SOC102H1 Chapter 1: Social Problems - Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION - What are Social Problems?
Document Summary
Social problems: a social condition or pattern of behaviours that is believed to warrant public concern and collection action. Objective elements: measurable features of negative social conditions. Such as condition might include crime, poverty, or alcohol abuse and can be considered an objective reality. Subjective elements: peoples evaluations of objective conditions and the processes that influence their evaluations. They include the moral labels that people apply to particular acts or situations and the accounts they give for these acts and situations. Claims making: a process by which people try to capture attention and mobilize public opinion around particular problems and their solutions. Our formulation of social problems is influenced both by changes in measurable reality and by changes in our perceptions of measurable reality. By bringing together the objective and subjective elements, we can define a social problem as both a condition and a process. Condition: an empirically observed condition that threatens the well-being of a significant part of society.
