Constructionism and the Textuality of Social Problems

Jared Del Rosso; Jennifer Esala

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.11.2.03

Authors

Jared Del Rosso University of Denver, U.S.A.
Jennifer Esala Center for Victims of Torture, U.S.A.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.11.2.03

Keywords:

Knowledge, Organizations, Social Constructionism, Social Problems, Texts

Abstract

Building on the work of Dorothy Smith and Bruno Latour, this article examines the textual mediation of social problems activities. Because of their materiality and/or digitality, texts preserve constructions of reality, rendering those constructions durable and mobile. This, in turn, allows claims-makers distant in time or space to access those constructions as interpretive resources for claims-making. Texts, then, help us account for how social problems spread and endure. We show how texts mediate claims-makers access to two resources for claims-making: the “reality” of problematic conditions and definitions of problems. We also consider how texts structure social problems work. We conclude by briefly considering how the contemporary technological environment may be altering the textual mediation of claims-making.

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Author Biographies

Jared Del Rosso, University of Denver, U.S.A.

Jared Del Rosso is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver. His research explores issues around knowledge construction, culture, and denial in discourses of violence. To date, he has examined these issues in U.S. political discourse of torture. His work has been published in Social Problems, Social Forces, and Sociological Forum. A book, Talking About Torture: How Political Discourse Shapes the Debate, is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2015.

Jennifer Esala, Center for Victims of Torture, U.S.A.

Jennifer J. Esala, Ph.D., is a researcher at the Center for Victims of Torture in St. Paul, Minnesota. Prior to that, she was a lecturer and doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at the University of New Hampshire. Her work is in the areas of the sociology of medicine, health, mental health, alternative medicine, youth violence, victimization, and symbolic interaction, and has been published in Symbolic Interaction and Deviant Behavior.

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