
Challenges and Choices
Constructionist Perspectives on Social Problems. (Social Problems and Social Issues)
AldineTransaction (Publisher)
1st Edition
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2003
Book
Hardback
VI, 262 pages
978-0-202-30696-4 (ISBN)
Description
The social constructionist perspective has revolutionized the way that social scientists investigate social problems. Constructing Social Problems (Spector and Kitsuse [1977] 2001) offered the guiding statement of the approach, which both transformed and revitalized the sociology of social problems, propelling it into a quarter century of exciting and innovative empirical research. John Kitsuse and Malcolm Spector challenged conventional approaches to the field; they insisted on treating social problems as social constructions--as the products of claims-making and constitutive definitional processes.
The purpose of this book is to highlight contemporary challenges to the social constructionist perspective on social problems. In 1993, two collections of essays, Reconsidering Social Constructionism: Debates in Social Problems Theory (Holstein and Miller 1993) and Constructionist Controversies: Issues in Social Problems Theory (Miller and Holstein 1993), brought a wide variety of constructionist challenges into focus. Challenges and Choices attempts to distill these debates, and offers some compelling suggestions for how challenges may be met and where constructionist studies might proceed in the future. While each of the essays in this volume deeply appreciates the constructionist approach, each of them points to issues and choices that social constructionists must confront if the perspective is to continue to be a vital part of ongoing debates on social problems. The essays critique previous constructionist formulations; make suggestions for advancing, expanding, or diversifying the constructionist agenda; and challenge the perspective to move in new directions.
They remind us that social constructionism is an ongoing, not a finished, product, and the essays point to some of the choices available to social constructionists in moving their projects into new, even uncharted, territories.
James A. Holstein and Gale Miller are professors in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University.
The purpose of this book is to highlight contemporary challenges to the social constructionist perspective on social problems. In 1993, two collections of essays, Reconsidering Social Constructionism: Debates in Social Problems Theory (Holstein and Miller 1993) and Constructionist Controversies: Issues in Social Problems Theory (Miller and Holstein 1993), brought a wide variety of constructionist challenges into focus. Challenges and Choices attempts to distill these debates, and offers some compelling suggestions for how challenges may be met and where constructionist studies might proceed in the future. While each of the essays in this volume deeply appreciates the constructionist approach, each of them points to issues and choices that social constructionists must confront if the perspective is to continue to be a vital part of ongoing debates on social problems. The essays critique previous constructionist formulations; make suggestions for advancing, expanding, or diversifying the constructionist agenda; and challenge the perspective to move in new directions.
They remind us that social constructionism is an ongoing, not a finished, product, and the essays point to some of the choices available to social constructionists in moving their projects into new, even uncharted, territories.
James A. Holstein and Gale Miller are professors in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University.
More details
Edition
1., Aufl.
Language
English
Place of publication
Somerset
United States
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Inc
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Academic and Postgraduate
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 23 cm
Width: 15 cm
Weight
486 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-202-30696-4 (9780202306964)
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

James A. Holstein | Gale Miller
Challenges and Choices
Constructionist Perspectives on Social Problems
E-Book
11/2024
1st Edition
Routledge
€64.49
Available for download

James A. Holstein | Gale Miller
Challenges and Choices
Constructionist Perspectives on Social Problems
E-Book
11/2024
1st Edition
Routledge
€64.49
Available for download

James A. Holstein | Gale Miller
Challenges and Choices
Constructionist Perspectives on Social Problems. (Social Problems and Social Issues)
Book
08/2003
1st Edition
AldineTransaction
€32.95
Article not available at the moment
Persons
James A. Holstein and Gale Miller are professors in the Department of Social and Cultural Sciences at Marquette University.
Content
Introduction A Fork in the Road: Challenges and Choices in Social Constructionism I Enduring Challenges 1. Claims-Making Discourse and Vernacular Resources 2. But Seriously Folks: The Limitations of the Strict Constructionist Interpretation of Social Problems 3. Social Constructionism and Social Problems Work 4. Claims-Making from the Underside: Marginalization and Social Problems Analysis 5. Conditions, People, Morality, and Emotion: Expanding the Agenda of Constructionism II Contemporary Choices 6. Staying Alive: Prospects for Constructionist Theory 7. Interactional Dynamics in Public Problems Marketplaces: Movements and the Counterframing and Reframing of Public Problems 8. A Constructionist Analytics for Social Problems 9. Explaining Social Problems: Addressing the Whys of Social Constructionism 10. Getting Serious about an Applied Constructionism of Social Problems