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108 Social Issues Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

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Social issues are complex and multifaceted problems that affect individuals, communities, and societies as a whole. These issues can range from poverty and inequality to discrimination and environmental degradation. Writing an essay on a social issue can be a daunting task, but it can also be a rewarding experience that allows you to explore and analyze important topics that impact the world around you.

To help you get started, here are 108 social issues essay topic ideas and examples that you can use as inspiration for your next writing assignment:

The impact of social media on mental health
Income inequality and its effects on society
Police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement
The rise of fake news and its impact on democracy
Gender inequality in the workplace
Climate change and its effects on vulnerable communities
The opioid crisis and its impact on communities
The criminal justice system and racial disparities
Homelessness and poverty in America
The refugee crisis and global migration patterns
LGBTQ+ rights and discrimination
The rise of nationalism and its impact on global politics
Gun control and mass shootings in America
Environmental racism and its effects on marginalized communities
The impact of globalization on developing countries
Mental health stigma and access to treatment
Cyberbullying and online harassment
The #MeToo movement and sexual harassment in the workplace
Access to healthcare and the rising cost of medical care
The impact of technology on social relationships
Food insecurity and hunger in America
The effects of gentrification on low-income communities
Disability rights and accessibility
The criminalization of poverty and homelessness
Human trafficking and modern-day slavery
The impact of colonialism on indigenous communities
The rise of authoritarianism and threats to democracy
The education achievement gap and disparities in schools
Mental health challenges facing college students
The impact of social isolation on mental health
The influence of religion on social norms and values
The effects of gentrification on cultural identity
The impact of social media on political discourse
The role of activism in social change
Access to clean water and sanitation in developing countries
The impact of social media on body image and self-esteem
The effects of income inequality on public health
The criminalization of drug addiction and mental illness
The impact of climate change on indigenous communities

These are just a few examples of social issues that you can explore in your essay. Remember to choose a topic that you are passionate about and that you feel strongly about. Researching and writing about social issues can be a powerful way to raise awareness and advocate for change in the world. Good luck with your essay!

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Essay On Social Issues

500 words essay on social issues.

Social Issues is an undesirable state which opposes society or a certain part of society. It refers to an unwanted situation that frequently results in problems and continues to harm society . Social issues can cause a lot of problems that can be beyond the control of just one person. Through an essay on social issues, we will learn why they are harmful and what types of social issues we face.

Drawbacks of Social Issues

Social issues have a lot of drawbacks that harms our society. They are situations that have an adverse and damaging result on our society. They arise when the public leaves nature or society from an ideal situation.

If you look closely, you will realize that almost all types of social issues have common origins. In the sense that they all are interconnected somehow. Meaning to say, if one solves the other one is also most likely to resolve.

Social issues have a massive lousy effect on our society and ultimately, it affects all of us. In order to solve some social issues, we need a common approach. No society is free from social issues, almost every one of them has some social issue or the other.

For instance, in India, you will find a lot of social issues which the country is facing. It ranges from the caste system to child labour and gender inequality to religious conflicts. Thus, we are going through a critical time where we all must come together to free our society from undesirable social evils.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Major Social Issues

There are a lot of social issues we are facing right now, some more prominent than the others. First of all, poverty is a worldwide issue. It gives birth to a lot of other social issues which we must try to get away with at the earliest.

Further, countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and more are facing the issue of the caste system since times unknown. It results in a lot of caste violence and inequality which takes the lives of many on a daily basis.

Moreover, child labour is another major social issue that damages the lives of young children. Similarly, illiteracy also ruins the lives of many by destroying their chances of a bright future.

In developing countries mostly, child marriage still exists and is responsible for ruining many lives. Similarly, dowry is a very serious and common social issue that almost all classes of people partake in.

Another prominent social issue is gender inequality which takes away many opportunities from deserving people. Domestic violence especially against women is a serious social issue we must all fight against.

Other social issues include starvation, child sex abuse, religious conflicts, child trafficking, terrorism , overpopulation, untouchability, communalism and many more. It is high time we end these social issues.

Conclusion of the Essay on Social Issues

A society can successfully end social issues if they become adamant. These social issues act as a barrier to the progress of society. Thus, we must all come together to fight against them and put them to an end for the greater good.

FAQ on Essay on Social Issues

Question 1: What is the meaning of social problem?

Answer 1: A social problem refers to any condition or behaviour which has a negative impact on a large number of people. It is normally recognized as a condition or behaviour that needs to be addressed.

Question 2: What are the effects of social issues?

Answer 2: Social issues affect our society adversely. Most importantly, it disturbs the harmony of society and gives rise to hostility and suspicion. Moreover, it creates large-scale social dissatisfaction, suffering and misery.

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Essay on Social Issues

List of essays on social issues, essay on social issues – for children (essay 1 – 200 words), essay on social issues (essay 2 – 250 words), essay on social issues – 10+ lines on social issues written in english (essay 3 – 300 words), essay on social issues – for school students (class 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 standard) (essay 4 – 400 words), essay on social issues – short essay (essay 5 – 500 words), essay on social issues – poverty, corruption, caste system, dowry system, child labour, uncleanliness and others (essay 6 – 600 words), essay on social issues in india – for college and university students (essay 7 – 750 words), essay on social issues in india – long essay for competitive exams (essay 8 – 1000 words).

Social issues have plagued the life of too many people. Many times you may have noticed that a lot of things in the society which doesn’t seem good. For instance, you must have noticed poor children begging on the streets. They don’t go to school. They have been forced to beg for a living. Such circumstances along with others which affect the population at large are social issues.

Begging is an issue which arises out of poverty. Poverty is itself is one of the major social issues in India. It is important to understand the general social issues of our society and how they impact the lives of the people of the country. Therefore we have come up with long essays for students which shall throw more light on social issues.

Audience: The below given essays are exclusively written for school students (Class 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 Standard) and college students. Furthermore, those students preparing for competitive exams like IAS, IPS and UPSC can also increase their knowledge by studying these essays.

Social issues include issues like poverty, violence, crime, religion, illiteracy and racism that affect society.

What is a Social Issue?

A social issue is a problem that influences a considerable number of individuals. It is an aspect of society that people are concerned about and would like to get it changed. The concern of a social issue may be objective or subjective. A social issue arises due to diverse opinions of individuals based on what is perceived as right. Social issue does not necessarily refer to an ill to be solved, but it may be a topic to be discussed. Social issues can be different for different groups, societies, countries and world.

Causes of the Social Issues:

There are many causes of the social issues. Social issues arise due to inequalities in society. Different individuals and different societies may have different perceptions about a problem giving rise to a social issue. There can be disagreements about which social issue is important and worth solving, or which should take precedence.

Solving Social Issues:

There are a variety of methods to resolve variety of social issues. These include political processes, non-profit organizations, community groups and volunteering to have public dialogue on a social issue and arrive at a most acceptable solution.

Introduction:

‘Social Issues’ are the main factors that hinder the growth of a nation. The social issues that roots up in each society affects the country as a whole. Social issues are caused by humans and it is the humans who face its worst consequences also.

A social issue is something of real concern that affects a certain group of people . Social issues are not caused by a single person; it is the result of various happenings that are beyond a person’s control. This essay will take us through some of the social issues that are of great concern in today’s world.

