Globalizing Social Problems

An Agenda for the Twenty-First Century

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2245137
AutoresDavid A Smith (0000-0002-7664-1731, University of California, Irvine, autor correspondente)
Ano2017
Volume64
Fascículo1
Páginas1-13
Data de publicação2017-02-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Problems (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/socpro/spw032
OpenAlexW2562562379
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas6
Referências citadas49

The Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP) was founded 65 years ago with an explicit goal of bringing sociological research to bear on the pressing issues of the day in order to promote social justice. The ethos of the society’s founders, Elizabeth Briant Lee and Alfred McClung Lee (1976), was that sociology should be “a discipline to be used in the service of all people” (p. 5); their challenge to the society was to “be ready to accept the challenges of new issues and conditions as they arise” (p. 7). Many of the original leaders and presidents of the SSSP were animated by the same concern as the Lees about the plethora of problems impacting the post-World War II United States, including pervasive racism and poverty in an era of unprecedented economic growth and prosperity. But a brief glance at the early pages of Social Problems shows that there were also concerns about law, crime, and “deviant” behavior, human sexuality, families, mental health, addictions, disabilities, urbanization, migration, work and jobs, higher education, etc. Most of these topics and concerns, of course, remain central to research at our annual conferences today. A much more recent SSSP president, John Galliher (2002), provides a nice overview of the “cast of characters” and their various but overlapping vision of sociology in those early days; he particularly highlights the likely underappreciated leadership role that Jesse Bernard took in developing and promoting a feminist sensibility in sociology as an integral component to analyzing and acting on a range of social problems—still a hallmark of today’s SSSP.1

Criminology · Ethos · Political science · Poverty · Prosperity · Racism · Social issues · Sociology · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism · Gender Studies · Law · Social and Cultural Dynamics