SOCIAL PROBLEMS Chris Marshall cmarshal@unity.edu

January 2004 w. phone: 254 h: 589-4632

Description: This course studies social problems in the modern world, especially the US, and how to solve them through social action. We’ll consider four sets of problems and solutions: inequality, problems of the family, crime and deviance, and problems of the environment.

• We’ll use constructionist theory to explain why these are (or aren’t) publicly defined as problems. We’ll use conflict theory to understand how power shapes the way people view problems.

• We’ll examine the causes of each problem, the resulting consequences, and solutions.

• We’ll consider conservative, liberal, and progressive viewpoints and how they affect the way different people understand social problems.

• We’ll consider social activism to resolve problems.

Outcomes: At the end of the course you should be able to:

1. Demonstrate knowledge of these social problems in the modern world, especially the US -- their causes, consequences, and solutions.

2. Be able to explain and use conceptual tools (the idea of critical constructionism, the knowledge of social forces, the awareness of political economy as a major “player” in creating social problems)

3. Be able to explain, identify, and evaluate conservative, liberal, and progressive ideologies in approaching social problems.

4. Be able to plan and explain social action designed to solve a social problem.

Plan: In the first two weeks we’ll practice using the tools to study

social problems: constructionist and conflict theories, ways to identify ideologies, our own embeddedness in social structure.

For the rest of the course, we’ll follow two parallel tracks:

• TRACK ONE: We’ll study many social problems, using Heiner’s textbook and Internet resources. You’ll be asked to write many small essays and research reports and keep them in a looseleaf notebook.

• TRACK TWO: You’ll choose one social problem and consider social activism to solve it. You may decide to be reflective (looking at other people’s activism and evaluating their actions in a major research paper) or active (setting up or taking part in activism and writing about it in a journal).

We’ll take a break for two weeks in late Feb-early March to read about three communities and how they solved some of their problems, using Duncan’s book.

By the end you will have a looseleaf notebook from Track One and a paper or journal from Track Two. There are no midterms or finals.

Readings: Two books are required: Social Problems: An Introduction to Critical Constructionism by Robert Heiner, and Worlds Apart: Why Poverty Persists in Rural America by Cynthia M. Duncan. Other readings will be assigned occasionally and will be in folders in the library reserve area. We’ll use the Internet regularly. You need to have e-mail and check it often: I’ll be sending assignments and web-links to you.

Writing: • Please keep your written work in a looseleaf notebook in which you keep assigned writings in order. This is due to me on the last day of class.

• Assignments must be typed or clearly written in blue or black ink on one side of a page, fastened, and reasonably correct in grammar and spelling. • Any writing can be redrafted for improvement. • You may use any citation format you wish—MLA, APA, or whatever. • If you use the words or ideas of someone else, give them credit. Otherwise you could be committing plagiarism without meaning to, which is serious and could affect your grade seriously. (A good test of whether to cite someone is to ask yourself whether you would want credit for your words or ideas if you were the author.)

Grades: Assignments handed in late may be downgraded for each day late (from B to B-, for example.) Here is what grades mean:

F: not handed in.

D: Your writing doesn’t really show you get the point, doesn’t show you can use the ideas.

C: Gets the basic point, shows you can apply the ideas and facts a bit.

B: Shows thorough understanding of points and are able to apply them.

A: Shows thorough understanding of ideas and facts, able to apply them, shows original extensions of ideas and methods.

Your grade will be calculated as follows: class participation 33%, looseleaf notebook 33%, activism paper or journal 33%.