Moral Panic and Social Justice: A Guide for Analyzing Social Problems

Social Work ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael H. Eversman ◽  
Jason D. P. Bird
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Moral Panic

scholarly journals Exhaustion and possibility. The wor(l)dlyness of social work in (G)local environment worlds during a pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona B Livholts
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Writing Genres

Exhaustion is not about being tired. It is an intense feeling of restlessness, of insomnia, and awakening when I ask myself: have I exhausted all that is possible? Such a state of restlessness and wakefulness represents a turning point for having enough, and opens for new possibilities to act for social change. This reflexive essay departs from the notion that the language of exhaustion offers a wor(l)dly possibility for social work(ers) to engage in critical analytical reflexivity about our locations of power from the outset of our (g)local environment worlds. The aim is to trace the transformative possibilities of social change in social work practice through the literature of exhaustion (eg. Frichot, 2019 ; Spooner, 2011 ). The methodology is based on uses of narrative life writing genres such as poetry, written and photographic diary entrances between the 4th of April and 4th of June. The essay shows how tracing exhaustion during the pandemic, visualises a multiplicity of forms of oppression and privilege, an increasing attention and relationship to things, and border movements and languages. I suggest that social work replace the often-used terminology of social problems with exhaustive lists to address structural forms of racism, sexism, ableism, ageism, which has been further visualized through death, illness, violence, and poverty during the pandemic. I argue that the language of exhaustion is useful for reflexivity and action in social work practice through the way it contributes to intensified awareness, attention, engagement, listening, and agency to create social justice.

Populism, Religion and Catholic Civil Society in Poland: The Case of Primary Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dorota Szelewa
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
Primary Education ◽  
Sexuality Education ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
School Entry ◽  
School Age ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
The People ◽  
The Government

This article analyses two cases of populist mobilisation – namely, one against a primary school entry-age reform and another against WHO sexuality education and the concept of gender – that took place in Poland between 2008 and 2019. Both campaigns had a populist character and were oriented towards restoring social justice taken away from ‘the people’ by a morally corrupted ‘elite’. There are differences between the cases that can be analytically delineated by assessing whether a religious mobilisation has an overt or a covert character. While the series of protests against the school-age reform represents a case of mobilisation with covert religious symbolism, the campaigns against sexuality education and the use of the concept of gender are characterised by overt religious populism. To characterise the dynamics of the two campaigns, the study uses the concept of a moral panic, emphasising the importance of moral entrepreneurs waging ideological war against the government and/or liberal experts conceived of as ‘folk devils’.

Sin, Spirituality, and Primitivism: The Theologies of the American Social Gospel, 1885–1917

2007 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Bowman
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Social Gospel ◽  
Christian Life ◽  
Personal Morality ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiritual Conversion ◽  
Born Again ◽  
Christian Society ◽  
The Ideal

AbstractThis article seeks to draw attention to an often overlooked aspect of the social gospel. Rather than explaining social gospelers as theological liberals who took an interest in social problems, as many historians have done, this essay argues that they were possessed of a unique theology, one which welded evangelical ideas of conversion and experiential Christianity with liberal postmillennial hopes. Their devotion to combating social ills should be understood, therefore, not solely as a secular commitment to social justice or a nebulous allegiance to Christian charity but also as a theological obligation tied to evangelical conversion and a repudiation of social sin, a crime as offensive to God as murder or theft. The social gospelers modeled the ideal Christian society upon that of the biblical patriarchs, one in which no distinction between the secular and sacred existed and sanctification guided the Christian's actions in the economy as well as in personal morality. That society, that postmillennial Zion, would come again when all humanity experienced a spiritual conversion and were truly born again as Christians—a transformation not limited to individual salvation but which brought with it a new understanding of the nature of Christian life.

Encouraging Coreligionists in the Academy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas K. Rademacher
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Reform ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Home Institution ◽  
John Courtney Murray

Furfey pursued an intellectual apostolate according to which he advanced social justice in theory and practice through his scholarship and correspondence. In the mid-1930’s Furfey concentrated on developing and articulating a specifically Catholic response to social problems. He revised his objective, concentrating on developing a Catholic technique and corresponding foundational Catholic motivation to address social problems. Furfey advanced and defended his position in print, writing several books and many articles on the topic, and through voluminous correspondence with leading Catholic intellectuals in the United States. Il Poverello House and Fides House represented his and his colleagues’ attempt to develop a social reform technique that was both thoroughly Catholic and rigorously scientific. He received support and cooperation from his colleagues at CUA and in the broader Catholic community. A rift emerged at his home institution. Mary Elizabeth Walsh most prominently supported and advanced supernatural sociology while Gladys Sellew wavered, expressing distress and dissatisfaction with respect to the meaning and application of supernatural sociology. The chapter also considers the challenges to Furfey’s theological society levelled by Raymond McGowan, Wilfred Parsons, and John Courtney Murray.

