Joel Best

Rhetoric in Claims-Making: Constructing the Missing Children Problem

Claims-making about social problems is a persuasive activity, subject to rhetorical analysis. I use Toulmins categories, which classify statements as grounds, warrants, and conclusions, to examine the rhetoric of claims made about the missing children problem. In particular, the grounds for missing children claims included a broad definition of the problem, horrific examples, and large estimates of the problems scope, while references to the priceless, blameless nature of children and the evils threatening missing children provided key warrants. Rhetorical devices analogous to those identified in this case study appear in claims-making about other social problems. I also identify some patterns in rhetorical work, conditions favoring rhetorics of rectitude or rationality. The relationship between rhetoric and the cultural context within claims emerge deserves further study .

The Razor Blade in the Apple: The Social Construction of Urban Legends

This paper examines the widespread belief that anonymous sadists give children dangerous treats on Halloween. A review of news stories about Halloween sadism from 1958 to 1983 suggests that the threat has been greatly exaggerated. Halloween sadism can be viewed as an urban legend, which emerged during the early 1970s to give expression to growing fears about the safety of children, the danger of crime, and other sources of social strain. Urban legends, like collective behavior and social problems construction, are responses to social strain, shaped by the perception of the threat and social organization.

Careers in Deviance and Respectability: The Analogy's Limitations

By examining the analogy between deviant and respectable careers, this paper refines the concept of deviant career. Compared to respectable careers, especially occupational careers in formal organizations, deviant careers develop within an ambiguous and unstable structural context. Deviant careers do not move through established sequences of well-defined positions; career pathways do not always lead upward; career progress does not always bring increased rewards and security; and careers involve multiple, short-term involvements. The differences between deviant and respectable careers are consequential for deviants. Mobility is of uncertain direction; deviant careers feature individualized career shifts, rather than standard sequences of positions. Since deviant careers lack institutional supports, career progress requires special tactics to foster security and regularize rewards. This analysis demonstrates that deviance and respectability differ in important respects and the concept of deviant career must be used so as not to ignore these differences.

How Claims Spread: Cross-National Diffusion of Social Problems

Why do the same social problems emerge in different societies? Unlike traditional sociological explanations, which argue that the structural and cultural causes of social problems are to be found within different societies, the chapters in this collection examine the role played by external diffusion in the construction of social problems. Claims that appear in one country spread to other nations through various channels, ranging from interpersonal contacts among claimsmakers, to mass media coverage, to folklore. Diffusion of claims is possible, but by no means inevitable; a claim may be adopted in some countries but be ignored in others. Often, diffusion involves reconstructing social problems to fit the concerns of those in the countries adopting the claims. Various chapters in this collection examine the diffusion of particular social problems between the United States and such countries as Britain, Canada, Japan, and Austria, as well as among the nations of Europe. Topics include such social problems as post-abortion syndrome, road rage, gun violence, bullying, sexual abuse, youth cultures, and organ thefts, as well as such social policies as sexual harassment law, adoption of the metric system, and child welfare. The effect of How Claims Spread is to expand the constructionist orientation by raising new questions about how social problems emerge and evolve in different nations linked by political, economic, social, and media ties.

The gang initiation rite as a motif in contemporary crime discourse

References to gang initiation rites are common in contemporary discourse about crime. Contemporary legends claim that gangs require initiates to commit horrific crimes, social science researchers depict initiations as brief tests of character, and newspaper accounts use initiation rites to explain unsolved crimes. The motif of gang initiation resembles claims about other deviant conspiracies. Its use illustrates how existing cultural resources serve the construction of social problems.

Troubling Children: Studies of Children and Social Problems.

Increasingly, sociologists have turned their attention to the social problems of children- in particular, of younger children. This collection reflects those recent interest. While most researchers have focused on social problems involving adolescents, this volume offers instead original case studies of problems concerning preadolescent children. The papers that Best has gathered here represent different theoretical and methodological approaches. They report on social issues in Albania, Kenya, and Japan as well as in the United States. The range of social problems they address is a wide one, from broad societal crises to decision-making within families. Topics include the effects of economic and social crises in Africa and Eastern Europe; concerns about crack use and other forms of fetal endangerment; parental decisions about spanking, toy choices, and letting children listen to rock music; schooling in day care and elementary and junior high schools; and childrens perceptions of environmental crises. Troubling Children adds a new dimension to courses in social problems. It also offers a different set of perspectives for those concerned with sociology of preadolescent children and their discontents.

SOCIAL PROGRESS AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS: Toward a Sociology of Gloom

Although significant social progress characterized the twentieth century, sociologists usually avoid acknowledging progress for fear of encouraging complacency about social problems. In four paradoxical ways, progress raises concern about social problems. The paradox of perfectionism is that optimistic beliefs in social perfectability highlight failures to achieve perfection and thereby foster pessimism. The paradox of proportion is that reducing large problems makes smaller problems seem relatively larger. The paradox of proliferation is that social progress encourages recognition of a larger number of problems. Finally, the paradox of paranoia is that progress fosters fears of social collapse. Sociologists need to consider the consequences of downplaying progress.

Birds–Dead and Deadly: Why Numeracy Needs to Address Social Construction

Sociologists use the term social construction to refer to the processes by which people assign meaning to their world. This paper argues that numeracy education needs to address social construction. In particular, thinking critically about the statistics the news media report regarding social issues requires understanding the competitive nature of the social problems marketplace, and the social forces that allow questionable numbers to receive widespread public attention. Such critiques must incorporate more than assessing how the numbers were calculated; they must consider the social construction of particular statistics. Two recent examples—claims about the number of birds killed flying into windows, and warnings about the threat of an avian flu pandemic—are presented to illustrate the need to incorporate social construction into numeracy education.

deviance may be alive, but is it intellectually lively? a reaction to goode

In a recent article in this journal, Goode (2003) counters claims that deviance is “dead” by arguing that (a) deviance classes continue to enroll large numbers of students, (b) people continue committing deviant acts, and (c) sociologists continue studying those acts. These may be signs of continued life, but Goode ignores evidence that sociologists are finding the concept of deviance less useful. The concept may be alive, but it does not seem all that lively.

THE EMERGENCE OF TRENDSETTERS FOR FASHIONS AND FADS

Analyses of fads and fashions often note the importance of trendsetters whose early adoption of novelties provides an example for others to follow. However, trendsetting is usually taken for granted; there is no effort to explain why some groups assume fashion leadership. This article seeks to account for the rise of kogaru (stylish high-school girls) as trendsetters in 1990s Japan. We argue that trendsetting requires resources—particularly leisure time to devote to fashion, disposable income, and communication networks. Kogaru became trendsetters because they gained these resources at a time when the female college students who preceded them had less time for trendsetting, and when economic recession made inexpensive items of the sort kogaru could afford more desirable fashion objects. At the same time, new electronic technologies sped the flow of information among kogaru, while media coverage of this new social type gave kogaru visibility in the larger society.