Table Of ContentSocial Problems:
Constructionist Readings
Social Problems:
Constructionist Readings
editors
Donileen R. Loseke
&
Joel Best
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Croup
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2003 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2002015298
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Social problems : constructionist readings / editors, Donileen R. Loseke,
Joel Best.
p. cm. — (Social problems and social issues)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-202-30702-6 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-202-30703-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Social problems. 2. Social perception. I. Loseke, Donileen R.,
1947- II. Best, Joel. III. Series.
HN17.5 .S599 2002
361.1—dc21 2002015298
ISBN 13: 978-0-202-30703-9 (pbk)
Contents
Preface ix
I. Examining Social Problems
Introduction 3
1 The Changing Meanings of Spanking 6
Phillip W. Davis
2 Bullying as a Social Problem in Great Britain 13
Frank Furedi
3 The Problem with the Earthquake Problem 21
Robert A. Stallings
4 Reality Television Constructs Crime 29
Gray Cavender
II. Claims-Makers and Audiences
Introduction 39
5 Audiences Evaluate Statistics 43
Joel Best
6 Promoters of Hate Crime Legislation 51
Valerie fenness and Kendal Broad
7 Psychiatrists Construct Homosexuality 59
Stuart A. Kirk and Herb Kutchins
8 Television Talk Shows Construct Morality 66
Kathleen S. Lowney
III. Constructing Conditions
Introduction 77
9 Smoking Problems in Japan 81
Jun Ayukawa
v
vi Contents
10 Crime Frames and their Sponsors 88
Theodore Sasson
11 Framing in the Fathers' Rights Movement 93
Gwyneth I. Williams and Rhys H Williams
12 Factory Farming as a Social Problem 101
Karl R. Kunkel
IV. Constructing People
Introduction 109
13 The Rhetorical Appeal of Random Violence 113
Joel Best
14 Prostitutes Respond to AIDS 120
Valerie Jenness
15 Science Constructs PMS 127
Anne E. Figert
16 Multicultural Education as Moral Drama 135
Shan Nelson-Rowe
V. Constructing Solutions
Introduction 143
17 The Homeless Mentally 111 and Involuntary Hospitalization 146
Donileen R. Loseke
18 Constructing a War on Drugs 154
Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine
19 Urine Testing and Social Control 162
William J. Staudenmeier
20 The Size Acceptance Movement 169
Jeffery Sobal
VI. Social Problems and Everyday Life
Introduction 177
21 Constructing the Need for "Low Fat" Food 180
S. Bryn Austin
Contents vii
22 Pregnant Women as a Social Problem 188
Carol Brooks-Gardner
23 Constructing Sexually Marginalized Catholics 196
Donileen R. Loseke and James C. Cavendish
24 The Beliefs of Recovery Religion 204
Kathleen S. Lowney
VII. Social Problems and Troubled People
Introduction 215
25 Medicalizing Childhood 219
Dorothy Pawluch
26 Teaching Gifted Children 226
Leslie Margolin
27 Constructing Insanity in Involuntary Commitment Hearings 233
James A. Holstein
28 Formula Stories and Support Groups for Battered Women 241
Donileen R. Loseke
VIII. Evaluating Constructionist Perspectives on
Social Problems
Introduction 251
29 "Crack Babies" and the Politics of Mothering 254
Jacqueline Litt and Maureen McNeil
30 The Symbolic Meanings of "Pedophile Priests" 261
Philip Jenkins
31 Horror Stories and the Construction of Child Abuse 267
John M. Johnson
32 Constructing the "Jewish Problem" in Nazi Germany 272
Ronald J. Berger
Preface
It has been 25 years since Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse published
Constructing Social Problems, a book calling upon sociologists to adopt a
new approach to studying social problems. Offered as an alternative to ex
amining the "objective" characteristics of social problems, constructionist
approaches ask how and why particular social problems emerge and be
come the focus of demonstrations and protests, front-page news stories
and television coverage, and new social policies. These approaches also
examine how public consciousness of social problems can change the
world around us as well as our understandings of this world.
Constructionist perspectives have become the leading theoretical ap
proach for sociologists and others studying social problems. Yet construc
tionists' impact on the teaching of social problems has been far less
dramatic. Undergraduate courses on social problems most often remain a
theoretical mish-mash: Just as the first social problems textbooks did al
most a century ago, textbooks continue to present a series of unrelated
chapters, each devoted to a particular social problem.
We believe that part of the reason why constructionism hasn't had more
impact on teaching has been that, until recently, there were no books
specifically for students wanting an introduction to the perspective.
Rather, books and journal articles exemplifying constructionist perspec
tives have been written primarily for those who already have done con
siderable thinking about constructionism, and they are written for
academic readers who are interested in subtle and complex theoretical and
empirical questions.
Donileen Loseke's Thinking about Social Problems was written to fill that
gap, to provide an introduction to constructionist approaches that would
be accessible to students. However, Thinking about Social Problems ought
not, ideally, to stand alone as an introduction because, as a short text, it
lacks detailed case studies demonstrating how constructionist perspec
tives actually can be applied to understand particular social problems.
This reader is intended to do that; it presents brief, readable examples of
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