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Chapter 5 - Social Problems in Global Perspective

from Part I - General Concerns and Orientations in the Study of Social Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2018

A. Javier Treviño
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Massachusetts
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Summary

For decades, sociological inquiry and praxis about social problems have developed a primary orientation focused on the nation-state and policy solutions within the nation-state system. We argue for globalizing the study of social problems by adjusting analytical frames that explain, address, or remedy social problems. We first examine several transnational processes that illuminate ways that public issues are bursting the seams of nation-states while weaving new spaces for the emergence of, and contest over, global social problems. We then briefly recap a recent history of globalization, suggesting that both the forms of world-historical processes and their consequences trigger new, globally specific social problems. Adapting social problems theory, we then present an analytical framework for globalizing social problems inquiry and praxis. Two cases illustrate this globalized approach to social problems. Last, we conclude with a view toward the future of global social problems research, its place in the wider sociological project, and the importance of transnational intellectual and organizational praxis.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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