0:08 everyone professor Ning here and welcome
0:10 to our cell lecture videos on
0:16 understanding social problems so by way
0:18 of starting this lecture I'd like to
0:21 share with you one of my favorite books
0:24 it's called a curious mind written by
0:28 Brian Grazer a very successful man in
0:32 Hollywood and he has his book about
0:35 curiosity so I selected some of my
0:37 favorite quotes so if you click on that
0:44 link take you to a list of my favorite
0:45 clothes that I already selected so it's
0:49 not the whole book so I like you to just
0:53 scan through this and see you know which
0:56 which quotes resonate with you which is
1:01 your favorites yeah so I'm just gonna
1:04 pick some right now just for the sake of
1:07 encouraging two sparking your interest
1:09 so let's say the first one I have no
1:11 special talents
1:14 I'm only passionately curious that is
1:17 what Albert Einstein said Sabra
1:19 Einsteins you know it's a genius as you
1:23 can see he's saying that he his his
1:26 talent in a way young or his you know
1:28 the fact that his genius is really
1:30 driven by curiosity this quote really
1:32 reminds me of this one book about
1:35 Leonardo da Vinci who is really a
1:38 Renaissance man what that means is that
1:40 he's talented in so many different ways
1:45 as an artist as well as an engineer he
1:51 actually drew so he lived in like 15
1:54 15th century I believe in in Europe so
1:55 there's a lot of several hundred years
1:58 ago and yet he was already envisioned
2:01 how a airplane would look like isn't
2:03 that amazing and he was able to do that
2:07 because it was observing birds you know
2:10 and he was curious he said hey I'm
2:13 curious how I as a human can fly like a bird
2:13 bird
2:16 right so there's this book written about
2:19 Leonardo DaVinci recently and this
2:21 author a professor at Tulane University
2:23 it's like that Leonardo da Vinci was so
2:25 curious that every day he wakes up he
2:27 has at least one question to answer that
2:30 day and his questions can be seen as
2:32 conch what bizarre and weird because
2:34 he's been asking himself so many
2:37 questions so you know by the time that
2:39 he's an adult yes you know he has
2:42 already he now he he has you know much
2:45 more intrigue your questions are quite
2:48 out of the ordinary right so his
2:49 question can be something like hey
2:52 what's under a cat's tongue okay I'm
2:54 going to look for it today right so his
2:58 his curiosity and along with Einsteins
3:01 curiosity right makes me realize perhaps
3:06 curiosity is really the field behind
3:09 gene being a genius having special
3:13 talents being smart and so on so god
3:15 that's the first quote really resonate
3:18 with me in that way and then perhaps
3:20 there are so many others that you would
3:22 like to you know so like the second one
3:24 life isn't about finding the answer it's
3:26 about asking the questions asking
3:30 question is what really opens life right
3:32 this is how I integrated it it's not
3:34 about just the answer it's just asking
3:36 questions you know say hey from I so I'm
3:38 a sociologist I don't know much about
3:42 physics so hey why not ask people who
3:44 know about physics about physics physics
3:45 and then I can learn from that way I'm
3:50 so asking questions open life open doors
3:52 open opportunities yeah who knows what
3:56 could be behind those questions right so
3:58 anyways take your time breathe through
4:00 these this document is two pages highly
4:02 encourage it it's really cool reading
4:05 alright so let's go back to our lecture
4:11 here all right so all right so in this
4:13 so I hope I wanted to share that reading
4:14 to you so that way you come to our class
4:17 wouldn't open mine with curiosity with
4:20 tolerance willing to hear people's
4:22 different opinions and so on because we
4:25 will discuss a lot of quite clinical
4:27 controversial social issue
4:32 including sexual behavior which is the
4:39 next chapter drug abuse alcohol use and
4:42 crime and so on right so come to our
4:45 class and open way to learn okay so in
4:51 this lecture video on this chapter our
4:54 objectives are first of all to define
4:57 social problems and what are the
5:01 characteristics of social problems next
5:03 we will also try to understand how
5:06 sociologists see social problems how do
5:09 they study and analyze social problems
5:16 and next we'll also explore three so
5:18 theoretical perspectives that guide
5:20 sociological thinking on social problems
5:23 and then identify key steps in research
5:25 methods in scientific sociological
5:28 investigation in fact I'm this 3 their