Poverty means lack of money or material possessions and it is one of the most important social issue. The poverty level is higher in the rural areas as compared to urban areas. Poverty leads to many other social problems such as lack of food, education and health.

Gender Bias:

Discrimination based on gender is another social issue which is commonly found in most of the developing countries. Importance is given only to male and the voice of female is less heard even in the households.

Caste Discrimination:

Discriminating people based on their castes is a social issue that needs to be plucked out. This is a serious social issue because this has taken many innocent lives. Poverty and lack of education are the main reasons for such social issue to rise.

Conclusion:

Most of the social problems still exists because people are ignorant of its consequences. The Government and NGO’s must work together to eliminate the social issues from society by educating the people through awareness programmes.

Social issues have plagued the life of too many people. Our society in particular is crippled with several social issues. There was a time when social issues like dowry, child marriage, and sati and so on were prevalent. It took a lot of efforts for some of the social issues to be banned completely. The tradition of sati wherein women ended up burning themselves after the death of their husband was something which called for a ban.

The Modern Day Society:

Even though we have become independent and are en route to the modern society, there are plenty of social issues which need to be addressed. The fact that women are not at par with men and the presence of gender disparity is surely one concern which should be addressed.

Not only this, it is also important to address social issues like poverty, mismanagement of wealth, caste system and so on. The people of lower caste are still looked down upon and the concept of untouchables is still present in our society.

The Remedial Measures:

Mere talking about the problem is not going to do anything. It is important to really seek the right solution. If you want to get rid of social issues, it is about time that we create the right awareness for it.

Education needs to be offered to the masses so that they understand why the presence of certain social issues needs to be eradicated. When women would be educated enough to know that they deserve the same as men, they would fight for their own cause.

So, try to create an awareness channel and educate the masses about how certain social issues are doing nothing but crippling our society. We need to be the change that we are looking to bring. Often, it is one movement which triggers a phenomenal change.

Social issues are found in abundance in our country. Some of the common social issues which seem to have plagued the Indian society are child abuse, illiteracy, drug abuse, child trafficking, poverty, unemployment, gender disparity, and so on. It is really important for the nation to come together and take a stand against these problems.

If we do not do our bit right now, these social issues might become too huge for our country to function properly.

The Dark Future:

The reason we are emphasizing so much when it comes to eradicating social issues is because it can put our future in grave trouble. Think of a country whose youth is largely uneducated and unemployed. Do you really believe that such a country can steer forth in the right direction? How will such a nation prosper if our leaders of tomorrow have barely any knowledge of how the world economy functions? Education and employment are two of the vital things that form the base for all kinds of progress.

Gender Disparity:

Further, when we are talking about the possible issues regarding gender disparity, it is important to understand that women too deserve the right position in the Indian society. If you are not willing to give women the equal rights and they cannot walk at par with men, the future of the nation doesn’t look too bright. In today’s times, it is really important to address such social issues because women are equally talented and if it is so, they deserve the same thing as men.

It is a shame that in a lot of Indian households, women aren’t granted the right to higher education nor are they allowed to work. What type of society is this and what is the example we are showing to the rest of the world!

Addressing the Social Issues:

When you are looking to remedy the situation and improve the condition of the society, we need to think of the best way to handle social issues. We believe that it is with the right educational awareness that changes can be brought. Try and have sessions wherein we educate the masses about the need to get rid of such social issues and come up with strategies and plans regarding how you can do so.

Every little step can end up creating a ripple effect and might help you strip the country of the woes of social issues. So, do your bit now!

Social issues are a general word that is used for a variety of situations and actions that affect the society. These issues can be changed only with a certain kind of social planning.

Social issues affect every member of the society directly as well as indirectly. Some people considered the social issues as the issues or disputes which are linked to the people’s moral values.

Social Issues in the Society:

The following are the 4 main groups in which the social issues can be categorized:

1. Political Social Issues:

Politics is a procedure in which some groups of people utilize their power and impact to function in an organized way for mutual decision making. It is also considered as one of the biggest social issues as the maximum number of verdicts declared by the governments might not essentially help the poor people in the society. In fact, the leaders gratify their self-centered interests with the misuse of public funds.

2. Pollution Social Issues:

Pollution results in instability, illness, harm or distress to the environment. The human activities such as industrial activities have made this problem one of the major social issues. The man-made activities result in the pollution of the soil and water to a great extent.

3. Climate change Social Issues:

It is the alteration in statistical dispersal of climate which might include the change in the weather or change in the amount of rainfall due to human activities like pollution. These social issues influence the patterns of weather in diverse areas.

One of the recent examples of this social issue is global warming which is instigated by human activities from the past several years. Altering patterns of climate influence the economic activities like farming that result in poverty among the people who survives on it.

4. Poverty Social Issues:

It is the absence of general human requirements, like clean water, nutrition, health care, clothing and shelter, and education. This social issue occurs due to the lack of funds that can help in meeting the expenses of the daily needs.

Mainly, there are 2 kinds of poverty i.e., relative poverty and absolute poverty. In relative poverty, there are comparatively fewer resources or fewer funds in the society in comparison to other societies of the world. On the other hand, Absolute poverty means when there are no resources.

Poverty is one of the biggest social issues as it decreases economic development owing to less production. At present, steady and constant economic growth of the nation has been inhibited by the absence of economic independence for numerous persons owing to related issues like political uncertainty, exploitation, as well as unemployment.

All the above four social issues influence every country and society in the world. It is very important to deal with these social issues seriously if we want to relish the quality life.

The problem of global warming is an inkling to reverse the entire human progress that is attained in so many years. In fact, it will make efforts towards the poverty reduction unattainable. Besides this, the political solutions are also needed for overcoming all types of social issues in the future.

Social issues are those problems in a society by which a significant population is affected and requires immediate solution. Right from the most basic problem of poverty that kills people physically to the problem of social media that affects children mentally, there are a variety of social issues in the society that have affected considerable amount of population and requires solution urgently.

It is shocking to note that Global Hunger Index places India on the 97th position in terms of starvation. Statistics also indicate that about 15% of the Indian population is undernourished. Therefore, it has become an undeniable fact that poverty exists in India although the politicians, the media and the general public have failed to recognise it. Food security is the basic right of every citizen and the Government must ensure effective laws to fulfill it.

Corruption:

Corruption is a social issues which includes the misuse of authority in public and private services for personal gains. It is the root cause for all other social evils and backwardness in the society. Though India is developing into a super power on the one hand, it is being pulled down on many grounds due to corruption. If the general public restrains from offering bribe, then truthfulness and transparency would prevail in the administration. It requires a change from both the corrupted and affected people.

Caste System:

Caste System discriminates the citizens and causes unnecessary tensions in the society. Though many leaders and stakeholders have been working since independence days, it still remains a social issue. The first step in this direction is the removal of reservations based on caste system. Though inter-caste marriages have been prevalent in the last few decades, the reservations have been adding fuel to the waning caste system.

Dowry System:

The dowry system has been affecting the women of the society in many ways. Though many pioneers have worked to eradicate this social issue for several decades, it has also been prevalent in the society. Some steps that help overcome this social issue includes economic freedom to women through inheriting family properties and employment. It requires the combined effort of both the offending and affected parties to root out this social evil.

