Publication (142 pages).

terpretation of
ow social acf
the behaviour.
roach is pars
for several
ing as a social
ing the differhat
produce an
s problematic.
e development
ng as a social
laims and a difand
subjective
social problems. They believed a social
problem to be less a fact in existence
and more an ongoing activity in society.
They define social problems as “the activities
of individuals or groups making
assertions of grievances and claims with
respect to some putative conditions”.
The purpose of the study of social problems
becomes not to locate and identify
the objective conditions that constitute
the problem, but to explore the
social activities that come to define the
situation as problematic. This means
that objective conditions may or may
not play a role in the defining of the
social problem; instead the important
factor is the identification of the assertions
being made about the objective
conditions. As opposed to objective
conditions, the constructionist perspective
involves examining what Spector
and Kitsuse call ‘claims-making activities’.
They argue that claims-making
includes interaction between a claimant
and another party about the mentioned
condition. They also mention
that the “claimant has a right at least to
be heard,if not to receive satisfaction”.
This brings the claimant and the type
of claim into the centre of the social
problem discussion, removing the focus
on objective aspects. This approach
requires consideration for the people
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