Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues / Edition 1

by Ira D. Silver

Overview

Seeing Social Problems: The Hidden Stories Behind Contemporary Issues shows students how to think about social problems in a new way, by carefully analyzing headline-making issues they are already familiar with and illustrating the connection between individual problems and larger social forces. Each chapter engages students in thinking about the world sociologically by focusing on a specific case study that represents a more general social problem. The chapters always start with the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and personal experiences that students bring to the case—what author Ira Silver refers to as the conventional wisdom—and effectively demonstrate to them the “first wisdom” of sociology: “things are not what they seem.” In each instance, Silver shows how sociologists ask questions, gather empirical data, use multiple perspectives, and consider larger social forces to discover the “hidden stories” behind individual behavior.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781506386812
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	01/24/2020
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	7.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Ira Silver is Professor of Sociology at Framingham State University, where he has taught since 2002. He also teaches during the summer at Wellesley College. He received his B.A. summa cum laude from Amherst College and his Masters and Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University.

In addition to teaching Social Problems, Ira’s courses include: Nonprofit Giving; Death & Dying; Animals & Society; Society, Technology & the Future; Sport in Society; and Issues & Influences in Education.

Ira has authored or edited four previous books. Giving Hope: How You Can Restore the American Dream (Create Space, 2013) is a guide for charitable giving that addresses the opportunity divide in the U.S. Social Problems: Readings (Norton, 2008) is a collection of essays about contemporary issues. Academic Street Smarts: Informal Professionalization of Graduate Students in Sociology (American Sociological Association, 2008) is a collection of essay that provides tips for career success in the field.Unequal Partnerships: Beyond the Rhetoric of Philanthropic Collaboration (Routledge, 2006) is a study of power relations between grantors and grantees.