Child Labour:

This social issue against children prevents the right of a child to enjoy its childhood and attend regular schooling. The inability of parents and selfishness of employers work together to promote child labour. Online help systems have been initiated to locate child labourers, rescue them and provide relief from their suffering. The general public requires more awareness to eradicate this social issue.

Uncleanliness:

The progress of a society is determined by the cleanliness maintained in public places, workplaces and residences. Cleanliness ensures good health, provides good feeling, promotes confidence and demands respect from others. Uncleanliness, on the other hand, acts as deterrent for the progress and prosperity of the nation as well as demean the society.

Other Social Issues:

Apart from the social issues listed above, there are a variety of social issues that affect various sections of the society. They include terrorism, human rights issues, issues related to women like female foeticide, discrimination on status, jobs and wages etc., drugs abuse, child abuse, unemployment, population explosion, unrestrained use of social media, etc.

Recognition of the social issues is the first step to find solution. Most of the issues are due to lack of awareness and could be addressed through sensitization programs from the Governments and stakeholders. Since many social issues like sati, untouchability etc., have been dealt successfully in the past, the future holds hope to deal with the current social issues.

Social issues are those that concern the society and the change in these issues are the only way to solve them. In our country, there are many social issues that create a disturbance in the smooth life of every citizen.

These social issues are those that deal with the mind-set of a group of people who belongs to a particular condition that alters their mind and their concern on the issue changes the way they react. There are many such issues that have created both social and political imbalance in our country over years.

India being a country with vast diversity has faced many social issues varying in different aspects, till date. For example, the different and versatile people have the same difference in their feeling and emotions about their religion, caste, colour, believes, lifestyle, etc. Social issues have a great impact on the development and betterment of a country and its people.

Some of the social issues that concern our country:

Social issues vary according to time, place people, etc. There are some common issues that affect society in a considerably negative way. Let us take a look at some of them.

Poverty is one of those major social issues yet to be resolved in our country. This simple issue has chained other massive issues to evolve like child labour, female infanticide, discrimination and more. If this basic problem gets resolved the major concern of our country will be wiped away.

Poverty is a state in the life where the basic needs of a person cannot be fulfilled with their income. The unemployment and lack of education can be the major reason behind this social issue. Social issues like poverty can be solved only through introducing other schemes like free education, better employment opportunities, etc.

This state of poverty pushes the family to find a more secure way to get their safe zone, which in turn gives rise to other social issues. One of them is child labour and this is occurred due to the money gaining mentality of society.

Child labour is another social issue. Poor parents send their children to small jobs where they are forced to work hard to get considerably less money as a reward. Social issues arise when the child is denied his childhood and basic education due to poverty. This not only affects them physically but also mentally due to the pressure and heavy workload they do.

Female Discrimination:

Poverty is one of the reasons that creates discrimination against females. Social issues like female infanticide, denial of education of girl child, domestic violence, etc., are included in this category. Due to poverty or narrow mind-set girl child is seen to be denied their rights even from their birth.

A poor family thinking girl child is a liability abort them in the womb itself to solve the problem of poverty and later hardships. This is one of those social issues that was a common practice in the earlier years and now the government has issued many laws to stop this inhumanity.

Social issues regarding women have a comparatively long list to be addressed. Poverty also leads to denial of education of girl child. This is different from child labour in a way that this focuses fully on the girl child rather than a child.

The parents get to the mentality that educating a girl is completely unwanted money wastage as they get married to another man and no good is there for the family. This thinking in unaware families creates one of the most right denial issues among the social issues category.

Social issues like domestic violence also arise due to such unawareness among the people about the importance of women and their rights, which should be solved completely to improve the state of women and children in the society.

The above mentioned social issues are only some of them that are a threat to the nation and decreases the opportunity in developing a better place. There are more to be added in the list like religion discrimination, harmony in the society, etc., other than that the naturally occurring social issues are pollution rate, global warming, etc.

S olution to Social Issues:

All these social issues can only be solved through mutual efforts of the people and the greater schemes introduced by the government. If these social issues are resolved correctly or even get reduced, it will directly show results on the development of the nation and thus the development of each citizen’s lifestyle. Solutions to Social issues can only be provided by educating and creating awareness among the people about the evil effects of the existing social issues.

Social issues are the issues which affect the larger sections of the society. They have been discussed since ancient times. In fact, these very social issues have been instrumental in bringing upon a change in our society from time to time.

Historical References:

India is a country of different cultures, religions, languages and beliefs. Therefore, within the same country there lie different social issues which differ from region to region, state to state. Social issues in India are not something new. They have been there since ancient times.

For instance, the caste system in India is a social issue which has been there since the earlier times and exists even today. Similarly, untouchability is another social issue which has been existent in India since older times. Such issues have affected the development of the people as well as society. They are often the cause of hatred among people and lead to conflicts and sometimes even riots.

Current Social Issues:

As in any other society, there are some social issues which are prevalent at a given period of time. India is a no different country. It has its own share of social issues. India is a developing country. Therefore, poverty is a major social issue here. At the time of independence, a large population of India was struggling with basic needs such as food shelter and clothing.

Even today, such facilities are lacking in the rural areas of the country. People have to travel long distances in search of potable water. Despite many initiatives by the Government as well as private organisations, still, a large section of the population lives below the poverty line. This hampers the overall development of the country.

Illiteracy is among the major social issues which have affected the growth of the country. However, there are many causes of this social issue. On one hand, it is the lack of education facilities especially in the rural belt which has led to the people being illiterate. On the other hand, it is the reluctance of people to send their children to school has also resulted in a high illiteracy rate in the country. Due to illiteracy and ignorance, the people are not able to avail the facilities provided by the government.

The caste system is another of such social issues which has deep roots in the society. In India, people are divided among four castes, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Among all these, the Shudras are considered as the lowest and are looked upon as untouchables in the society.

The upper castes do not allow the lower ones to avail even the basic facilities such as drawing water from the same well. Often this has been a cause of hatred and fights among the people. However, with different schemes introduced by the government from time to time, things have started changing. Now, the Shudras are provided jobs, education and other facilities at par with other citizens of the country.

Social issues which have been abolished:

Not all social issues are permanent in society. There are many such social issues which existed earlier, but with changing mind-sets of the people and awareness among the citizens, many of them have been abolished. For instance, Sati system was one such social issue which was actually cruelty against women. In case the husband of a woman dies, she was required to burn herself alive in the pyre of her husband. Women had no right to live in a society without their husbands. But with the initiatives of leaders such a Raja Ram Mohan Roy such evil practices were abolished.

Similarly, polygamy was a social issue in India since ancient times. A man was allowed to marry many women. Kings of earlier times had many queens. Women were treated as objects and married off as presents to men. However, with changing times and introduction of different laws such practice has been abolished.

Similar to this is the social issue of child marriage. Earlier, girls and boys were married as soon as they attained puberty. In fact, it was a general mind-set to marry off a girl within two years of her attaining puberty. Due to such practices, the girls were not able to have equal opportunities in education as men.

In fact, they were not treated as equal to men in any matter. However, with laws in place, this practice was termed illegal. As per the laws enacted by the Indian Government, a minimum age of 18 for girls and 21 for boys has been fixed for marriage. However, in remote parts of the country, such practices still exist and there are initiatives by the government from time to time in educating people about the evil aspects of this practice.

