Summary Of Social Problems By Joel Best

Chapter two of Social Problems by Joel Best was about making claims, which was the first step in the model of the social problems process. The chapter spends time explaining that claims are structured into three important components, these components being known as grounds, warrants, and conclusions (31). The chapter then continues on to talk about how claims compete against each other and try to stay relevant (45-46). The chapter talks about how somebody else making a claim can piggyback off another (48-51). Lastly, the chapter brings up how culture can affect a claim (53). First, Best brings up how claims are structured into the components, grounds. warrants, and conclusion. Best proves this by examining each component in extreme detail and bringing up real life examples up for them. For example, Best breaks grounds into three parts. In one of those parts, about bringing up typifying examples for claims, Best uses a extreme child abuse case as an example of using a typifying example (32). To show that claims compete with each other and fight for relevance, Best brings up the concept of the social problems marketplace which states that the audience has limited attention, which prevents every claim from being noticed. Best uses the 9/11 attacks as an example and says that nobody would listen to a
I feel if somebody tried to make a claim without following the grounds, warrants, and conclusions structure, their claim will not be noticed at all by the main public. I never thought about how somebody could piggyback on another’s claim to improve their own claim, even if they are against what the original claim states. I agree with the idea of domain expansion, the idea that a claim can open the way for other similar claims to get noticed (48). There was nothing that I disagree or found hard to understand in this chapter as Best brings up and explains his points