Sociology 211
Social Problems
Spring 2004
Dr Scott Schaffer

Analytic Tools - Social Problems to Sociological Problems

Moving from Social Problems to Sociological Problems

Use: You would use this analytic method when trying to figure out the root causes of a particular social problem. This analytic method presumes that the root causes of any social problem lie not in the individuals who suffer through or enact a social problem, but rather in the social system itself – that is, in the way that a society decides to solve a particular sociological problem.

1. Social Problem – the particular difficulty a society has (e.g., poverty, inequality, welfare, etc.)

2. Normal Operation/Right Case Scenario – how things would run if there were no social problem or the “unmarked” baseline against which something becomes a “problem” (e.g., wealth, equality)

Think about what is implied by the statement that “X is a social problem.” If it didn’t exist, how would that particular thing operate? That will give you the “normal operation.”

3. Social Realm – the area of social life in which the “normal operation” and “social problem” occurs (e.g., the economy, social relations, the workplace); serves as a solution to the sociological problem

This element has to do with the particular area of social life in which the social problem manifests itself. How does American society organize that part of our social lives?

4. Sociological Problem – the fundamental issue that the society has to deal with by developing some kind of social institution and set of social practices (e.g., the allocation of resources, the allocation of status, definition of rules, training of new members of society)

This element has to do with the basic questions that any society has to answer by developing a particular set of social practices or social institutions. (Note that society doesn’t “answer” these explicitly; instead, we can analyze what fundamental issue is being dealt with by a set of social institutions.)

Sociological problems include: allocation of resources (wealth, power); allocation of statuses (gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, nationality, prestige); training of new members of society (education, socialization processes); management of reproduction issues (sexuality, family); organization of material reproduction of society (work); instillation of belief systems (religion, patriotism); ideas of social membership (nationalism, community membership)

From Sociological Problems to Social Problems

Use: You would use this analytic method when trying to figure out how it is that the particular way in which a society solves its sociological problems helps to create particular kinds of social problems, as well as what it is that each society prioritizes in the development of those solutions. You would also use this analytic method when trying to discern the possible places at which changes to a social order might need to take place in order to solve its social problems.

1. Sociological Problem – the fundamental issue that the society has to deal with by developing some kind of social institution and set of social practices (e.g., the allocation of resources, the allocation of status, definition of rules, training of new members of society)

Here, you would start with a particular sociological problem that needs to be solved – it can either be the sociological problem you discern from the analysis given on the previous page, or it can be one that you’re trying to solve from scratch (generally, it’ll be the former).

2. Social Realm – the area of social life in which the “normal operation” and “social problem” occurs (e.g., the economy, social relations, the workplace); serves as a solution to the sociological problem

Moving from the sociological problem, you’d decide how it is that the society you’re examining chooses to solve it – the set of institutions, interactions, and individual experiences that help take care of that societal need

2a. Social Prioritization – the particular value or structural norm a society choose to prioritize in developing the above solution to its sociological problem

When figuring out what institutions solve the sociological problem you’re studying, you also need to figure out what value gets prioritized in that solution – what motivates a society to choose one solution to a sociological problem over another. That will lead you to a particular kind of normal operation/right case scenario (as opposed to another that’s motivated by a different value or structural norm).

3. Normal Operation/Right Case Scenario – how things would run if there were no social problem or the “unmarked” baseline against which something becomes a “problem” (e.g., wealth, equality)

Once you’ve figured out what a society prioritizes (and what other structural norms could be prioritized in solving this sociological problem), then you can figure out how things should run in the normal case, as well as the other normal cases that might occur if something else was prioritized.

4. Social Problem – the particular difficulty a society has (e.g., poverty, inequality, welfare, etc.)

After you’ve figured this out, you should be able to see how a society’s values/structural norms and the institutions that are created by those values and norms end up leading to the creation of particular kinds of social problems, why it is that the usual solutions offered to those social problems often don’t fix things, and how things could be fixed or organized differently to prevent social problems from occurring in the first place.