Social problems and social policy

Sociology · Structure, order and change. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

A social problem is a condition that affects many people, is seen by a large part of society as harmful, and is believed to need collective action. Poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and crime are the standard examples, and they feed one another: low skills mean low earnings, and poverty keeps children out of school.

The sociological approach looks for causes in social structure, not in personal failure. This follows Mills's distinction between private troubles and public issues. Rapid social change, weak institutions and inequality are common explanations.

Social welfare is the organised response: social security, social services and professional social work. Measures may be preventive (stopping a problem arising) or remedial (treating it afterwards).

Rules to remember

Absolute poverty: lacking the basic needs of life. Relative poverty: being poor compared with the standard of one's own society.
Vicious circle of poverty (Ragnar Nurkse): low income, low saving, low investment, low productivity, low income.
Unemployment types: frictional (between jobs), structural (skills do not match jobs), cyclical (recession), seasonal, disguised (extra workers add nothing to output).
Functional illiteracy: unable to use reading and writing in everyday tasks.
White-collar crime (Edwin Sutherland): crime by people of high status in the course of their occupation.
Beveridge Report (1942), five giants: Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness.
Welfare state: the state accepts responsibility for health, education and income security.

Common mistake

Disguised unemployment is not the same as being openly jobless. The workers appear to be employed, but output would not fall if they left, as on an overcrowded family farm.

Worked example

A new textile machine replaces hand weavers. Jobs exist in the town for machine operators, but the weavers do not have the skills for them and stay out of work for years. Which type of unemployment is this?

The weavers are not simply between jobs for a short time, so it is not frictional.
The cause is not a general fall in demand, so it is not cyclical.
Jobs exist, but the skills of the workers do not match them because the industry has changed.
A lasting mismatch between skills and available jobs is structural unemployment.

Answer: Structural unemployment.

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