Social Problems / Edition 3

by Joel Best

Overview

In his new textbook, Joel Best gives readers a complete set of tools for analyzing any social problem.

Best helps readers think carefully about how activists, experts, and their opponents frame social problems through the logic that they use, the rhetoric of claims-making, and the ways that access to resources determines who gets their claims heard. In order to help students connect theory to everyday life, the text includes colorful examples and case studies from the real world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393283419
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/15/2016
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Joel Best is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware. Best’s research focuses on understanding how and why we become concerned with particular issues at particular moments in time. He’s written about the ways bad statistics creep into public debates and about dubious fears, such as the mistaken belief that poisoned Halloween candy poses a serious threat to our kids. His books include Damned Lies and Statistics, Kids Gone Wild, The Student Loan Mess and Flavor of the Month.

Table of Contents

Figures vii

Boxes ix

A Note to the Reader xiii

Acknowledgments xv

1 The Social Problems Process 3

2 Claims 29

Case Study Threats to the American Dream as a Cultural Resource 62

3 Activist as Claimsmakers 66

Case Study Mobilizing Over Income Inequality 95

4 Experts as Claims makers 99

Case Study Forecasting the Future 126

5 The Media and Claims 130

Case Study Democratizing the Means of Media Production And Reproduction 161

6 Public Reaction 165

Case Study Public Reactions to Epidemics 195

7 Policymaking 199

Case Study Legalizing Marijuana and Same-Sex Marriage 227

8 Social Problems Work 231

Case Study Responding to Police Violence 260

9 Policy Outcomes 264

Case Study Modifying Student Loans 292

10 Claims across Space and Time 296

Case Study Is Social Problems Theory Ethnocentric? 325

11 The Use of the Constructionist Stance 329

Glossary 341

References 349

Index 363