Social Problem: 6 criteria (Schuyt)
1. Problem involves many people
2. ‘Private troubles’
3. Accumulation of problems
4. Not temporary / persistent
5. Systematic causes
6. Fundamental values threatened
Losing WC soccer: No social problem
✓ Involves many people
✓ Private troubles
X Accumulation of problems
✓ Persistent
✓ Systematic causes
X Values threatened
Dog poo: Social problem
✓ Involves many people
✓ Private troubles
✓ Accumulation of problems
✓ Persistent
✓ Systematic causes
✓ Values threatened
Scientific questions about social problems = Sociological problems
Sociology versus ‘common sense’
Zygmunt Bauman:
1. Responsible speech: rules of responsible arguments.
2. Size of the field: transcending your own social world.
3. Making sense: explaning and interpreting human behaviour by looking at the different
figurations and institutions which people are embedded in.
4. Defamiliarize: the ability to discuss/question the familiar and the obvious.
,Ask What and Why questions to understand sociological problems.
3 Types of problems
- Social or societal problems
- Sociological problems
- Social policy problems
Sociological vs social problems
Sociological problems
- Logical problems
- Objective
Social problems
- Issue of valuation / it is bad that people…
- Issue of action / something should be done
Sociology: 3 levels
Micro
- Family
- Friends
Meso
- Companies
- University
Macro
- Government
- Country
Differences with psychology
Type of problem
- PSY states problem mostly at individual level
- SOC states problem mostly at societal level
Type of explanation
- PSY gives individual explanation (psyche)
- SOC gives social explanation
,P-T-O (Emperical cycle)
P = Problem → Why?
T = Theory → Maybe because…?
O = Observation → Is the explanation true?
P1 (why?)
- Why do men have a higher income than women? •
T1 (maybe because?):
- Because men are higher educated than women, and a higher educational level is
associated with a higher income (Human Capital theory)
O1 (is the explanation true?) :
- 40% of difference in income is due to difference in educational level
- But: even with a similar education men have a higher income
- T is partly true, but not sufficient!
O1 raises a new question, and a new T and a new O…
- P2 : Why do women with the same educational level as men, still have a lower
income?
- T2: Maybe because …
- O2: Is T2 true?
- • O2 → P3, etc.. etc..
PTO → PTO = Emprical cycle
PO → PTO (starts with the what question)
Cycle may also start with a what Q
P1: Change in crime in Netherlands 2000-2015?
O1: Decrease
P2: Why a decrease?
T2: Because of wealth
O2: T not true. In prosperous countries sometimes higher crime rates (USA)
P3: Why….?
, 3 Key questions of sociology
1. Social inequality
To what extent are scarce resources unequally distributed?
2. Social cohesion
To what extent do members of a society live peacefully together?
3. Rationalization (or culture)
To what extent is a society rationalized?
1. Problem involves many people
2. ‘Private troubles’
3. Accumulation of problems
4. Not temporary / persistent
5. Systematic causes
6. Fundamental values threatened
Losing WC soccer: No social problem
✓ Involves many people
✓ Private troubles
X Accumulation of problems
✓ Persistent
✓ Systematic causes
X Values threatened
Dog poo: Social problem
✓ Involves many people
✓ Private troubles
✓ Accumulation of problems
✓ Persistent
✓ Systematic causes
✓ Values threatened
Scientific questions about social problems = Sociological problems
Sociology versus ‘common sense’
Zygmunt Bauman:
1. Responsible speech: rules of responsible arguments.
2. Size of the field: transcending your own social world.
3. Making sense: explaning and interpreting human behaviour by looking at the different
figurations and institutions which people are embedded in.
4. Defamiliarize: the ability to discuss/question the familiar and the obvious.
,Ask What and Why questions to understand sociological problems.
3 Types of problems
- Social or societal problems
- Sociological problems
- Social policy problems
Sociological vs social problems
Sociological problems
- Logical problems
- Objective
Social problems
- Issue of valuation / it is bad that people…
- Issue of action / something should be done
Sociology: 3 levels
Micro
- Family
- Friends
Meso
- Companies
- University
Macro
- Government
- Country
Differences with psychology
Type of problem
- PSY states problem mostly at individual level
- SOC states problem mostly at societal level
Type of explanation
- PSY gives individual explanation (psyche)
- SOC gives social explanation
,P-T-O (Emperical cycle)
P = Problem → Why?
T = Theory → Maybe because…?
O = Observation → Is the explanation true?
P1 (why?)
- Why do men have a higher income than women? •
T1 (maybe because?):
- Because men are higher educated than women, and a higher educational level is
associated with a higher income (Human Capital theory)
O1 (is the explanation true?) :
- 40% of difference in income is due to difference in educational level
- But: even with a similar education men have a higher income
- T is partly true, but not sufficient!
O1 raises a new question, and a new T and a new O…
- P2 : Why do women with the same educational level as men, still have a lower
income?
- T2: Maybe because …
- O2: Is T2 true?
- • O2 → P3, etc.. etc..
PTO → PTO = Emprical cycle
PO → PTO (starts with the what question)
Cycle may also start with a what Q
P1: Change in crime in Netherlands 2000-2015?
O1: Decrease
P2: Why a decrease?
T2: Because of wealth
O2: T not true. In prosperous countries sometimes higher crime rates (USA)
P3: Why….?
, 3 Key questions of sociology
1. Social inequality
To what extent are scarce resources unequally distributed?
2. Social cohesion
To what extent do members of a society live peacefully together?
3. Rationalization (or culture)
To what extent is a society rationalized?