In spite of the fact that Governmental and NGOs are moving in the direction of enhancing the current condition in the social issues, the results are not exceptionally reassuring. Maybe the issue lies in the plain profound established convictions in the psyches of individuals of the nation which isn’t letting the circumstance to change such social issues. For example, the issue of Female Feticides is one of the disgraceful practices. Despite the fact that there are different rules in place which term this practice an illegal, it is still rampant in many parts of the country.

The genuine purpose behind this is the Patriarchy arrangement of the society of our nation which thinks about male as the better specialist and ladies as subordinate than them. Along these lines, the exceptionally powerful urge of having a male youngster in contrast with female prompted the disgraceful routine with regards to female feticides. In this manner, it is conviction framework or the social moulding of the general population which isn’t letting the general public to change at a quick pace.

Despite the fact that there have been a few positive changes in the general public, for example, presently young girls are going to school in greater part and their business proportion is likewise expanding, education facilities are available in rural areas, the backwards are provided equal opportunities, and still we have a long way to go.

We witness many social issues every day such as inequality against women in our own homes, sexual savagery against ladies which is being heard on a consistent schedule, female feticide, religious-mutual brutality which is on the ascent, untouchability which is yet a reality and child labour which still exists. Unless and until we change our mind-sets, nothing can change in our society. It is up to us whether we see these as social issues or accept them as a part of our society.

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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Society — Addressing Social Problems: A Call to Action

Addressing Social Problems: a Call to Action

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Published: Mar 1, 2019

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Tips for Writing a Social Issues Essay

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A social issue essay is an assignment meant to test our thoughts about social problems existing in our world today. These social issues have significant impacts on our modern society.

The main idea behind writing a social issues essay is an expression of our opinions, ideas, or sentiments about the latest social topics and how it affects everybody. Moreover, it’s about in-depth research skills on how these societal issues affect students and their development.

Writing a stellar social issues essay is difficult, especially due to these societal issues’ complex and controversial nature. But, a clear and concise understanding of these issues makes it possible to craft an insightful and compelling essay that sheds light on these social problems.

In addition, the essay paper should agitate the reader to think of possible solutions to these problems. Are you wondering, ‘Can someone write my essay for me ?’ Here is a simple guide on writing a comprehensive social issues essay that portrays your writing skills.

What Are Social Issues?

The first step in your writing task is understanding the fundamentals of social issues. Social issues refer to various challenges a society faces in its continued progress. These issues refer to various range of topics that affect both individuals and communities at large.

These challenges range from wealth inequalities, environmental degradation, poverty, social inequalities, discrimination, disparities, drug abuse, racism, and corruption, among many more.

The presence of these challenges makes society weaker. Therefore, it calls for a collective effort to address these societal changes to make the world a better place to live.

Hence, your essay must bring out an aspect of these societal issues and convince your readers of the harmful impact it causes on individuals and communities.

Social Issues Topics

There are different social issue topics to choose from in our lives. Here is a simple breakdown of common social issues to address:

Social Justice Issues

Gender inequality and women’s rights
Income inequality across social classes
Need for gender equality and inclusion
Relation between poverty and health problems
Fight for equal labor laws
Poverty-based discrimination
Domestic violence
Racism in the workplace

Racism Issues

Racial Stereotypes in the workplace
Racism in the U.S
Psychological impacts of racism
Systematic racism in the world
Western world racism
Modern-day slavery in Africa
Civil rights movement
Black Lives Matter movement

Social Media Issues

Rise of cyberbullying
Media ban on false information
Effects of cancel culture on individuals
Freedom of speech in social media
Rising world of influencers and their influence
Children and social media
Staying safe on the internet
Online media ethics

Health Social Issues

Health care for adults
Rise of drug addiction
Mental health
Increase in obesity
Pro-choice/Pro-life
Plastic surgery
Gender play

How to Write a Stellar Social Issues Essay

Below is an expert guide on how to write your essay that captures the attention of your audience while addressing pertinent social issues;

Choice of Topic

There are a myriad of social issue topics to choose from. Hence, choose a weighted social issue topic to craft a well-informed and compelling essay articulating your comprehension and grasp of the content. Some aspects to consider in your topic choice include relevance, personal interest, manageability, and research.

The essence of a social issue essay is bringing out new aspects that your audience doesn’t know already. Moreover, all information contained in your essay should be accurate and up-to-date.

Start building a strong and credible argument through thorough research on the essay topic. The research process helps gather data and relevant information about the essay topic from different perspectives.

Solid Stance

After researching your essay, it’s time to take a stance on your topic. A solid stance on your essay topic makes your essay more precise, stronger, and persuasive. Hence, your audience can view the topic from your perspective. Try using real-life examples to add more credibility to your essay. The examples will help the readers to understand the whole purpose of your essay. If you are struggling with this, ask an essay writer for help.

Keep It Simple

Expressing your own beliefs and opinions adds to the originality of your essay. Remember, having a divergent or contrary opinion to popular belief is not bad. Use simple sentences and words to express your point of view. Ensure the final argument is precise and easily communicated to your audience.

The final aspect of your writing process is proofreading your work for spelling mistakes and grammar. Before the final submission of your essay, ensure it is error-free and flawless. Go through your essay to ensure it is clear and conveys your main message effectively.

Final Takeaway

Writing a stellar social issues essay requires a deep understanding of what’s happening today. Therefore, users must deeply research their preferred essay topic to form a credible argument and convince their audience.

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Social Issues Essay

Social issues are the problems that affect the masses. These are due to current situations and protracted lived disagreements and complications that are difficult to resolve due to different beliefs, viewpoints and opinions. Here are a few sample essays on ‘social issues’.

100 Words Essay On Social Issues

Social issues are due to traditional and cultural stereotypes harming ordinary people, which need immediate attention. Social problems are subjective. They mean different things to different people. Social issues include poverty, child marriage, violence, crime, illiteracy, racial discrimination, gender bias, economic inequality, caste discrimination etc. Poverty is a severe social issue in rural areas, giving way to a lack of food and education, malnutrition, crime and violence. Gender bias and casteism are very evident in developing countries. Lack of education has resulted in issues like child marriages and racial discrimination. Modern society has resulted in new issues like pollution, climate change, corruption and terrorism.

These issues have plagued every country, society and, at some point, every household. These issues can be solved with strategic planning and educating people about them.

200 Words Essay On Social Issues

Numerous social issues have severely paralyzed our society. Ancient social issues like Sati, Polio etc., had taken tremendous effort to eradicate. Social problems aren’t just the ill that need solutions; they are topics of debate that affect a particular set of people differently. These are the result of various happenings in society by humans that affect them only.

Social Issues that require immediate attention

Poverty - Unequal distribution of the economy in the urban and rural areas has resulted in a higher level of poverty in the rural part of the country. As a result, many people need access to basic human needs like food, clothing and shelter.

Gender discrimination - Pay disparity between males and females is evident in many walks of our lives. Lack of female representatives in parliament or government duties are some issues the government is trying to tackle. Female infanticide is one of the main reasons for the unequal gender ratio in India.

Other social issues - Religion and Caste based discrimination are significant issues in India. They lead to communal riots.

Other issues like child labour, women empowerment, fundamental human rights, and national wars exist in many parts of the world.

We face these issues regularly, and these lead to violence and anarchy. Changing the mindset of people is the first step towards change. Governments and NGOs are actively moving towards enhancing these situations.