5:30 theoretical perspective I may reference
5:31 it a little bit but we won't go into
5:34 much details until next few lectures
5:36 that in mind but definitely the first
5:42 two and then the last one okay okay so
5:44 our outline is first what do you find
5:46 you know this first section is what it's
5:48 a social problem then we'll go into
5:50 sociological perspectives on social one
5:52 then continuing change in social rank
5:55 and then fourth is doing research on
5:56 social problems
5:58 alright let's jump into our first
6:03 section which is looking at what is a
6:06 social problem so for problem is
6:09 basically defined as aspects of society
6:12 that a large number of people are
6:17 concerned about and would like to change
6:25 so that can be and you know one way you
6:27 can get in a hint or social it's just
6:29 observing what you see in news a lot
6:32 here in the news a lot or what people
6:34 are talking a lot because that's their
6:37 concern so some of our major concerns
6:41 right now is of course issues or
6:46 you know community police relations
6:51 issues around race relations issues
6:55 around the income inequality issues
6:59 around access to health care who get to
7:01 are able to go to a doctor who has
7:04 insurance and pay for the medication
7:07 that the fact that health care is
7:10 skyrocketing right that that's a concern
7:15 for a lot of people and in education you
7:19 know it's increasingly expensive so
7:22 that's also a concern I hear that a lot
7:25 you know among students another concern
7:30 is the you know wage gap where people
7:33 are not just making it enough money you
7:35 know ways to allow my students have like
7:37 two three jobs that's like my thing is
7:41 how do you survive with you know three
7:44 jobs and studying UCS so those are
7:46 examples of social problems because it's
7:50 a concern that impact a law many people
7:53 in society and people want to talk about
7:58 it as you take change okay
8:03 so let's unpack the characteristics of
8:07 social problems social problems are have
8:10 at least two important dimensions and of
8:12 course they can be broken further the
8:17 first is that they can be studied or
8:21 experienced as objective conditions so
8:25 for example this would be a doctor
8:29 condition 30% of Americans are currently
8:33 unemployed do you say how thirty percent
8:36 is measured and unemployment experience
8:39 so that's objective now the average
8:43 student loan debt right now is 40 grand
8:47 yeah that's measure average loan student
8:49 loan debt is 40 grand objective
8:52 conditions can be measured and and
8:54 perhaps I can maybe identify how many student
8:55 student
9:00 oh yes sir though you know 40 grand on
9:04 average or at least or even yes oh you
9:06 see that objective condition sorry no
9:09 the other aspects of social comment this
9:11 is the next element character dimension
9:14 is much more complex it's subjective
9:17 concerns now this is one a large number
9:19 of people worry about the objective
9:20 condition so they want to change for
9:22 example now do you notice how it says
9:26 you're a number of people it doesn't say
9:29 everyone cuz if it where everyone then
9:31 we will be on the same page all of us in
9:32 society and we would make sure that
9:35 policies have changed so that way our
9:38 society will will you know won't have
9:41 this problem again but the reason why
9:42 it's a problem because not everyone's on
9:46 the same page so that's the reason so
9:49 for example universal health care as you
9:52 may know already it's continually a
9:55 debate among Americans whether or not
9:59 everyone should have access to universal
10:01 health care so you know some people say
10:04 yes let's say no some people perhaps in
10:07 the middle this is why this you know
10:10 it's universal health care is still it's
10:13 a concern it's a big concern right and
10:15 it's a problem because we you know we're
10:17 not on the same page yet we as a society
10:22 as American so no subjective concerns
10:25 our dynamics right it can change over
10:29 time depending on who you're talking to
10:34 and what state they're living in and it
10:36 can change and of course it's relative
10:41 right jet and in terms of gender in
10:45 terms of age state residents and and
10:48 citizenship status and so on and of
10:51 course because it's a subjective there
10:54 can be computing bills not everyone
10:56 agree even if they agree let's say to
10:59 have universal health care um not
11:03 everyone agree on how to implement yeah
11:06 universal health care for Americans so
11:08 there can be competing views
11:12 so again as you can see social problems
