Malcolm Spector
Biographic Data
| ID | 196492 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Malcolm Spector |
| GIVEN NAMES | Malcolm |
| FAMILY NAME | Spector |
| SIGNATURE | SPECTOR M |
| AFFILIATIONS | McGill University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 403 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1971 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Through the Social Problems Looking Glass: A Festschrift in Honor of Dorothy Pawluch
Constructing Social Problems Forty Years Later
Social Problems as Claims-Making Activities
This chapter introduces a conception of social problems and elaborates a definition of the activities around which we feel a vigorous, substantive area of study might develop. The notion that social problems are a kind of condition must be abandoned in favor of a conception of them as a kind of activity known as claims-making activity. The chapter explains the social problems activities, particularly Richard Fuller and Myers&s; formulation that "…
Teaching Social Problems
This concluding chapter describes a classroom strategy for organizing a course in social problems that uses a social definition perspective. By focusing on the activities through which definitions are constructed, the authors believe a vigorous and empirically oriented program of research and teaching is possible. The chapter provides six projects to the students: recognizing and defining social problems, social problems activities, social reform…
Functional and Normative Definitions
This chapter reviews two ways that social problems are currently defined. One is the functional approach , which stresses the idea of social disorganization. The other is the normative approach , which is characteristic of both the functional and more eclectic formulations. The chapter examines in detail the definitional statements of several authors and explores whether these definitions are, in fact, implemented and reflected in their analyses …
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallels
This chapter explores the idea that specific forms of membership or participation in society may account for the failure of the writers to maintain consistent attention on the definitional process. In examining the puzzling pattern of unrealized value-conflict theory, it is helpful to consider examples of the social definitional approach in sociology. The chapter briefly characterizes the parallels between the development of value-conflict and la…
The Value-Conflict School
In constructing their own definitions of social problems, the value-conflict theorists sought to distinguish between an objective condition and the definition of conditions as a problem. This chapter examines in some detail the failures and compromises of the value-conflict writings. Every social problem consists of an objective condition and a subjective definition. The objective condition is a verifiable situation which can be checked as to exi…
The Description and Analysis of Social Problems Activities: An Extended Empirical Example
This chapter presents an empirical example of social problems activities, a controversy that developed out of efforts to publicize the use of psychiatry to control political dissidents in the Soviet Union. In January of 1971, Vladimir Bukovsky, a twenty-nine-year-old dissident Soviet biologist, sent to England the secret psychiatric dossiers of six Soviet dissidents he said were being held in Soviet mental hospitals because of their political bel…
The Natural History of Social Problems
Constructing Social Problems
There is no adequate definition of social problems within sociology, and there is not and never has been a sociology of social problems. That observation is the point of departure of this book. The authors aim to provide such a definition and to prepare the ground for the empirical study of social problems. They are aware that their objective will strike many fellow sociologists as ambitious, perhaps even arrogant. Their work challenges sociologi…
Sociologie des problèmes sociaux: Un modèle d’histoire naturelle
Une sociologie des problèmes sociaux est-elle possible ? Ce concept de « problème social » se rapporte-t-il à un domaine ou à un objet de recherche spécifique ? Existe-t-il des ensembles de phénomènes et de processus que l’on puisse rassembler sous ce titre, si ce n’est pour nommer des cours et rédiger des manuels universitaires ? Après plus de quarante ans, les écrits sur les problèmes sociaux continuent de manquer de substance et pèchent par l’…
L’expérience des problèmes publics
L'analyse des problèmes sociaux est l'ordinaire des sciences sociales. Pour rendre compte de leur constitution, celles-ci ont souvent recours à un argument constructiviste. Les enquêtes présentées dans ce volume proposent une approche alternative, inspirée du pragmatisme de John Dewey. Les problèmes sociaux n'y sont pas envisagés comme de simples « constructions sociales et historiques ». Ils procèdent de dynamiques de problématisation et de publ…
Jeunes Deviants ou Delinquants Juveniles
Deviant Designations: Crime, Law and Deviance in Canada
Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials
Thoughts on Five New Journals and Some Old Ones
Constructing Social Problem
Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, Processes, and Social Order
Profils épistémologiques en criminologie comparée