500 Words Essay On Social Issues

Social issues have existed since before civilization. Social problems occur when people’s views and beliefs don’t align. They affect the growth and peace of the country adversely and in the long run, affecting its development too. Pre-Independent India faced social issues like sati practise, untouchability, female infanticide, polygamy, female discrimination etc. The fact that some of these issues still prevail in a few parts of our country is undeniable. Issues like poverty, illiteracy, economic inequalities, unemployment, drug abuse, gender disparity, child abuse, climate change, corruption, casteism etc., have plagued modern India. Advances in science and technology have resulted in new socio-environmental issues like climate change, pollution, and deforestation.

Primary Cause For Social Issues

Described as a ‘Melting Pot, ’ India is home to 28 states, 8 Union territories, and 36 entities. These states and UT follow different cultural traditions, languages, music and art. India is an accurate representation of the term “Unity in diversity.” With diversity comes diverse opinions and beliefs. Sometimes these opinions can’t align, resulting in disputes that negatively affect society, leading to social issues.

Major Social issues

Poverty -Around 17% of the Indian population lives in poverty. Research shows people earn as little as 1059/- in rural India. High population, Illiteracy, unequal distribution of wealth, lack of financial resources, and unemployment are significant reasons for Poverty. Poverty leads to homelessness, less access to health care, lack of food and malnutrition.

Communalism - Casteism, Religion-based discrimination gives way to communal riots now and then. Dividing people based on their caste and religion is known as communalism. Political elements add fuel to this fire. India has witnessed a few of the worst riots, like the Mumbai riots of 1991, the Ayodhya riots, Godra riots. The caste system is a deep-rooted problem in India. Removal of Caste based reservations in education and employment can be the first step towards removing this discrimination.

Gender Discrimination - This issue impacts all developing countries. Females aren’t given equal opportunities as men. The Dowry system has affected females and their families adversely. There are many households where women are not allowed to work or obtain higher education. Female foeticide is banned now, but it has resulted in an unequal gender ratio. Pay disparity based on gender is also present.

Corruption - Abusing one’s power for personal gains is corruption. It is a deep-rooted problem of India slowing the economic development of our country, which is present both in the private and public sectors. Commonwealth scams, 2G scams, 3g scams, and Satyam scams are some of the significant frauds that recently came to light. Moral laws must be laid out and practiced by everyone to become a corruption-free country.

Solution To Social Problems

The first step is to educate the masses about these issues and create awareness about them. Governments and NGOs enforce strict laws and schemes. Recognising the origin of the problem and discussing all aspects with an open mind is the first step towards finding a solution. We have successfully dealt with issues like Sati and polygamy in the past. If proper steps, along with everyone's support, are taken, we have hope to overcome the current problems.

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Social Issues Topics: Exploring the Challenges Shaping Our World

Did you know that social issues are not just distant problems affecting others? They are deeply intertwined with our lives and have a profound impact on our daily experiences, shaping the very fabric of our society. From systemic inequality to environmental degradation, these issues have the power to shape the course of history and determine the well-being of generations to come. Get ready to dive into the fascinating realm of social issues topics! In this article, we'll explore their complexities, understand why they matter, learn how to write compelling essays about them and discover a captivating list of the most important social issues examples of our time. This thought-provoking journey will challenge our beliefs and inspire us to take meaningful action for a better future. So, let's dive in and get started!

What Are Social Issues

Social issues are the threads that intricately weave through the fabric of our society, demanding our attention, empathy, and action. They are the challenges and complexities that affect individuals, communities, and even entire nations, often leaving a profound impact on people's lives. These issues stem from the interconnectedness of our world, where various factors like politics, economics, culture, and individual experiences intersect, creating a tapestry of social problems that need to be addressed.

Social issues encompass a wide range of concerns, encompassing everything from poverty and inequality to gender discrimination, environmental degradation, and access to healthcare and education. They represent the barriers that prevent individuals from thriving, the disparities that hinder progress, and the injustices that undermine equality and human rights.

Take poverty, for example. It is not merely a lack of financial resources; it is a pervasive condition that robs individuals of their dignity, opportunities, and hope for a better future. Poverty intertwines with education, as limited access to quality education perpetuates the cycle of disadvantage. It intersects with healthcare, as inadequate medical services disproportionately affect the most vulnerable members of society. And it connects with inequality as wealth disparities widen and prevents social mobility.

As per our essay writing service , to address social issues today, it is crucial to recognize that they are not isolated problems. They are intertwined and interdependent, requiring holistic solutions that encompass multiple dimensions. It takes collective efforts from individuals, communities, governments, and organizations to foster change. Raising awareness, advocating for policy reforms, and promoting equality are essential steps toward ensuring that marginalized groups benefit and creating a more just and equitable society.

What If Your Words Could Ignite a Social Movement?

Order your social issue essay and spark the change you want to see!

Understanding the Importance of Social Issues in Today's World

Social issues are not abstract concepts confined to textbooks or news headlines. They are pressing challenges that affect real people and demand our attention. By actively engaging with these issues, we have the opportunity to shape a more equitable and compassionate world for ourselves and future generations.

The importance of social issues in developing countries lies in their impact on human rights, well-being, and social progress. By addressing these issues, we strive to build inclusive societies where everyone has equal opportunities and can live a dignified life. It is not only a matter of justice and compassion but also essential for sustainable development and peaceful coexistence.

Moreover, social issues highlight the power of collective action and advocacy. They remind us that we have a shared responsibility to stand up for what is right and work towards positive change. Thanks to the advancements in technology and communication, it is now easier than ever to raise awareness, mobilize communities, and bring about transformative social movements. Social media platforms have become powerful tools for amplifying marginalized voices and shedding light on systemic injustices.

How to Write an Essay About Social Issues

So you've got an assignment on social issues essay topics, huh? Don't worry; we've got your back! Writing about social issues may seem like a tough nut to crack, but trust us; it's a crucial part of academic writing. Social issues are basically problems that affect a whole bunch of people in society. We're talking about everything from politics and economics to education and health and so much more. But hey, no need to stress! Our custom writing experts are here to give you some awesome tips to help you rock that essay and make it super interesting. Let's dive in, shall we?

Choose Your Topic Wisely

Let's begin by taking the first step, my friend! It's all about choosing a topic for research papers that resonates with your heart and feels like a natural fit for your mind. When you opt for a subject that genuinely sparks your personal interest, the research and essay writing process, complete with the proper format of academic paper , will become a delightful adventure.

Engage in brainstorming sessions to generate ideas and conduct thorough investigations to gather factual information. Now, here's a nifty trick: if the chosen issue seems a bit overwhelming with its multiple dimensions, no worries! Just narrow down your focus to a specific aspect. For example, if you're tackling poverty, you can zoom in on the causes, the consequences, or even strategies to alleviate it. The world is your oyster, so let's get cracking!

Support Your Opinion with Examples

When you're writing a research paper about examples of social issues, it's really important to include research and data that support your position. This helps the reader understand why your perspective is necessary and what evidence you have to back it up. For instance, if you're discussing the impact of poverty, you can provide statistics on the number of people in need, how poverty and health problems affect education, and the connection between poverty and crime. Including these kinds of details, just like in economics essay topics , will make your essay more persuasive and engaging.

