sociological inquiry is that of social problems. However,in common parlance its meaning is somewhat ambiguous. According to Earl Rubington and Martin S. Weinberg in The Study of Social Problems (2002: 4), a social problem is an alleged situation that is incompatible with the values of a significant number of people who agree that action is needed to alter the situation. For example, racism and discrimination remain social problems in the modern-day United States. How social problems are defined is dependent upon the sociological perspective from which they are analyzed. For example, functionalism views society as a system of interrelated parts whose activities have consequences for survival implications for the whole. If the activity promotes survival, it is considered functional, whereas if the activity lessens survival, it is dysfunctional. Within functionalism, there are three vantage points from which to analyze the concept of social problems: social pathology; social disorganization; and cultural-lag perspective. According to the perspective of social pathology, social problems occur as a result of unintentional actions by ill-advised people. Social disorganization theorists view the existence of social problems as being attributed to an imbalance among the interrelated parts of the system. The solution of any social problem would be to find a way back to equilibrium. Norms and values guide the cultural lag perspective. There exists a coherent view of the world because of a shared sense of culture and meaning. Social problems evolve when technological changes proffer new opportunities for behavior at a time when the cultural norms have not yet evolved or adopted an acceptable way of behaving, given the new circumstance. The main criticism of the structural- functionalist school of thought is that the status quo is seemingly the preferred state of being. Consensus is taken for granted as the way to keep the entire system operating in balance
The second perspective is that of conflict theory, which views social problems as emanating from a power differential between social classes or other social groups. Societies are not orderly systems designed to promote the balance of the collectivity. Rather, society is a collection of different groups of people who have differing interests, which necessitate a struggle for resources and power. From the perspective of Marxism, capitalism and its consequences constitute the heart of these struggles, hence they are the underlying causes of social problems. The only solution The only solution to these social ills is to overthrow the capitalist system and to inaugurate a communist state, in which all people would share equally in wealth and prosperity. Conflict theorists such as Ralph Dahrendorf believe that the struggle for power is evident in society and thus the cause of socialproblems. However, the struggle is less about economic imbalances and more about differentials of power and authority. Symbolic interactionism conceptualizes social problems in terms of the processes by which the subjective meaning of problems is created.
Conditions of social life shape peoples perceptions and interpretations. Social problems are, therefore, social constructs. They are neither good nor bad, neither desirable nor undesirable until and unless someone assigns the situation some meaning.
In the study of social problems, the main condition of concern is the process by which some social conditions become social problems while others do not. For example, child abuse prior to the 1970s no doubt occurred; however, it was not until a group of physicians brought attention to it as an emergency room phenomenon that social policymakers and practitioners began attending to the issue.