Resumé L'ambition de cet article est de présenter, en marge de l'approche criminologique traditionnelle, un ensemble de développements, révélateurs des tendances nouvelles qui traversent la criminologie contemporaine. Malgré l'abondance des matériaux, il nous a semblé profitable de distinguer trois courants de pensée criminologique, soit : "L 'étude de la délinquance comme activité ordinaire" (I); "la criminologie de la réaction sociétaire" (II);…
Understanding Social Problems
Reacting to Social Problems
Legitimizing homosexuality
Social Problems: Values and Interests in Conflict
The Social Construction of Social Problems: Six Class Assignments
Labeling Theory in 'Social Problems: A Young Journal Launches a New Theory
Some critics feel Social Problems has been unreceptive to new ideas. One important new theory, labeling theory, found its original support in Social Problems. All of its early essays, its first research, and the first commentary on the perspective all appeared in Social Problems. The case highlights the role of a forum for the development of a new theory. In addition, a common locus of publication fostered the imputation of a common perspective t…
Toward a Sociology of Social Problems: Social Conditions, Value-Judgments, and Social Problems
Two major approaches to the study of social problems are examined: the functionalist statement by Merton, and the value-conflict view of Waller, and Fuller and Myers. The ambiguities of the relationship between the concepts "objective conditions" and "social problem" contained in the statements of these writers are identified and analyzed. Some preliminary suggestions are made to define the subject matter of the sociology of social problems as a …
Constructing Social Problems
There is no adequate definition of social problems within sociology, and there is not and never has been a sociology of social problems. That observation is the point of departure of this book. The authors aim to provide such a definition and to prepare the ground for the empirical study of social problems. They are aware that their objective will strike many fellow sociologists as ambitious, perhaps even arrogant. Their work challenges sociologi…
Social Problems: A Re-Formulation
A definition of social problems is proposed as a generic phenomenon: the process by which members of groups or societies, through assertions of grievances and claims, define a putative condition as a social problem. Then a four-stage natural history model of social problems is described. In Stage One, groups assert the existence and offensiveness of some condtion. In Stage Two some official agency responds to the claims; in Stage Three claims and…
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallel Issues
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallel Issues Get access John I. Kitsuse, John I. Kitsuse Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Malcolm Spector Malcolm Spector Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Problems, Volume 22, Issue 5, 1 June 1975, Pages 584–594, https://doi.org/10.2307/799692 Published: 02 August 2014
Constructing Social Problems Forty Years Later
Legitimizing homosexuality
Thoughts on Five New Journals and Some Old Ones
Labeling Theory in 'Social Problems: A Young Journal Launches a New Theory
Some critics feel Social Problems has been unreceptive to new ideas. One important new theory, labeling theory, found its original support in Social Problems. All of its early essays, its first research, and the first commentary on the perspective all appeared in Social Problems. The case highlights the role of a forum for the development of a new theory. In addition, a common locus of publication fostered the imputation of a common perspective t…
Secrecy in Job Seeking Among Government Attorneys: Two Contingencies in the Theory of Subcultures
The Rise and Fall of a Mobility Route
For occupational mobility to occur, there must be a demand for skills in the labor market and a mechanism for supplying candidates with these skills. The process of acquiring such skills and capitalizing on them may be called a mobility route. This paper analyzes one such route: how attorneys use government employment to acquire expertise that will improve their position in the legal job market. The analysis suggests that such routes may appear a…
The Social Construction of Social Problems: Six Class Assignments
On 'Do Delinquents Drift
Through the Social Problems Looking Glass: A Festschrift in Honor of Dorothy Pawluch
Constructing Social Problem
Understanding Social Problems
On 'Do Delinquents Drift
The Rise and Fall of a Mobility Route
For occupational mobility to occur, there must be a demand for skills in the labor market and a mechanism for supplying candidates with these skills. The process of acquiring such skills and capitalizing on them may be called a mobility route. This paper analyzes one such route: how attorneys use government employment to acquire expertise that will improve their position in the legal job market. The analysis suggests that such routes may appear a…
Social Problems: A Re-Formulation
A definition of social problems is proposed as a generic phenomenon: the process by which members of groups or societies, through assertions of grievances and claims, define a putative condition as a social problem. Then a four-stage natural history model of social problems is described. In Stage One, groups assert the existence and offensiveness of some condtion. In Stage Two some official agency responds to the claims; in Stage Three claims and…
Toward a Sociology of Social Problems: Social Conditions, Value-Judgments, and Social Problems