11:16 can be identified by two dimensions
11:18 objective conditions which can be
11:21 measured and subjective concerns which
11:23 is when number of people are worried
11:27 about the doctor conditions and perhaps
11:29 speculating and wishing that it could be
11:37 okay all right so as I said so Jake
11:39 concerns can be dynamic relative and
11:45 have competing views alright so here I'm
11:49 giving you an example of a social
11:53 problems you know why poor children you
12:00 know the fact that a pattern that many
12:02 poor children in urban areas learn very
12:05 little in schools now I want to present
12:08 this case because I want to show you
12:11 that there can be at least two very
12:15 different ways of analyzing this and
12:20 sociologists will tend to look through
12:22 one way you know and less the other way
12:26 so let me present it to you so one
12:28 perspective is to blame the victim right
12:31 blame say that hey you know the reason
12:34 why poor children in rural areas have
12:37 learned saloons school perhaps because
12:41 it's their problem they're poor and you
12:43 know they don't value education as much
12:46 or they deserve it right so blaming the
12:50 victim you seeis or blame the parents
12:52 say the children's friends do not care
12:54 about just you know that their
12:56 children's learning that's the reason
12:59 why the parents don't help the students
13:01 do their homework don't help us don't
13:03 ask the students how they're doing at
13:06 school and so on so blame the parents
13:09 another aspect of blaming the victim
13:10 perspective is to say that hey the
13:12 parents they have to teach them good
13:14 study habits yeah and the parents are
13:16 not good the parents are not good models
13:19 the parents are not you know training
13:21 you know looking out after the kids just they
13:22 they
13:23 just like the kids are everyone are just
13:26 really control them too much right
13:27 rather than teach it you know teaching
13:30 them how to become a good person or good
13:33 students gays or another way another
13:36 blaming the victim perspective aspect
13:37 the perspective is to say that the
13:39 parents do not encourage the children to
13:43 take seriously okay now another
13:47 perspective and I would say this what
13:49 many sociologists are more on the
13:51 blaming the system perspective and I'll
13:53 explain it more later on Iran and
13:55 blaming the victim which is focusing on
13:59 individual sociologists of course we
14:01 look at individual but we also look at
14:03 society as a large that's why it's
14:05 called sociology sociology is a study of
14:09 society so we blame the system so we
14:11 might say hey why poor why are poor
14:14 children urban areas learn so little in
14:17 schools perhaps because well for so they
14:19 will say probably an educated patient
14:22 our public issues that means it's not
14:25 individual that means that we as society
14:27 need to be aware that parent education
14:30 is a social problem it's a social
14:33 concern how so let's unpack this why why
14:35 are they saying that power in education
14:37 and public issues well they'll say
14:39 things like this urban schools are
14:43 overcrowded and have old decrepit
14:45 structures and quipment as you know
14:48 native states urban urban public schools
14:52 are public funded and/or public schools
14:53 in general but in urban areas
14:56 unfortunately it's overcrowded and they
14:59 don't they're not well funded by the
15:04 government by so they don't they are not
15:05 up to date
15:08 they don't have laid your new buildings
15:11 up to date technology for the students
15:13 that's why the students can't learn so
15:14 it's not about the students or the
15:16 parents it's because of the schools and
15:20 the policies are in place that really
15:23 you know little bit opportunities for
15:28 for the the students so related to the
15:30 point I just made yeah another assigned
15:33 blame of the system is to say that hey
15:35 the government continued reduce its
15:36 funding for
15:39 in school as a result there the school
15:44 doesn't have you know the a very healthy
15:46 environment conducive to learning it
15:47 doesn't have all the technology
15:50 equipment it needs for the students to
15:51 in order to encourage the students to
15:55 learn it doesn't invest into making you
15:57 know into the professional development
15:58 of teachers who teachers can learn the
16:00 latest skills to help their students
16:06 learn right so so another aspect you
16:08 know from the blaming the system
16:12 perspective a position this position
16:14 would say something like reason why push