Keep It Simple

Ensuring your essay is simple and easy to understand is crucial. Instead of using complex words, opt for simpler alternatives that convey the same meaning effectively. By keeping your essay readable, you make it more engaging and easier for the reader to follow. Avoid employing jargon or technical terms that might confuse your audience. Instead, use plain language and take the time to explain any intricate terms or concepts, making the essay accessible to all readers. Following these guidelines on how to write an essay on social issues will help you effectively communicate your ideas and engage your audience.

Revise and Edit

Before you submit your essay, it's important to take a few steps to ensure its quality. Start by checking its structure, making sure it flows smoothly and logically. Verify that your arguments are well-supported and presented in a cohesive manner. Give your essay a thorough review to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes. Additionally, pay attention to formatting, ensuring consistency throughout the entire piece. It can be beneficial to have someone else read your essay and provide feedback as well. Taking these precautions will help you present polished and well-crafted topics for essays .

Social Issues Essay Example

For students seeking a practical example of a well-structured and insightful social issues essay, the pursuit of global citizenship stands as a compelling topic to explore. Through this example, you can gain inspiration and guidance for your own social issues essays, understanding how to construct a compelling argument and convey the importance of promoting positive change in society.

5 Social Issues of Today

Today's society is facing a multitude of social issues that have a significant impact on people's lives. Here is a list of some of the most pressing social issues that affect people worldwide:

Climate change and global warming : The effects of climate change are already being felt around the world, with rising sea levels, more frequent natural disasters, and changes in weather patterns. The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and other human activities are contributing to this issue, and it is essential that we take action to reduce our carbon footprint.
Income inequality : The gap between the rich and the poor is widening, with the wealthiest 1% of the world's population owning more than half of the world's wealth. This inequality can lead to social unrest, and it is important that we address this issue by promoting fair wages, progressive taxation, and other policies that support economic equality.
War : Armed conflicts continue to plague different regions around the world, resulting in significant humanitarian crises. Wars not only cause immense suffering, displacement, and loss of life but also have far-reaching consequences on infrastructure, economies, and social stability.
Gender equality : Despite progress in recent years, gender inequality remains a significant issue in many parts of the world. Women still face discrimination in the workplace, unequal pay, and limited access to education and healthcare. It is crucial that we continue to work towards gender equality and empower women to achieve their full potential.
Mental health issues and addiction : Mental health issues and addiction are becoming increasingly prevalent in today's society, affecting people of all ages and backgrounds. The stigma surrounding mental health can prevent people from seeking help, and it is important that we raise awareness and provide access to affordable and effective treatment options.

Social Issues Essay Topics

Are you feeling stuck while searching for fascinating subjects or a comprehensive list of social issues that can also serve as perfect dissertation topics ? We understand the challenge you're facing, but don't worry! Selecting the right topic is crucial for crafting an exceptional essay and earning your degree from a reputable American college or university. To ignite your creativity, we've compiled a comprehensive list of captivating social issues for you to explore. Get ready to dive in and discover that perfect idea for your next academic project!

👀 Interesting Social Issues Essay Topics

Income inequality and its impact on modern society.
The role of social media in shaping public opinion and activism.
Mental health stigma and its effects on individuals and communities.
The challenges faced by refugees and their integration into new societies.
The impact of technology on interpersonal relationships.
Gender inequality and the fight for gender equity.
The effects of climate change on vulnerable communities.
The basic ethical principles of genetic engineering and human enhancement.
The impact of globalization on cultural identity.
The role of education in reducing poverty and social inequality.
The criminal justice system and its approach to rehabilitation versus punishment.
The implications of automation and artificial intelligence on employment.
The impact of media portrayal on body image and self-esteem.
The effects of racial discrimination and strategies for achieving racial equality.
The challenges and opportunities of multiculturalism in contemporary society.

🎲 Peace and War Topics

Causes and origins of the Russia-Ukraine war: Explore the underlying factors that led to the outbreak of the conflict, such as historical, political, and ethnic tensions.
International response to the Russia-Ukraine war: Analyze the reactions and actions taken by various countries, regional organizations, and global institutions in response to the conflict.
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the challenge of achieving lasting peace.
The Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan: Historical context, current status, and potential solutions.
The ongoing tensions in the Korean Peninsula: Assessing the prospects for peace and denuclearization.
The Syrian Civil War and its Regional and global implications.
The Israel-Palestine conflict: Historical background, current dynamics, and prospects for peace.
The war in Afghanistan: Challenges, consequences, and prospects for stability.
The conflict in South Sudan and the impact on regional security.
The war on terror: Assessing the effectiveness of counterterrorism strategies and the implications for civil liberties.

🔬 Social Science Topics

The impact of microaggressions on marginalized communities and its implications for mental health.
Exploring the social and cultural factors that influence body image dissatisfaction among different ethnic groups.
The role of social capital in fostering community resilience and disaster preparedness.
Investigating the relationship between cultural heritage preservation and sustainable development.
Analyzing the influence of social networks on political participation and civic engagement.
Exploring the social implications of virtual reality technology on empathy and perspective-taking.
Investigating the role of humor and laughter in social interactions and psychological well-being.
Analyzing the effects of eco-anxiety on environmental attitudes and behavior.
The impact of social media accounts activism on social movements and policy change.
Exploring the cultural and societal implications of the sharing economy and collaborative consumption.

🏙 Migration and Immigration Topics

The experiences and challenges faced by LGBTQ+ migrants and refugees.
Analyzing the role of migrant remittances in economic development and poverty reduction in sending countries.
Exploring the impact of immigration policies on family dynamics and the well-being of immigrant families.
Investigating the role of social networks in facilitating successful integration of immigrants into host societies.
The effects of climate change-induced migration and its implications for global governance and social justice.
Analyzing the influence of cultural identity preservation among second-generation immigrants.
The impact of labor migration on gender roles and dynamics within migrant communities.
Exploring the role of language acquisition and proficiency in the social integration of immigrants.
Investigating the intersections of migration, health, and access to healthcare services.
Analyzing the economic, social, and cultural contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs to host countries.

🌳 Environmental Social Issues Essay Topics

The intersection of environmental justice and social equity: Analyzing the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation on marginalized communities.
The role of indigenous knowledge and practices in sustainable resource management.
The impact of consumerism and overconsumption on the environment and social well-being.
Exploring the social and economic implications of climate-induced migration and displacement.
The influence of environmental education and awareness on individual and collective environmental behaviors.
Analyzing the relationship between environmental degradation and public health, focusing on air and water pollution.
The role of corporate social responsibility in promoting environmental sustainability and addressing social concerns.
Investigating the social implications of plastic waste and exploring strategies for reducing single-use plastics.
The impact of urbanization on ecosystems and the social well-being of urban communities.
Analyzing the social dimensions of renewable energy transitions and the equitable distribution of benefits.

💖 LGBT Topic Ideas

The historical evolution of LGBT rights movements: From Stonewall to present-day advocacy.
Exploring the experiences and challenges faced by transgender individuals in healthcare systems.
Analyzing the representation of LGBT characters in media and its impact on social perceptions.
The intersectionality of race, gender, and sexuality in the LGBT community.
Investigating the effects of conversion therapy on the mental health and well-being of LGBT individuals.
Exploring the experiences of LGBT youth in educational settings and the impact of supportive environments.
The role of LGBT support organizations and community centers in fostering social inclusion and well-being.
Analyzing the impact of religious beliefs and attitudes on the acceptance of same-sex marriage.
Exploring the experiences and challenges of older LGBT adults and the importance of inclusive care and support systems.
The impact of policies and legislation on LGBT rights and equality, both nationally and internationally.

