SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Social Problems is an area of applied study and research in the Department. It is guided by a number of theoretical perspectives, such as labeling theory, social problems, social constructionism, anomie theory, social control theory, differential association theory, feminist theory, and postmodernism. The Department offers a number of undergraduate and graduate courses in this area. As well, doctoral graduate students are able to write a comprehensive examination in deviance. The faculty members working in this area are Mike Atkinson, Graham Knight, Charlene Miall, and Dorothy Pawluch. 

Mike Atkinson specializes in deviance and social control, especially in the sociology of sport and gender issues. He has been analyzing violence in hockey and professional sports. Mike is currently writing a book on Sports, Deviance and Social Control. He has written on active interview techniques with public deviants, such as tattoo artists and drug reform advocates. Mike has conducted research on tolerable differences in the analysis of deviant activities and lifestyles in the use of marijuana for recreational purposes and the illegal ticket scalping trade.  

Charlene Miall has been studying the role of labeling and stigma in infertility and involuntary childlessness. She has conducted research on the legitimation of deviant behaviour and the deviant role, and responses to negative labeling, with respect to chronic and non-chronic ex-psychiatric patients and involuntarily childless females.

Dorothy Pawluch specializes in social problems, claims-making, labeling theory, and social construction. She publishes on social problems, such as in the Social Sciences Encyclopedia and in the well-known journal, Social Problems. She has also written on deviance and social control in nurseries and on childhood deviance.