Spector, Malcolm, and John I. Kitsuse: Constructing Social Problems

Malcolm Spector and John I. Kitsuse published Constructing Social Problems in 1977. This short book became the key statement for a new sociological approach to studying social problems: social constructionism. In recent decades, constructionist theory has guided a large number of [Page 868]empirical studies of different social problems, even as the theory has evolved.

American sociologists began teaching courses with the title “Social Problems” early in the 20th century. These courses were usually taught to first-year or second-year undergraduates. A typical class summarized sociological knowledge about crime, race relations, and a series of other troubling social conditions. These topics were presumably related, in that each was a condition that somehow harmed society—a social problem.

Spector and Kitsuse noted that, even as the social problems course became a standard part of the sociology curriculum, the concept of social problems had attracted critics. These critics argued that the various conditions classified as social problems had little in common: some involved troubled individuals (such as suicide or mental illness); some involved much larger entities, even the entire globe (such as world population). What definition could encompass such different phenomena? Moreover, the critics noted that harmful conditions were not necessarily regarded as social problems. People might disagree about whether a particular condition was harmful, or whether it should be seen as a social problem. What was considered a social problem at one time might be seen as perfectly acceptable at another time, and it was easy to point to conditions that were considered social problems in some societies but not others.

This explains the dramatic first sentence in 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” (p. 1). Any definition that characterized social problems as particular types of conditions would be unsatisfactory. Therefore, Spector and Kitsuse sought to redirect sociological thinking about social problems. Instead of defining social problem in terms of some presumably objective quality of social conditions (such as harmfulness to society), they defined it in terms of subjective reactions—people characterizing social conditions as social problems. Thus, they defined social problems as “the activities of individuals or groups making assertions of grievances and claims with respect to some putative conditions” (p. 75).