Abstract
Key claims and arguments of the constructionist social problems theory by Malcolm Spector and John Kitsuse are here reviewed. These provocative positions on how best to study social problems and morality in a sociologically recognizable and defensible way, both theoretically and methodologically, are seen as a prime source of the continued interest in and writing from the Spector and Kitsuse formulation over the forty years since its initial publication. The authors considered their proposal “radical,” and retaining its several distinctive recommendations is seen to be a strategy for its continued analytical value and appeal in sociology and beyond.
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Notes
David Matza (1969, p. 103, p. 116, p. 176) in his Becoming Deviant, shares many theoretical points with these authors, does cite Foucault in three footnotes.
I understand the notion of “related activities,” relative to claims and definitions, to be those that arguably and demonstrably are shaped with and from the meanings that the claims and definitions—the words, most simply—used by participants convey.
While the “and responding activities” is central to their conception of social problems, the initial claims, which must be responded to and carried, or not, are sufficient to garner the attention of the researcher using this argument.
Such a position or location in the sociological study of what has been called social problems seems always to have been a point of contention in US sociology. It is easily seen as too distance, too cool, too removed, too safe, too professional, and so on; even perhaps “too conservative.” This is still the case.
Oxford English Dictionary, online, consulted June 22, 2018 at: oed.com.cowles-proxy.drake.edu/view/Entry/155203?redirectedFrom = Putative#eid.
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Schneider, J. Making Claims, Making Problems, Making Morality: Spector and Kitsuse’s Provocation. Am Soc 50, 182–194 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-018-9390-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-018-9390-4