Society on the Edge
Social Science and Public Policy in the Postwar United States

Leading historians trace the changing fortunes of the social science of social problems since World War II.

Philippe Fontaine (Edited by), Jefferson D. Pooley (Edited by)

9781108487139, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 December 2020

418 pages
15 x 23 x 3 cm, 0.76 kg

'Each chapter stands on its own, and contributing authors provide detailed examination of the thought process of social scientists and related professions at a particular time in the quest for an explanation of the source for each social problem addressed ... Each chapter contains a thorough list of references addressing a specific social issue, such that the different perspectives on a given set of social, cultural, and political events emerge in engaging detail ... Recommended.' K. E. Murphy, Choice

The social sciences underwent rapid development in postwar America. Problems once framed in social terms gradually became redefined as individual with regards to scope and remedy, with economics and psychology winning influence over the other social sciences. By the 1970s, both economics and psychology had spread their intellectual remits wide: psychology's concepts suffused everyday language, while economists entered a myriad of policy debates. Psychology and economics contributed to, and benefited from, a conception of society that was increasingly skeptical of social explanations and interventions. Sociology, in particular, lost intellectual and policy ground to its peers, even regarding 'social problems' that the discipline long considered its settled domain. The book's ten chapters explore this shift, each refracted through a single 'problem': the family, crime, urban concerns, education, discrimination, poverty, addiction, war, and mental health, examining the effects an increasingly individualized lens has had on the way we see these problems.

1. Introduction. Whose Social Problems? Philippe Fontaine and Jefferson D. Pooley
2. Family Savina Balasubramanian and Charles Camic
3. Education Andrew Jewett
4. Poverty Alice O'Connor
5. Discrimination Leah Gordon
6. The Black Ghetto George Galster
7. Crime Jean-Baptiste Fleury
8. Addiction Nancy D. Campbell
9. Mental Illness Andrew Scull
10. War Joy Rohde
Index.

Subject Areas: Business studies: general [KJB], Economics [KC], History of ideas [JFCX]