Two major approaches to the study of social problems are examined: the functionalist statement by Merton, and the value-conflict view of Waller, and Fuller and Myers. The ambiguities of the relationship between the concepts "objective conditions" and "social problem" contained in the statements of these writers are identified and analyzed. Some preliminary suggestions are made to define the subject matter of the sociology of social problems as a …
Secrecy in Job Seeking Among Government Attorneys: Two Contingencies in the Theory of Subcultures
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallel Issues
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallel Issues Get access John I. Kitsuse, John I. Kitsuse Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Malcolm Spector Malcolm Spector Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Social Problems, Volume 22, Issue 5, 1 June 1975, Pages 584–594, https://doi.org/10.2307/799692 Published: 02 August 2014
Social Problems: Values and Interests in Conflict
The Social Construction of Social Problems: Six Class Assignments
Labeling Theory in 'Social Problems: A Young Journal Launches a New Theory
Some critics feel Social Problems has been unreceptive to new ideas. One important new theory, labeling theory, found its original support in Social Problems. All of its early essays, its first research, and the first commentary on the perspective all appeared in Social Problems. The case highlights the role of a forum for the development of a new theory. In addition, a common locus of publication fostered the imputation of a common perspective t…
Understanding Social Problems
Reacting to Social Problems
Legitimizing homosexuality
Profils épistémologiques en criminologie comparée
Resumé L'ambition de cet article est de présenter, en marge de l'approche criminologique traditionnelle, un ensemble de développements, révélateurs des tendances nouvelles qui traversent la criminologie contemporaine. Malgré l'abondance des matériaux, il nous a semblé profitable de distinguer trois courants de pensée criminologique, soit : "L 'étude de la délinquance comme activité ordinaire" (I); "la criminologie de la réaction sociétaire" (II);…
Constructing Social Problem
Negotiations: Varieties, Contexts, Processes, and Social Order
Thoughts on Five New Journals and Some Old Ones
Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials
Deviant Designations: Crime, Law and Deviance in Canada
Jeunes Deviants ou Delinquants Juveniles
Sociologie des problèmes sociaux: Un modèle d’histoire naturelle
Une sociologie des problèmes sociaux est-elle possible ? Ce concept de « problème social » se rapporte-t-il à un domaine ou à un objet de recherche spécifique ? Existe-t-il des ensembles de phénomènes et de processus que l’on puisse rassembler sous ce titre, si ce n’est pour nommer des cours et rédiger des manuels universitaires ? Après plus de quarante ans, les écrits sur les problèmes sociaux continuent de manquer de substance et pèchent par l’…
L’expérience des problèmes publics
L'analyse des problèmes sociaux est l'ordinaire des sciences sociales. Pour rendre compte de leur constitution, celles-ci ont souvent recours à un argument constructiviste. Les enquêtes présentées dans ce volume proposent une approche alternative, inspirée du pragmatisme de John Dewey. Les problèmes sociaux n'y sont pas envisagés comme de simples « constructions sociales et historiques ». Ils procèdent de dynamiques de problématisation et de publ…
Social Problems as Claims-Making Activities
This chapter introduces a conception of social problems and elaborates a definition of the activities around which we feel a vigorous, substantive area of study might develop. The notion that social problems are a kind of condition must be abandoned in favor of a conception of them as a kind of activity known as claims-making activity. The chapter explains the social problems activities, particularly Richard Fuller and Myers&s; formulation that "…
Teaching Social Problems
This concluding chapter describes a classroom strategy for organizing a course in social problems that uses a social definition perspective. By focusing on the activities through which definitions are constructed, the authors believe a vigorous and empirically oriented program of research and teaching is possible. The chapter provides six projects to the students: recognizing and defining social problems, social problems activities, social reform…
Functional and Normative Definitions
This chapter reviews two ways that social problems are currently defined. One is the functional approach , which stresses the idea of social disorganization. The other is the normative approach , which is characteristic of both the functional and more eclectic formulations. The chapter examines in detail the definitional statements of several authors and explores whether these definitions are, in fact, implemented and reflected in their analyses …
Social Problems and Deviance: Some Parallels
This chapter explores the idea that specific forms of membership or participation in society may account for the failure of the writers to maintain consistent attention on the definitional process. In examining the puzzling pattern of unrealized value-conflict theory, it is helpful to consider examples of the social definitional approach in sociology. The chapter briefly characterizes the parallels between the development of value-conflict and la…
Sociology (23 works) · Psychology (14 works) · Political science (13 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Criminology (7 works) · Philosophy (7 works) · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice (6 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (6 works) · Epistemology (6 works)