SOC202H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Collective Identity, Social Movement Organization, The Frames
Document Summary
Social problems are not always clear and straightforward, as the objective approach seems to assume: instead, they are constructions. The essence of the constructionist approach is that only when a situation has meaning for a specific group of people and that meaning is a negative one can the situation get defined as a social problem. In other words, a social problem is a cultural object, produced by specific agents. It is interpreted by a specific group of recipients, regarded as the. A social problem is created when audiences evaluate claims as believable: if recipients accept the producers" definition, it becomes a problem, and if they become mobilized to take action, it becomes a social movement. Collective identity is not fixed but a process: consciously or not, you have to work at being a woman or a catholic or an. Algerian; otherwise these are just labels, categories that have little to do with your behaviour.
