LS263 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Constructionism
Document Summary
In other words: do social problems present themselves as problems. Social problems are the activities of groups making assertions of grievances and claims with respect to come putative conditions . Sociology of social problems should account for the emergency and maintenance of claims-making and responding activities . Moral entrepreneurs engage in moral crusades to have something recognized as a problem. Call for something to be done about purported problem. When successful, drive generation of new rules, laws, authorities. He was studying the criminalization of marijuana. Becker"s ideas initially about crime and deviance. But his ideas have been incorporated into the social constructionist framework. Moral entrepreneurs are central to the definition of social problems. Strong or hard constructionism: we cannot know problems outside of the claims made about the problem, all definitions of social problems are claims. Many problems objectively exist; harm can be measured. Yet harm is not the determining factor in whether a problem is recognized as such.
