Bloc 3

Question 1

Becker

Answer 1

Moral company (Becker)
* All the efforts made by an interest group or lobby tot hat his notions of what is moral or socially appropriate
Becomes law.

Moral entrepreneurs (Becker)

• Groups or individuals who engage in its practice

Question 2

According to Joseph Gusfield, What are the three levels of constructing a social problem?

Answer 2

• Scientific Rhetoric
  -Work to reorganize the “cognitive order”

(Reading grid that allows you to develop definitions of the situation)

• “Owners of public problems » convinced

(Protagonists who have access to political and legal bodies, who have the authority to “say” what is a problem, and who make it “their cause”)

Question 3

According to Spector and Kitsuse (1977), what is a social problem

Answer 3

Social problem: Not an objective thing but the result of “activities Individuals or groups who make complaints or claims in connection with putative conditions.”

Related to the work of “claim-makers”: people who claim that there is a Problem

Question 4

According to Best, what are the 6 steps of constructing a social problem?

Answer 4

1. Claim-making
2. Media coverage
3. Reaction of the public
4. Policy making
5. Social problem work
6. Policy outcomes

Question 5

Step 1. Claim-making

Answer 5

“claim-makers” define a condition/situation as problematic.

Question 6

Step 2. Media Coverage

Answer 6

Media cover the issue and the “problem” becomes widely known.

Question 7

Step 3: Public Reaction

Answer 7

Members of the public ask for measures to be taken

Question 8

Step 4: Developed Policies

Answer 8

Governments pass laws, or Institutions develop regulations, measures, programs

Question 9

Step 5: Social Problem Work

Answer 9

Implementation of programs, requests for other measures to solve the problem

Question 10

Step 6. Results (Policy outcomes)

Answer 10

Various results, do not necessarily “fix” the “Problem”, contested answer, spiral effect.

Question 11

What is Moral Panic?

Answer 11

A mass movement based on the false or exaggerated perception that some cultural behaviour or group of people is dangerously deviant and poses a threat to society’s values and interests. Moral panics are generally fuelled by media, politicians, editors, coverage of social issues.
- Socially accredited experts pronounce their diagnoses and solutions; treatments are formalized and most often implemented”

Question 12

Folk Devils By Cohen

Answer 12

• For Cohen, they are constructed as a threat by the media and
  politicians by process of:
• Symbolization: the scapegoat is presented in a way
  monolithic, its appearance and identity too
  simplistic, as being easy to recognize.
• Exaggeration: the facts of the controversy surrounding this group are romanticized, distorted, or simply invented to
  help the “moral crusade”.
• Prediction: it is announced that other dangerous actions or immoralities of this group must inevitably arise if we
  does not act

Question 13

What are the elements of moral panic

Answer 13

• Concern: There must be a belief that the behavior in question may
  have a negative impact on society.
• Hostility: We must see hostility towards a group increase. The group becomes one
  scapegoat (folk devil). There is a clear division in the discourse between “them” and “us “.
• Consensus: The definition of the situation will not be accepted by everyone but it must there be a “certain consensus” on the threat posed. This is manifested by
  very vocal “moral entrepreneurs” and “folk devils” and critics of
  this speech that seems disorganized.
• Disproportionality: The actions or measures taken are disproportionate
  compared to the real threat.
• Volatility: Moral panics are very volatile and tend to disappear too quickly as they appear since they are linked to media attention.

Question 14

What is the nature of problems between social problems and panic moral?

Answer 14

Social Problem;

Issues that some members of society considers
problematic.

Moral Panic:
Issues that shock and invoke a very moral reaction
strong for certain members of society and who are often
presented in a stereotypical and hostile manner

Question 15

What are the origins of perceived from the problem?

Between social problems and panic moral

Answer 15

Social problems:
Organization of the company and inadequate public policies

Moral Panic:
Often a publicized event that may arise from
the problematic organization of society but treated as a threat to be contained

Question 16

What is the difference of Amplification and perception between social problems and moral panic?

Answer 16

Social Problems:
Require “owners”
of problems (experts, politicians, media) which promote it, but these problems do not tend not to arouse passions. There is room for disagreement.

Moral Panic:
The people carrying this message seem engaged in
a “moral crusade”. Exaggerated presentation, amplification media of a “crisis”. Moral panic tends to eliminate dissenting voices, to create the impression of consensus and urgency.

Question 17

What are the differences between the political impacts and discourse between social problems and Moral Panic?

