While social constructionist approaches to social problems are popular among academic researchers in sociology, communication, public policy, and criminology, this perspective tends not to be adequately covered in popular social problems texts. There are several likely reasons why students are often not introduced to constructionist perspectives until they reach advanced undergraduate or even graduate work. Student interest often lies in understanding real problems in the social world, but social constructionist perspectives focus on questions about how humans create the meaning of our world. Donileen R. Loseke claims that questions of constructionists seem esoteric and perhaps even a waste of time in a world containing very real want and pain. Social constructionism originally was posed as an alternative to other theoretical approaches examining social problems as objective conditions. This has led some to argue that either you believe that social problems exist out-side human awareness, or you believe that social problems are constructed. Loseke is convinced that social construction perspectives help us make sense of daily living. The questions of construction--how do humans create, sustain, and change meaning--only sound esoteric. At its best, social constructionism encourages a way of thinking that is distinctly sociological and empowering, to those who use it. However, the insights of constructionism do not depend on suspending all belief that a real world exists outside our understanding of it. Constructionism is less an alternative to other theoretical frameworks, than an important addition. Different frameworks pose questions about different aspects of life. To deny theimportance of any theoretical framework is to limit our comprehension. The author claims that we cannot afford to do this if we want to understand the perplexity and complexity of the human condition.

In Narrative Productions of Meanings: Exploring the Work of Stories in Social Life, Donileen Loseke examines the importance of stories in an anti-science, anti-fact era where heterogeneity, rapid change, complexity, and moral fragmentation combine to create a multitude of personal, social, and political problems surrounding meaning. The book's basic argument is that, within such a world, narrative productions of meaning are particularly important because stories can appeal simultaneously to thinking and feeling and moral evaluation, and because they can do this in ways that have cultural, interactional, and personal dimensions. Narrative Productions of Meaning develops a framework for social science examinations of narrative; it outlines relationships between stories, storytelling, and culture, and it explores the characteristics of several types of stories including self stories that create coherence from the chaos of personal experience, stories that persuade mass audiences that public resources are required to resolve intolerable conditions, and stories that justify the contents of public policy and the organization of social services. It concludes with issues about relationships between stories and the processes of democratic politics. Narrative Productions of Meaning demonstrates the ways in which stories create meaning and how this meaning shapes both subjective understandings and material realities. In multiple ways, this analysis crosses common divides: It draws from literature spanning multiple disciplines; it treats thinking, feeling, and moral evaluation as inseparable; it bridges cultural and social psychological perspectives; it demonstrates relationships between story structure and the work people do with stories.

This volume explores questions about narrative frameworks in disability research. Narrative is a omnipresent meaning-producing communication form in social life that is both cultural and personal. Public understandings of disability tend to follow a medical storyline in which disability is a personal tragedy to be treated through professional intervention - a frame that disempowers and fails to resonate with many disabled people. Scholars in disability studies and the social sciences have proposed an alternative that portrays social structures, forces, and attitudes as the problems to be resolved - a frame that, while empowering, may neglect, or even repress, some kinds of personal disability stories. This volume seeks to answer the call for richer, more diverse understandings of disability. We explore how narrative inquiry can broaden perspectives on disability to include pain, suffering, chronic illness, and episodic disability, as well as the perspectives of family members and caregivers, while also serving as a platform for dismantling prejudice and discrimination in order to promote positive social change.

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION: "These essays are exemplary in conceptualization, organization, and delivery. The messages are crystal clear, the readability superb. This book stands as a model of editorial excellence. The design of the volume is unique and responds well to a clear need in the subdiscipline of family violence, which remains fraught with diversity and dissention. . . . This piece of work is honest and effectively illuminates the growing pains of a very young and ideologically loaded subdiscipline that is anchored by an interdisciplinary and heterogeneous collection of smart people. Current Controversies on Family Violence is a powerful addition to the family violence literature. I recommend it as required reading for family violence courses. Gelles and Loseke are to be commended for their excellent idea, their tenacity, their directness and candor as expressed in the framing materials, their sensitive insights, and their superb editorial skills." --Ann Goetting, Western Kentucky University "Gelles and Loseke accomplish their goal of encouraging debate among family violence researchers....does the best job I have seen at presenting the spectrum of approaches to the problem in a fair objective manner....an outstanding contribution to family violence research." --JOURNAL OF MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY The study of family violence is surrounded by multiple controversies. Experts in this field do not agree about what should be studied and condemned (Is spanking violence? Is women's violence toward men a major social problem? If it is, how should it be measured? What, specifically, should be condemned as date rape?) Experts also disagree about the causes of violence (Individual pathology? The structure of gender or families?), as well as about what should be done to eliminate it (Do child sexual abuse education programs or family preservation programs work?). Now in its Second Edition, Current Controversies on Family Violence contains thoughtful--often heated--discussions that highlight the most current controversies, research, and policy directions in the family violence area. This volume includes chapters by academic and public policy researchers, therapists, lawyers, victim advocates and educators. Some of the controversies in the First Edition have been deleted while new ones have been added. Chapters in this Second Edition also are shorter and more accessible to readers who are not already experts in family violence. This is an excellent and necessary resource for students and researchers of interpersonal violence, sociology, social work, nursing, gender studies, clinical psychology, criminal justice, and gerontology.

Narrative research is an increasingly popular qualitative method across the social sciences. This book has two purposes: firstly to show students and researchers how to do research on narrative topics, particularly on questions about narrative productions of meaning, and secondly to explain some fundamentals of research methods suitable for exploring these topics. A final part of the book provides empirical examples of how such research is done. These chapters use small amounts of data to examine the analytic tasks of designing research questions, finding appropriate data, sampling decisions, contextualization, data categorization, and communicating study findings.

Focused on the underlying logic behind social research, Methodological Thinking: Basic Principles of Social Research Design encourages readers to understand research methods as a way of thinking. The book provides a concise overview of the basic principles of social research, including the characteristics of research questions, the importance of literature reviews, variations in data generation techniques, and sampling. The Second Edition includes a revised chapter on research foundations, with focus on the philosophy of science and ethics; an emphasis on critical thinking; additional attention to evaluating research; and a new selection of briefer, multidisciplinary journal articles designed to be accessible to a wide variety of readers.