Social Sciences and Social Problems

Abstract

After identifying a number of distinctive processes of social change - and their associated social problems - that may be expected to continue into the next century, the argument turns to the role of social-science knowledge in understanding and dealing with such problems. The author develops a critique of the utilitarian model of applied social science - a model based on supposed analogies with the natural sciences and engineering. Next, the logic of a `social problem' is dissected into the necessary ingredients it must have to qualify as a problem. As an alternative to the utilitarian model, the author suggests that social-science knowledge provides multiple points of entry in understanding the social-psychological and political dynamics by which social problems are recognized and dealt with as such.