16:16 you don't know burn areas learn so
16:18 little it's because the media doesn't
16:20 encourage Porcher to study you know the
16:22 media always represent course you know
16:25 poor children as bad as not very good
16:31 students they join gangs they they they
16:34 are rowdy and and so on right so the
16:37 meat is so it's not good and support
16:39 children when they watch the media they
16:42 you know some of them may be hurt by
16:44 this they internalize what's represent a
16:46 media and unfortunately some of them do
16:48 act that out right is they hate in me I
16:51 say poor children or or not good
16:55 students I'm poor so I'm not okay so
16:57 this is really unfortunate of course you
17:00 know but the reality is this you know as
17:02 many studies have found this the media
17:07 has huge impact in shaping how we see
17:10 ourselves and what we can do the media
17:13 includes social media includes TV
17:18 includes radio podcast and and and so on
17:22 okay I'm not from the planing the
17:25 assistant position blaming the system
17:28 position another one another argument
17:30 can be presented that the economy
17:31 requires parents to work multiple jobs
17:34 to support families as a result even
17:37 though parents we pull parents really
17:40 truly values education and want their
17:43 children to succeed academically but
17:47 they themselves are strained by their
17:50 employment their work they work crazy
17:53 18 hours a day you know in order to make
17:57 enough money to bring food on put food
17:59 on the table they'll have a roof over
18:01 their heads right and that's just barely
18:05 living so you see how this is a how this
18:07 per second does not blame their parents
18:10 of bad parents for not teaching their
18:12 children how to learn look to be a good
18:14 student for not taking you know not
18:16 teaching the students and current
18:18 students to be children to be good
18:21 students or no it's saying that hey the
18:26 parents are victims of a bad economic
18:30 system and in which they have to work so
18:33 much that's why they can't be available
18:36 for their kids and teach their kids good
18:40 study habits anyways I just presented to
18:43 you two perspectives are trying to
18:45 understand why poor two in urban areas
18:49 are so little and you know one
18:51 perspective blaming victim is more
18:55 blaming the person the individual near
18:57 the perspective looked at at a baker
18:59 Society macro you know linking
19:02 individual to social groups to
19:05 institutions like the media government
19:08 in order to understand how and why some
19:11 people act a certain way or how and why
19:14 there are life opportunities are limited
19:19 so I would argue that most perhaps at
19:24 all but most or many sociologists will
19:28 will be leaning toward the blaming
19:30 system perspective because they look at
19:34 society and a big allure big level okay
19:39 all right so now a sociologist who
19:43 studies social problems have noticed
19:44 that there are four stages in which
19:49 social problems develop and evolve and
19:52 so the first stage is that the social
19:56 problems emerge and so there are people
20:01 who have who have become upset about
20:03 some objective conditions so
20:07 define it as a social problem and then
20:11 you know there are people who want to
20:14 make a claim around this in order to
20:20 advocate for change second stage is
20:25 legitimacy and so in this stage this is
20:30 when perhaps there is an effort to craft
20:34 an official response I must say a bill a
20:39 proposal to to change to create you know
20:43 solution for social problems so trying
20:47 to change it obtained legitimacy the
20:51 third stage is renews claims making you
20:55 know this is when reacting to the
20:59 official response how what what what is
21:01 the response from the government from
21:05 the public and whatever that responses
21:07 that will renew their claims making in
21:12 which the people who want to solve this
21:18 problems and then fourth is development
21:21 of a turn of strategy so depending on
21:25 how the the public or the official
21:30 responses people behind after taining or
21:34 behind agitation for change in social
21:37 problems they want solutions to a social
21:39 well they will develop training
21:42 strategies in order to make sure that
21:45 the the social problems will be solved
21:48 you know somehow so these are the four
21:51 stages that will occur until the social
21:54 problems no longer exist as a problem so
21:57 it's been solved yeah otherwise it goes
22:02 to continue goes through more stages okay
22:03 okay
22:07 and so that ends of this part our
