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Chapter 16 - Social Constructionism

from Part II - Historical and Theoretical Issues in the Study of Social Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2018

By
Peter R. Ibarra  and
Michael Adorjan
Edited by
A. Javier Treviño
A. Javier Treviño
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Massachusetts
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Summary

This overview of social constructionism begins with a consideration of the influential work of Malcolm Spector and John I. Kitsuse, whose book Constructing Social Problems inspired a wide variety of studies addressing how social problems are “constructed.” Ensuing epistemological and methodological controversies are discussed, and three key scholarly works are reviewed for the insights they offer into exemplary analytic practice in a constructionist vein. The exemplars pivot around the notion that “understanding understandings” is essential to executing constructionist analysis and does not entail subscribing to reified conceptions of objective conditions. The chapter concludes by discussing three promising directions for extending the constructionist purview, namely, through the study of (1) cyberspace (including social media) as an emerging but essential venue for the construction of social problems; (2) claimsmaking in national contexts beyond the Anglo Global North, especially in countries that challenge the liberal democratic assumptions upon which constructionist scholarship usually rests; and (3) a broadened, more quotidian conception of the social spaces and forms through which social problems–related expression is advanced.

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Chapter
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The Cambridge Handbook of Social Problems , pp. 279 - 300
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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