The Problem of Teaching Social Problems

Abstract

An appropriate subtitle to this article would be "Is There a Sociology of Social Problems?" Our conventional theories of social and personal disorganization are sterile instruments of analysis in so far as they ignore the very thing which not only gives rise to the social problem but which also impedes its solution, and that is the conflict between two or more sets of social values. The core of the social problem is a multisided clash of social interests. The job of the sociologist is to isolate and define these conflicting value judgements which are the modus operandi of the problem. He need no longer hold himself out as an expert on social problems but as an expert on the sociology of social problems. As a scientist he must avoid making value judgments; but moral judgments in themselves are the content of a true sociology of social problems.