Table of Contents

Preface: To the Instructor
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1 • Looking beyond What You Already Know: Becoming Curious about Social Problems
Social Problems Are Everywhere
The Virtue of Sociology: Opening Your Eyes to the Hidden World around You
Viewing Our Society through Different Lenses
Recognizing That Social Problems Have Diverse Explanations
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Chapter 2 • Opportunity for Few: The Withering of the American Dream
Struggling to Get Ahead in the Land of Opportunity
The Opportunity Divide: How American Society Produces Economic Inequality
Blocked Opportunities: How Social Forces Impede Low-Income Youth from Living the Dream
Tarnished Hopes for the Future: How Poverty Impedes Low-Income People’s Motivations to Get Ahead
A Personal Tale from the Other Side of the Opportunity Divide: How Social Forces Bolster Success
Rethinking Welfare: How the Sociological Perspective Can Widen Your Understanding of Who Deserves Help
Taking Collective Responsibility: Why the Withering of the American Dream Is Everyone’s Problem
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 3 • “I Can’t Breathe”: Policing, Race, and Violence
Violent Encounters between Cops and People of Color
Assigning Personal Blame, Either to Bad Cops or to Dangerous Black Men
Responding to Public Fears: Police Brutality as a By-product of Getting Tough on Crime
The Hidden Roots of Crime: How Race Shapes Opportunity
The Sociological Stories behind the Footage: Taking a Deeper Look at Police Violence Videos
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 4 • The Color of Drug Abuse: Handcuffs for Some Addicts, Help for Others
Crack and Opioids: A Tale of Two Drug Epidemics
Race and the Social Construction of Drugs
The Racial Inequalities Underlying Drug Enforcement
Policing Drugs by Creating Scapegoats
Not as Simple as “Just Say No”: The Social Forces Contributing to Drug Abuse
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 5 • Slim Chances: Weight Anxiety in a Society That Prizes Thinness
Thin Is In: The Social Construction of Body Size
Bias without Boundaries: The Pervasiveness of Size Discrimination in American Society
The Elephant in the Room: Explaining Why Obesity Is Most Prevalent in Low-Income Communities
Feeling the Weight: Why People of Average Size May Be Insecure about Their Bodies
Debunking Conventional Wisdom about Body Size
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 6 • What’s Sex Got to Do with It? Uncovering the Roots of Teen Pregnancy
Parental Anxiety Gone Wild: Raising Kids in a Society Where Sexualized Images Are Everywhere
Who’s Doing What and When? Shifting Views about Sex, Birth Control, and Pregnancy
Dim Hopes for the Future: Highlighting the Social Forces That Contribute to Teens Having Babies
“Acting Like Sluts”: How the Individual Perspective toward Teen Pregnancy Reinforces Gender Inequality
Reducing Teen Pregnancy: Early Educational Opportunity Is Key
Looking Cross-Culturally; Exposing an Alternative Way to Understand Teens and Sex
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 7 • “Everybody’s Doing It”: Getting Ahead by Cheating
From Champ to Chump: How Lance Armstrong Tarnished His Reputation Riding the Road to Victory
A Sketchy Path to the Top: Doping in Sports
Striving to Be #1: Competing in a Winner-Take-All Society
Challenging the Conventional Wisdom about Who’s a Cheater
When Second Best Feels Like Losing: The Medicalization of Imperfection
Game On: Seeing Cheating as a Way to Conform with Mainstream Values
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 8 • Living in Infamy: Mass Shootings as Enduring Expressions of Masculinity
Making Sense of the Senseless: Exploring What Drives Mass Shooters to Commit Acts of Destruction
Seeking Revenge: Viewing Mass Shootings as Efforts by Disrespected Males to Get Even
The Columbine Effect: How Online Networks Enable Aggrieved Males to Plot the Next Rampage
Violence without Outrage: How Mass Shootings Resemble Riots
Cementing Their Legacy as “Real Men”: How Rampage Reporting Immortalizes Toxic Masculinity
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 9 • #Me Too: Why Gender Violence Is Everyone’s Problem
Publicizing Trauma: How Social Media Has Brought Gender Violence out of the Shadows
Exhibiting Entitlement: Gender Violence as a Display of Male Power
Adding Insult to Injury: Why Blaming Gender Violence Survivors for Their Victimization Contributes to the Problem
“Be A Man”: Violence as a Socially Acceptable Expression of Masculinity
Seeing Gender Violence as Everyone’s Problem
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 10 • Bearing Witness to Inhumanity: Making Sense of Cruelty to Animals
Feeling Their Pain: Exploring Why Animal Cruelty So Deeply Affects Us
Gory Thrills: Making Sense of the Pleasure Some People Get from Abusing Animals
Tastes So Cruel: Exposing the Hidden Workings of the Factory Farming System
Confronting Our Inhumanity: A Look at Efforts to Cease the Practice of Animal Entertainment
The Payoff of the Sociological Perspective: Seeing Who We Are through Our Relationships with Animals
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 11 • “Better Safe Than Sorry”: Protecting Children from Strangers and Other Dangers
Careful Who You Friend: Exploring the Predatory Behavior of Strangers Lurking on the Internet
Unequal Childhoods: Exposing Why Some Kids Are More Prone Than Others to Online Exploitation by Strangers
Overprotecting Children: The Unintended Consequences of Safeguarding Kids from Risk
Strangers with Benefits: Discovering the Advantages of Interacting with Unfamiliar People in Public
Thinking Straight about Threats to Children
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 12 • Have Kids Gotten Meaner? An Up-Close Look at Cyberbullying and Suicide
Any Time and Place: How Teens Use Technology to Act Cruelly toward One Another
A Peek Inside Teen Culture: Uncovering Social Forces That Give Rise to Cyberbullying
Not a Solitary Act of Desperation: Exposing Social Forces That Lead Teens to Die from Suicide
Getting to the Root of Kids’ Meanness toward One Another
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 13 • “You’re Such a Downer”: Why Mental Illness Goes beyond Personal Suffering
Diseases of the Mind: Exploring the Wide Array of Psychiatric Disorders
Conditions Blood Tests Cannot Prove: The Social Construction of Mental Illness
Inexact Science: Explaining Cases Where ADHD Is Misdiagnosed
Being Sad When You’re Supposed to Be Happy: How American Culture Influences the Experience of Depression
“Feeling Crazy”: How Gender Shapes the Ways People Think about and Cope with Mental Illness
People Whose Minds Are Merely Different: Challenging the Stigma Associated with Mental Illness
What Do You Know Now?
Key Terms
Notes
Chapter 14 • Eyes Wide Open: The Benefits of Seeing Social Problems from Multiple Perspectives
Benefit #1: Recognizing Different Realities
Benefit #2: Expanding Your Focus
Benefit #3: Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Benefit #4: Looking Inward
Notes
Glossary
Index