SY102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ascribed Status, The Sociological Imagination, Symbolic Interactionism
Document Summary
There is no universal, constant or absolute definition. It is defined through a combination of subjective and objective criteria. Varies across societies, groups within a society and individuals within a society, historical periods. An actual social condition: exists independently of our perception. We become aware of the social problems through: personal experience, media, education. They affect all of us as a society. Beliefs that the social condition is harmful. Beliefs that it should and can be changed. Beliefs that the quality of human life is diminished. Claims making activities: the strategies and actions that individuals or groups undertake to define social conditions as social problems that require remedy (spector and kitsuse) Are central to the development of the particular view of a social fact as a bona fide social problem. Social problem: a social condition that a segment of society views as harmful to members of society and in need of remedy.