🏛 Social Justice Essay Topics

Exploring the concept of reparations for historical injustices and its role in achieving social justice.
The impact of language and communication barriers on access to justice for marginalized communities.
Analyzing the social justice implications of algorithmic bias in artificial intelligence systems.
Examining the role of art and creative expression in advancing social justice movements.
The intersection of disability rights and social justice: Challenges and advancements.
Exploring the impact of gentrification on communities and strategies for promoting equitable development.
Analyzing the role of restorative justice in addressing harm within educational institutions.
The impact of colonialism on indigenous communities and the pursuit of social justice.
The role of community organizing in promoting grassroots social justice initiatives.
Examining the social justice implications of mass incarceration and advocating for criminal justice reform.

🔗 Discrimination and Prejudice Topics

The effects of racial profiling on marginalized communities and its implications for social justice.
Analyzing the psychological mechanisms underlying implicit bias and its impact on decision-making processes.
The intersectionality of discrimination: Exploring how multiple forms of discrimination (race, gender, sexuality, etc.) intersect and compound.
Discrimination and prejudice in the workplace: Examining challenges and strategies for promoting diversity and inclusion.
Exploring the effects of religious discrimination on individuals and communities.
The impact of ageism on older adults and strategies for combating age-related discrimination.
Analyzing the social and psychological consequences of fat shaming and weight-based discrimination.
Discrimination against individuals with disabilities and the importance of accessibility and inclusive practices.
The role of the media in perpetuating stereotypes and its influence on discrimination.
Examining the effects of prejudice and discrimination on mental health and well-being.

🔪 Violence Topics

The role of violence in sports: Examining the impact of aggression and its consequences in athletic competitions.
Violence against healthcare workers: Analyzing the prevalence, causes, and strategies for ensuring safety in healthcare settings.
The impact of violence on refugee and displaced populations: Exploring the challenges and interventions for addressing violence in these contexts.
Violence in the digital realm: Investigating online harassment, cyberbullying, and the psychological effects on victims.
The relationship between animal cruelty and violence towards humans: Exploring the link and implications for social well-being.
The effects of violence in video games: Analyzing the debate and research surrounding its potential influence on real-life aggression.
The role of violence in hazing rituals and initiation ceremonies: Understanding the dynamics and potential harm caused.
Exploring violence in marginalized communities: Addressing the underlying factors and strategies for promoting community safety.
Silent Suffering: Unmasking the Reality of Domestic Violence
Violence in the workplace: Examining the impact of bullying, harassment, and assault on employees and organizational well-being.

👩‍🦯 Humanity Topics

The power of empathy and compassion in fostering understanding and social harmony.
Exploring the ethics of artificial intelligence and its impact on human dignity and autonomy.
The role of forgiveness in healing personal and societal wounds.
Analyzing the concept of human rights and its universality across different cultures and contexts.
The pursuit of global citizenship and its potential for promoting peace and cooperation.
Exploring the intersection of technology and humanity: Examining the benefits and challenges of the digital age.
The impact of cultural diversity on societal progress and innovation.
Analyzing the concept of altruism and its role in creating a more compassionate world.
The importance of intergenerational connections and the wisdom of older generations in shaping our future.
Examining the concept of identity and the balance between individuality and collective belonging.

Wrapping Up

Social issues are like a cosmic web, connecting countless lives worldwide. This article has been your guide, exploring their intricacies and significance while equipping you to create a powerful social issues essay. Remember, every essay has the power to inspire change.

And here's a little nugget of wisdom: some of the most remarkable social movements in history were sparked by a single person's words on paper. Yes, you heard that right! So, my friend, now you know how to start an essay , so get ready to unleash the power of your pen and leave your mark on the world. Together, we can be the catalysts for a brighter tomorrow!

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is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

149 Social Issues Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best social issues topic ideas & essay examples, 👍 good essay topics on social issues, ⭐ simple & easy social issues essay titles, 💡 interesting topics to write about social issues, ❓ social issues questions examples.

