SYG-2010 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Typification, Working Poor, Predatory Lending
Document Summary
Definition of social problems trying to find an abstract definition that fits all our examples. Objectivist definitions essence of social problems lies in objective social conditions. Objectivist definition flaws minimize/ignore subjective nature of social problems and the conditions that people define as social problems have relatively little in common. Constructionist perspective focuses on the processes by which people designate some social conditions as social problems (subjectivist: uses (cid:858)(cid:272)lai(cid:373)s-(cid:373)aki(cid:374)g(cid:859) a(cid:272)ti(cid:448)ities to defi(cid:374)e so(cid:272)ial pro(cid:271)le(cid:373)s. Typification claims-makers typify social problems: giving orientation towards a problem best understood from a particular perspective. Illustrating a problem through the use of examples. Sense of being trapped = impersonal changes in the very structure of continent-wide societies. Ability to understand the larger historical scene in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of a variety of individuals. Individual can understand her own experience and gauge her own fate only by locating herself within her period.
