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SOCIAL PROBLEMS AS DISCOURSE: PRODUCTION OF NEW FORMS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY
Abstract
In recent decades attention has become a scarce resource not only in politics and economics, but also in the social sphere. Problematization may be considered a way of attracting attention to negative circumstances and situations. The list of current social problems is not determined by their scale and impact, but by their attractiveness to different public groups. In this regard, the theory of social problems focusing on the rhetoric of statements (claims-making activity) is of particular relevance. Based on social constructionism (J. Kitsuse, P. Ibarra), we consider social problems to be a specific discourse. In addition to actualization of situations and resource mobilization, the social problems discourse produces and reproduces a system of inequality in accordance with the criterion of "being related/unrelated" to a social problem. As a result, such groups as "victims of the problem" and "the source of the problem" are produced symbolically and discursively. These groups include many forms of symbolic domination and control. The discourse of social problems acts as an "umbrella" for other types of discourses like medical and legal; it has its own system of notation, differentiation of individuals and groups, delegation of authority and attribution of responsibility. Experts and groups of power reproduce conventional concepts of equality (or normality), and evaluate various social groups as unequal. Groups of experts present legitimizing arguments and aspire to implement their solutions in the space of non-discursive practices (measures of care, control, exclusion).
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