Answer 17

Social Problems:
Involve social debates that
can last. Can lead to
policies which themselves
will be the subject of debate

Moral Panic:
Involve more controversies than real debates. tend
to be volatile (a flash in the pan). The policies put in place tend to be disproportionate and to “neutralize” the
threatens rather than modifying social organization

Question 18

What is the position epistemologique entre, social problems and panic moral?

Answer 18

Social problems:
The theory of social problems is clearly constructivist

Moral Panic:
The theory of moral panics has one foot in the
constructivism and a foot in realism

Question 19

According to Hall, what is representation?

Answer 19

Representation is the way in which meaning is given to the things depicted. The process of representation enters into the event itself, it does not exists meaningfully, until it has been represented. Representation does not happen after the event, however it is constitutive of the event. Representation is part of the event. “Reality does not exist outside the event, but within the event itself

• There will never be a fixed meaning of events. Representation does not capture the process at all because there was nothing there to fix in the first place to represent

Question 20

What is culture and conceptual maps?

Answer 20

• Culture is the way in which we make sense of, give meaning to the world. The things that allow us to make sense of the world, Meaning arises because of shared maps people share within each other within society.
• Culture is a system of representation. Concepts allow us to store information of things that we may no longer be inContact with and think about a wide range of things. Concepts are mirror images of concepts that are out there and worlds that no longer exists.

Question 21

According to Hall, explain reality and discourse

Answer 21

“Nothing meaningful exists outside of its discourse”- is true
“Nothing exists outside of its discourse” is false
In relation to meaning, we need a framework of understanding and interpretation to make sense of it.
Without language meaning cannot be exchanged in the world. Without languages there is no representation.

Question 22

Ideology and Power (Purpose, Aim, etc)

Answer 22

Meaning depends on a certain kind of fixing. The purpose of power, in its intervention of language, is to absolutely fix. Power and ideology attempts to fix the meaning of images and language. Because the fixing of meaning cannot be guaranteed, it can be unfixed—it can loosen and fray. The relative openness of meaning makes change possible. Meaning can only be changed because it cannot be finally fixed. The purpose of power is to close meaning to stop the flow.

Question 23

Representation of Policies

Answer 23

Reality exists, but it only has meaning through discourse;
* Therefore the representation is constitutive of reality

• The meaning of representations is socially constructed
• This meaning is never completely fixed
• But power seeks to fix meaning (e.g.: stereotypes)
• There is a constant struggle to impose meaning
• This struggle cannot be understood without an analysis of the
  “real” power structures that organize society.
• The more the meaning is fixed, the more we think that it is objective “reality” and that it becomes
  difficult to define it otherwise (it is a “hegemonic” representation

Question 24

According to Policing the Crisis (1978) by Stuart Hall, what is the problem and what is the solution?

Answer 24

Response to a structural crisis of capitalism

• Problem: Economic crisis reveals the contradictions of capitalism
  Questioning the system (we work and we remain poor)
  Risk of making class exploitation obvious
  Historical conjecture favorable to a racist moral panic
• Solution: Find an enemy, a substitute culprit
  Divide the exploited classes
  Effect of panic: Unite society against the “folk devils”, place the blame elsewhere

Question 25

Microsociological Analysis:
Interactionalist and Constructivist

Answer 25

• Study of Social interactions
• The behavior of individuals is explained
  through their interpretation, their definitions of
  the situation and the meaning they give.
• The treatment individuals receive
  is explained by the way in which these individuals,
  including the “social problem”, are defined
• The law, which is a crime, are the
  result of a definition process (there is
  a plurality of def. possible)

Question 26

Macro-sociological Analysis
structural and realist (critical)

Answer 26

Study of social structures and institutions

• The behavior of individuals is “determined” by their position in the
  social structure.
• The treatment that individuals receive is
  “determined” by their position in the
  social structure.
• The law, repression, def. of crime, are
  based on (and sometimes support) the established order, that is to say power relations

Question 27

What is the influence of Constructivistism

Answer 27

The constructivist influence
* Representations are social constructions

• Politicians, media, construct “social problems”,
  “moral panics”
• There are no true or real representations, and false
  representations. Representations are always “definitions of
  situation

Question 28

What is the influence of Marxism

Answer 28

Borrowed by Antonio Gramsci,

• Cultural hegemony:
  The perspective (ideology) of the ruling class is so dominant
  that it strongly limits our ability to imagine the world differently.
  Control is carried out using:

1) the imposition of bourgeois ideas and interests by force,

2) the fabrication of consent within the population (through the media, the
religion, school, etc.).
Hall uses a partly Marxist approach (drawing from Gramsci) and
interactionist part (and therefore a little constructivist)