John Alessio - Social Problems and Inequality: Social Responsibility through Progressive Sociology

SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND INEQUALITY

R.A. Dello Buono, Manhattan College, USA

David Nibert, Wittenberg University, USA

Series Editor:
Bonnie Berry, Director of the Social Problems Research Group, USA

Solving Social Problems provides a forum for the description and measurement of social problems, with a keen focus on the concrete remedies proposed for their solution. The series takes an international perspective, exploring social problems in various parts of the world, with the central concern being always their possible remedy. As such, work is welcomed on subjects as diverse as environmental damage, terrorism, economic disparities and economic devastation, poverty, inequalities, domestic assaults and sexual abuse, health care, natural disasters, labour inequality, animal abuse, crime, and mental illness and its treatment. In addition to recommending solutions to social problems, the books in this series are theoretically sophisticated, exploring previous discussions of the issues in question, examining other attempts to resolve them, and adopting and discussing methodologies that are commonly used to measure social problems. Proposed solutions may be framed as changes in policy, practice, or more broadly, social change and social movement. Solutions may be reflective of ideology, but are always pragmatic and detailed, explaining the means by which the suggested solutions might be achieved.

Social Responsibility through Progressive Sociology

JOHN C. ALESSIO

First published 2011 by Ashgate Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

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711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Copyright John C. Alessio 2011

John C. Alessio name has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notices:

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Alessio, John C.

Social problems and inequality : social responsibility through progressive sociology. (Solving social problems) 1. Social problems. 2. Applied sociology. 3. Social conflict. 4. Responsibility. 5. Alienation (Social psychology) 6. Social action.

I. Title II. Series

361.1-dc22

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Alessio, John C.

Social problems and inequality : social responsibility through progressive sociology / by John C. Alessio.

p. cm. (Solving social problems)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4094-1987-7 (hardback)

1. Social problems. 2. Equality. 3. Sociology. I. Title.

HN17.5A445 2011

305dc22

2011012347

ISBN 9781409419877 (hbk)

When I was a beginning instructor in large-lecture courses on the sociology of social problems, I often lamented, with like-minded colleagues, about the paucity of good textbooks available for use in the course. Our main complaint was that most current books placed heavy emphasis on individual pathologies like alcoholism, crime, or mental illness, and while many of these chapters were excellent treatments of the subject, they gave much less attention to the institutional structures that contributed to or created these problems. So I solved the problem by joining with a colleague to develop our own social problems book. We focused on three interdependent and reinforcing changes in American society that we considered to be revolutionary: technological militarism, labor-displacing cybernetics, and the human rights revolution that was an oppositional voice that would no longer accept war, corporate domination, and poverty as normal features of a healthy society.

I suspect that John Alessio also found many existing social problems textbooks to be wanting, and instead of lamenting, he acted and wrote his own book. Social Problems and Inequality confronts established taken-for-granted institutions and presents a critical sociology perspective that breaks the mold of social problems books in several important ways. First, and foremost, he has focused on the interconnections among social problems rather than treating them as separate entities. Many of the conditions discussed in the book are interrelated and the result of a common set of institutional factors. Second, he uses contemporary theoretical perspectives to analyze the institutional basis of social problems, and to consider different solutions to remedy systemic problems. Using this approach provides students with a working understanding of a number of theoretical perspectives including conflict theory, structural functionalism, social exchange theory, and feminist theory. Third, the discussion of social problems keeps the spotlight on dominant institutions and corporations that are the source of social and economic inequality and responsible for their continued maintenance. Fourth, the book presents for analysis real public organizations (CIA, Enron) and highprofile historical events (Iraq War, 2008 financial crisis), thereby encouraging readers to apply the sociological way of looking at the world to their own lives and to public events.

John Alessio is passionate about his subject and he consistently challenges the reader to consider important applications of the sociological perspective to the task of positive social change. There are many memorable sections and passages in this book, but here is one that stayed with me:

What this chapter tells us is that the people of the United States and the world in general need to democratically create and control their own economy and their own media and airwaves or they will continue to let the media, and hence, the economy, control them.

Robert Perrucci
Purdue University

Solving social problems has been the goal of Sociology since its inception in the mid-nineteenth century. Much has been investigated, analyzed, and written about Sociology and its various subfields since that time. Sociologists and other social scientists have contributed a great deal toward an improved understanding of how the social world works. Many social organizations have been assisted in their efforts to achieve their goals. While sociologists have done a good job of writing about social problems as isolated individual entities, we have not done a good job of analyzing and writing about their interrelationships and common sources. Consequently, we have not been able to effectively offer credible and practical guidelines for resolving the worlds most serious social problems.