fall 2017

SOCIAL PROBLEMS THEORY AND RESEARCH

This course examines the emergence, development, application and controversies surrounding “social problems theory.” The focus of the course is on the social constructionist perspective which emerged in the 1970s and has become a dominant frame for studying social problems.

Expectations: The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the constructionist perspective and enable them to conduct their own research on the social construction of a problem of their choice. Students are expected completed the readings for each week, participate in class, complete three short writing assignments, and a major research paper. A goal of this course is that each student complete a research paper that could be presented at a professional meeting or even developed into a publication. The first 9 sessions will involve discussions of readings and issues; the final 3 sessions will be devoted to 20 minute research presentations by each student..

Required Books:

Joel Best and Scott R. Harris (ed.), Making Sense of Social Problems: New Images, New Issues. Lynne Rienner, 2013.

Peter Conrad, The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

.Joseph Gusfield, The Culture of Public Problems, University of Chicago Press, 1981.

Ian Hacking, Rewriting the Soul: Multiple Personality and the Sciences of Memory, Princeton University Press, 1995

Donileen R. Loseke, Thinking About Social Problems: An Introduction to Constructionist Perpsectives.2d edition Aldine, 2004.

Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse, Constructing Social Problems.

Aldine, 1987 (1977).

Approximately 25 required Articles will be available in a packet (SP is Social Problems in the syllabus).

(Other books of interest, not required: Joel Best (ed), Images of Issues, 1995. Donileen Loseke and Joel Best, Social Problems: Constructionist Readings, 2003; J Holestein and G Miller, Constructionist Controversies, 1993; J Holstein and JF Gubrium, Handbook of Constructionist Research, Nov. 2007; Peter Andreas and Kelly M. Greenhill, Sex, Drugs and Body Counts, 2010)

Week

1. SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Introduction to the Course

The Chicago School and Social Problems

Social Problems and Scientific Sociology

“Labeling Theory” and Social Problems

2.  THE EMERGENCE OF THE CONSTRUCTIONIST STANCE

Readings:

Spector and Kitsuse, Chapters 1-4.

Edwin Lemert, “Is there a natural history of social problems?”

American Sociological Review 16: 217-23, 1951.

Herbert Blumer, “Social problems as collective behavior” SP 18:

298-306, 1971.

Howard S. Becker, “Moral Entrepreneurs” and “The Marijuana Tax Act” from Outsiders: Studies in Deviance, 1963.

C. Wright Mills, “The Professional Ideology of Social Pathologists” American Journal of Sociology 49: 165-80, 1943.

3. CLAIMS-MAKING AND THE CONSTRUCTIONIST STANCE

Readings:

Loeske, Chapters 1-6

Best and Harris, p. 1-10

Gusfield, Chapters 1-4.

Joseph W. Schneider, “Social problems theory: The constructionist view.” Annual Review of Sociology, pp. 209-29, 1985.

4.  CONSTRUCTIONIST DEBATES

Stephan Pfohl, “The ‘discovery’ of child abuse”, SP 24: 310-23, 1977.

Steven Woolgar and Dorothy Pawluch, “Ontologicial gerrymandering: The anatomy of social problems explanations.”

SP 32: 214-27, 1985, with comments by Schneider, Hazelrigg and Pfohl.

Best and Harris (eds.), chapters 8, 9 and 16

Katherine Beckett, “Culture and the politics of signification: The case of childhood sexual abuse.” SP 43: 57-76, 1996.

Loeske, chapters 6, 8 and appendix

Numbers:

James D. Orcutt and J. Blake Turner, “Shocking numbers and graphic accounts: Quantified images of drug problems in the print media.” SP 40: 190-206, 1993.

David. A. Feingold, “Trafficking in Numbers.” Pp. 46-74 in P. Andreas and K.M. Greenhill (eds.), Sex, Drugs and Body Counts, (Cornell U. Press, 2010).

5.  THE MEDIA AND SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM

William Gamson et al, “Media images and the social construction of reality.” Annual Review of Sociology, pp. 373-93, 1992.