Moral Panics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chas Critcher
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Street Crime ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Culture Of Fear ◽  
Youth Subcultures

The concept of moral panic was first developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1960s, principally by Stan Cohen, initially for the purpose of analyzing the definition of and social reaction to youth subcultures as a social problem. Cohen provided a “processual” model of how any new social problem would develop: who would promote it and why, whose support they would need for their definition to take hold, and the often-crucial role played by the mass media and institutions of social control. In the early 1990s, Erich Goode and Nachman Ben-Yehuda produced an “attributional” model that placed more emphasis on strict definition than cultural processes. The two models have subsequently been applied to a range of putative social problems which now can be recognized as falling into five principal clusters: street crime, drug and alcohol consumption, immigration, child abuse (including pedophilia), and media technologies. Most studies have been conducted in Anglophone and European countries, but gradually, the concept is increasing its geographical reach. As a consequence, we now know a good deal about how and why social problems come to be constructed as moral panics in democratic societies. This approach has nevertheless been criticized for its casual use of language, denial of agency to those promoting and supporting moral panics, and an oversimplified and outdated view of mass media, among other things. As proponents and opponents of moral panic analysis continue to debate the essentials, the theoretical context has shifted dramatically. Moral panic has an uncertain relationship to many recent developments in sociological and criminological thought. It threatens to be overwhelmed or sidelined by new insights from theories of moral regulation or risk, conceptualizations of the culture of fear, or the social psychology of collective emotion. Yet as an interdisciplinary project, it continues, despite its many flaws, to demand sustained attention from analysts of social problem construction.

The Oxford Handbook of Social Psychology and Social Justice

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Real World ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
First Century ◽  
Social Injustice ◽  
Massive Scale ◽  
Twenty First Century

The twentieth century witnessed not only the devastation of war, conflict, and injustice on a massive scale, but also the emergence of social psychology as a discipline committed to addressing these and other social problems. In the twenty-first century, the promise of social psychology remains incomplete. We witness the reprise of authoritarianism and the endurance of institutionalized forms of oppression such as sexism, racism, and heterosexism across the globe. This volume represents an audacious proposal to reorient social psychology toward the study of social injustice in real-world settings. Contributors cross borders between cultures and disciplines to highlight new and emerging critical paradigms that interrogate the consequences of social injustice. United in their belief in the possibility of liberation from oppression, the authors of this book offer a blueprint for a new kind of social psychology.

scholarly journals IMPLEMENTASI NILAI DAN ETIKA PEKERJA SOSIAL DALAM PENANGANAN KLIEN KORBAN PENYALAHGUNAAN NAPZA DI CAMP ASSESMENT, YOGYAKARTA

KOMUNIKA ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Ageng Widodo
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Efficient Treatment

This journal describes the implementation of values and ethics of social workers in handling drugabuse clients at Camp Assessment, Yogyakarta. Social workers as professionals in to do helpingmust be guided by values and ethics. The implementation of values and ethics of social workersapplied in the assessment camp includes several things. First, the service that prioritizes the goalto help people in need and focus on social problems. Secondly, social justice is notdistinguishing between rich and poor clients. Third, attaching importance to human relationsconsiders the client as a partner for effective and efficient treatment. Fourth, integrity andcompetence, as social workers must have the skills, knowledge, and values to do helping.However, in applying values and ethics, social workers experience a dilemma including anan imbalance between clients and social workers and then inadequate facilities.

scholarly journals DRAG THEM: A brief etymology of so-called “cancel culture”

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 88-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meredith D. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Moral Panic ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
Media Activism ◽  
Black Vernacular ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Elites

The term “cancel culture” has significant implications for defining discourses of digital and social media activism. In this essay, I briefly interrogate the evolution of digital accountability praxis as performed by Black Twitter, a meta-network of culturally linked communities online. I trace the practice of the social media callout from its roots in Black vernacular tradition to its misappropriation in the digital age by social elites, arguing that the application of useful anger by minoritized people and groups has been effectively harnessed in social media spaces as a strategy for networked framing of extant social problems. This strategy is challenged, however, by the dominant culture’s ability to narrativize the process of being “canceled” as a moral panic with the potential to upset the concept of a limited public sphere.

scholarly journals Sensemaking the ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 859-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Kimmitt ◽  
Pablo Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Entrepreneurship ◽  
Social Problem ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Justice Theory ◽  
Social Entrepreneurs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Imagination ◽  
Social Justice Theory

In the collective imagination, the practices and outcomes of social entrepreneurship seem to hold hope for a better future. So far, these practices have been largely assumed as idealised types with the ‘social’ in social entrepreneurship underexplored. Such assumed neutrality, we argue, is hampering the development of a more robust theoretical corpus for understanding the phenomenon and inspiring practices that are more effective. In this article, we analyse the sensemaking of the social in social entrepreneurship by exploring the ways in which social entrepreneurs make sense of social problems and develop solutions for addressing them. Our empirical analyses of the stories of 15 social entrepreneurs indicate two distinct types of sensemaking and sensegiving practices, aligned with Amartya Sen’s notions of social justice. Drawing on these findings, sensemaking and social justice theory, we elaborate a two-type social sensemaking model pertaining to the appreciation and assessment of circumstances and the differing problem/solution combinations emerging from alternative ontological views of what constitutes a social problem.

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