SOC 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Social Constructionism, Urban Sprawl, Unintended Consequences
5 Feb 2018
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Example of how one persons harmful condition is another"s benefit - air. Social problems exist when there is a sizeable difference between the ideals of a society and its actual achievement. Subjective aspect of social problems - "the points is not so much that some conditions cause harm, but that people think of some conditions as being harmful" Relativity of definition - what may be harmful to some is not harmful to others. Describe the process by which people define a social problem into existence. Weak dependent on root facts (brute facts - don"t rely on anything else) The whole of reality depends on language and habits/actions, no brute facts. Social problems aren"t a type of social condition, but rather a process of responding to social conditions. When something starts to infringe on an american value (social norms) that"s when something becomes problematic. Theory = a statement of how and why specific facts are related.