Peter Conrad, “Public eyes and private genes: Historical frames, news constructions and social problems.” SP 44: 139-74, 1997.

Altheide, David, “The news media, the problem frame and the production of fear.” Sociological Quarterly 38: 645-66, 1997.

Stephan Hilgartner and Charles Bosk, “The rise and fall of social problems: A public arena model.” American Journal of Sociology 94: 53-78, 1988.

Mark Fishman, “Crime waves as ideology.” SP: 25: 531-43, 1978.

Abigail Saguy and Kjerstin Gruys, “ Morality and Health: News Media Constructions of Overweight and Eating Disorders.” SP 57 (2): 231-250, 2010.

Best and Scott (eds), Chapters 7 and 9

6.  SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND CONSTRUCTIONISM

Kathleen Tierney, “The battered women’s movement and the creation of the wife-beating problem.” SP 29: 207-20, 1982.

Joseph E. Davis, “Victim Narratives and Victim Selves: False Memory Syndrome and the Power of Accounts.” SP 52:4 (November 2005), 529-548.

Valerie Janness, “Social movement growth, domain expansion, and framing processes: The gay/lesbian movement and violence against gays and lesbians as a social problem.” SP 42: 145-70, 1995.

David Snow and Robert Benford, “Identity, frame resonance and participant mobilization,” International Journal of Social Movements Research 1: 197-211, 1988.

Best and Harris (eds) , Chapter 8

7.  MEDICALIZATION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Conrad, The Medicalization of Society, all.

Best and Scott (eds), Chapters 5

Ann Figert, “Three faces of PMS: The professional, gendered and scientific structuring of a psychiatric disorder.” SP 42: 56-73, 1995.

Paula Lantz and Karen Booth, “The social construction of the

breast cancer epidemic.” Social Science and Medicine 46: 907-18

1998.

Peter Conrad and Kristin Barker, “The Social Construction of illness.”. Journal of

Journal of Health and Social Behavior 51: S67-79, 2010

8.  ANOTHER KIND OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIONISM

Ian Hacking, chapters 1-13

Ian Hacking, “Kind-making: The case of child abuse.” Pp. 125-62 in The Social Construction of What? Harvard University Press, 1999

9.  RELATED ISSUES

Moral Panics

Erich Goode, “Moral Panics” Annual Review of Sociology

Saguy, Abigail C. and Rene Almeling. “Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the ‘Obesity Crisis.’” Sociological Forum 23: 53-83, 2008

E.M. Armstrong and E.L. Abel, “Fetal alcohol syndrome: the origins of a moral panic,” 2000, Alcohol and Alcoholism 35(3):276-282.

Risk

Kathleen Tierney, “Toward a Critical Sociology of Risk.”

Sociological Forum 14: 215-42, 1999

Adam Burgess, “Understanding Health, Risk and Society” (0n line)

http://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/staff/burgess_risk%20article%20for%20webpage.pdf

or Adam Burgess, “Comparing National Responses to Perceived Health Risks from Mobile Phone Masts,” Health, Risk and Society , 4 (2), 2002.

Science and constructionism

Brigitte Nerlich and Christopher Halliday, 2007, “Avian Flu: The creation of expectations in the interplay between science and the media,” SHI 29 (1):: 46-65.

Policy

Best and Scott (eds,), Chapters 3, 13, 14.

Two articles that were germinated in this class and later published.

Brian Fair. “Morgellons: Contested Illness, Diagnostic Compromise, and

Medicalization.” Sociology of Health and Illness 32 (2010): 597-612

Miranda Waggoner, “Parsing the Peanut Panic: The Social life of a Contested

Food Allergy Epidemic..” Social Science and Medicine 90 (2013): 49-55

Sessions 10-13 will feature the presentation and discussion of student research papers

Office: Pearlman 102

Office Hours: Tuesday 11-12, Friday 1-2 and by appointment.

Email: Phone: 781-736-2635.