Youth Unemployment as a Social Issue Different factors have led to the high levels of youth unemployment, with the most widely studied of them being the skills that are available to the unemployed youths.
Social Issues: Choosing a Life Partner This process involves the identification of a friend to determine if potential partners share some aspects in life before the friendship can grow to a relationship and if the relationship works for the partners, it […]
Social Issues in “Frankenstein” Film Frankenstein’s monster represents the mangled and depressed soldiers returning from the war only to find an economy in crisis, given that the Great Depression was in the offing after the war.
Social Issues in “Gattaca” by Andrew Niccoland In the movie, another family rivalry is witnessed in the case where Vincent was the main suspect in the killing of an administrator; and when Anton offered to help, Vincent asked him to stay away […]
Social Issues in the Film “Grease” In the first instance, when Danny and Sandy meet for the first time in the school, Danny is compelled to play the bad boy character the group is identified with.
Homelessness as a Global Social Issue In the US, homelessness is on the increase because of economic melt- down and foreclosures. Moreover, differences in perception of homelessness by liberal and conservative on homeless have increased homelessness in the US.
Tragic Love and Social Issues in Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron In that regard, such distinction led to that love relationships were held in secret, and considering the origins of the lovers in both tales, it can be stated that the finale of these love stories […]
Anthropology in Solving Global Social Issues Artists were moving in the same direction, which excluded the possibility to understand and assess other examples of the art of other nations.
Social Issues Affecting Women Women and family Stability/Disintegration The role of women in family stability and disintegration is another social issue affecting women in society. Women are considered as the core managers of stability and security in the family.
Social Issues in the “Thelma and Louise” Movie The film focuses on the scenes and events that show the experience of females. In other words, “Thelma and Louise” ruined the stereotypical representation of women, which was revolutionary for that time.
Social Issues in “Be Right Back” Episode of “Black Mirror” Series In one of the scenes of the episodes, in her conversation with the copy of Ash, she says that the android does not have a history of its life; it is just an image without […]
Social Issues in Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Othello” The social environment of England at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century was characterized by great attention to social class, citizens’ jobs, and their reputation.
Social Issues: Arranged Marriages Even though research has shown that some arranged marriages result in loving and stable relationships, I think it is important to give individuals the freedom to choose their partners and decide whether they are prepared […]
Social Issue: The Death of the Whitney Houston In addition to giving a precise of the aforementioned story, the next discussion also elaborates the story by relating it to sociological imagination and the concept of social perspectives.
Homelessness as a Social Issue Research further indicates that the group is at a high risk of suffering from addiction in an effort to contain stress and ignominy associated with homelessness.
What Defines Us as Human? – Social Issues Although the particular features of the people’s skeletal structure and other physical qualities cannot be discussed as determining to speak about persons as human, it is important to focus on differences in the mental and […]
Social Issues of Families in Poverty With the tightened budget, parents of the families living in poverty struggle to make ends meet, and in the course of their struggles, they experience many stresses and depressions.
Social Issues: Smartphones’ Positive Impacts In the past, it is expensive to make calls. In the past, it is not convenient to make calls using payphones.
Social Issues: Charitable Donations These factors include awareness of the need to contribute, solicitation, selflessness, cost of the benefit, status in the society, and personal values.
Social Issues; Crime and Poverty in Camden This has threatened the social security and peaceful coexistence of the people in the community. The larger the differences between the poor and the rich, the high are the chances of crime.
Communist Manifesto, Time and Social Issues The primary issue of the manifesto is the vagaries in which the bourgeoisie subject and subjugate the proletariat, all in the struggle for private property.
Social Issues in First-World Nations The third social issue that affects a large number of first-world countries is the quality and accessibility of healthcare. However, it is possible to make a gradual positive change through the cooperation of governments and […]
Philosophy and Perspective of Social Issues In addition, the critical thinking method can also be used to analyze the belief that the government is the cause of social issues. Philosophy is a discipline that can help us to think more critically […]
Moral, Ethical, and Social Issues However, the spectrum of their research is fundamentally different, and in the case of the Press, it concerns dirty work and society’s response to it.
Education Establishments’ Role Regarding Social Issues However, the universal nature of these issues and their broad influence create an environment in which members of education establishments begin to question the extent of their involvement in them.
Social Issues Related to Detroit’s Demographics: The Urban Crisis This refutes the widespread knowledge that suggests racial divides and social initiatives in the 1960s were the cause of the urban decline.
Journal Editors’ Role Regarding Social Justice Issues Journal editors can involve professionals from social justice forums such as civil rights lawyers in their journals as well as reduce the complexity of the presentation of social justice article contents.
Social Issue Analysis: The Trauma Lens of Police Violence It is the most visible manifestation of the struggle for justice, and the police are usually expected to support the victims of injustice.
The Impact of Social Issues on the Development of Adolescence For example, boys have high esteem when they experience changes in their voices, while girls may feel shy due to the growth of their chest region.
Tobacco as a Social Injustice Issue African Americans are a minority population in the U.S.singled out to endure the health challenges related to tobacco use hence a social injustice.
Ageism and Financial Insecurity as Social Issues The two main social issues impacting the rights of older individuals are ageism and financial insecurity. Many older people are capable and eager to work beyond the standard set, but the chances are limited.
The Review of Social Issues Film One of the most important concerns for my future life is the ability to raise and care for children properly. The issue of elderly domestic abuse is considered to be one of the most serious […]
Race as a Social Construct: Issues of Barriers Since it occurs in the conditions of scarcity of resources essential for the survival of citizens, the varying degree of access to them can be determined on the basis of racial background.
Social Issues in the “In Plain Sight” Art Project The artists from the In Plain Sight project are united by the goal of raising public awareness about causes such as immigrant detention and the US culture of incarceration.
Immigration: Social Issue Feeling Analysis From the global perspective, the most influencing countries in the world use visa and other conditions of entering the country as a migration regulating tool.
International Social Welfare Issue Analysis That is why it is very important for social workers and all socially conscious people to promote the ideas of social welfare and make people understand why it matters. To conclude, the issue of social […]
Modern Healthcare Aspects in the United States: Managing Historical and Social Issues Today, the system is trying to manage various issues such as malnutrition among older adults that is increasing, the role of nurses and the importance of their diversity, and the growing costs of the services.
Whistleblowing as a Social Issue in the Workplace The only hindrance to whistleblowing in society or the public is the authenticity of the information and how it will be received generally.
Management of Obesity and Social Issues That Emerge With Its Development The article by Omole focuses on recent shift in the management of obesity and the social issues that emerge with its development, namely, the culture of fat-shaming, by considering some of the alternatives toward evaluating […]
Key Social Issues Affecting Criminal Justice Professionals The absence of a decline in this percentage suggests that the criminal justice system has not been effective in addressing this issue. The criminal justice system has failed to decrease crime rates due to the […]
Police Brutality: Social Issue This paper explores the issue of police brutality and seeks to shed light on the perceptions of the public, especially the black minority.
Domestic Terrorism: A Comparative Analysis with Hate Crimes In my opinion, people could be driven by some factors or they could be conditioned throughout their lives to engage in domestic terrorism. They may also say that they feel unrecognized in the management of […]
Global Digital Divide as a Social Issue That is, if societies around the globe are able to bridge the gap between those who have and those who do not in relation to information technology, then the development problems would be minimized at […]
J.A. McPherson and G.G. Marquez Novel’s: Urgent Social Issues The black waiter Doc and the Colonel are forced to live in a cruel world and adapt to the dominant system.
Should Drugs Be a Health, Social Issue or a Legal, Criminal Issue? They are classified depending on the mode of action and the response induced in the body. In order to get information from the participants the following questions will be asked: What drug do you use?
Professors and Their Views on Political or Social Issues in the Classroom He analyzes the statement issued by the American Association of University Professors’ Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure, “Freedom in the Classroom,” which he says seems to defend professors against attacks by the right […]
Social Issues in Kuwait: Immigration Workforce Among the frequently highlighted issues in the country, one is the low productivity among the local workforce due to the high influence of favoritism and nepotism in promotions and merits.
S. Hay’s and Feagin’s Works on Social Issues The work of the Sharon Hay’s “Flat Broke with Children” was assembled in a milieu characterised by the decline of the widely hailed welfare reform policies which had seen the diminishing of welfare rolls from […]
Should Professors Be Allowed to Advocate Their Views on Political or Social Issues in the Classroom? In the recent past, professors have been accused of several faults, and it was because of these faults that it was deemed necessary to put a cap on the extent to which professors can excise […]
Marriage and Family Problems as Social Issues Sociology as a discipline has an extremely wide range of interests and it is next to impossible even to enumerate them, however the issue that has always been of the utmost importance for the sociological […]
Social Stratification Issues Solving If that is not the case, we meet different forms of institutional discrimination which can take different forms such as discrimination of children, gender discrimination, race and class discrimination.
Social Issues in Business I see housing as business and as quoted “business involves the exchange of services for money, making money, and dealing with other people’s needs and demands” in the book ‘A better way to think about […]
Social Inequality Issue Analysis Thesis Social inequality is a system and systematic worked as the framework of society and its functionality. What is acknowledged to be a hierarchical social structure are essentially confined to the primary units of economic […]
Gender Pay Gap as a Multifaceted Social Issue The gender pay gap is defined as the average gross hourly earnings of men and women who are working. Secondly, political and economic causes and outcomes of the issue have to be considered.
Identity and Social Class Issue A social class provides the child with a sense of identity, a set of values, and the motivational base for his later actions, while the school provides him with the knowledge and skills necessary to […]
Domestic Violence as a Social Issue It is one of the main factors which stimulate the study’s conduction, and among the rest, one can also mention the number of unexplored violence questions yet to be answered.
Masculinity as a Social Norms Issue However, the advancements that occurred with the rise of the LGBT movement and the empowerment of women now challenge established ideas.
Pollution as a Social Issue and Mass Media’s Role The reason why plastic pollution gained traction only during the 21st century is directly connected to the invention of the Internet and the technological advances in electronics.
Community Psychology in Addressing Social Issues Based on the lecture, we learned about the disparity between the rich and the poor, a domain that is associated with marginalization and stigmatization.
Social Issues in Education: Applying Theory In the year 2000, the Ministry of Education banned any form of corporal punishment in all schools in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Social Issues of the Immigration Journal The authors studied the impacts of multiculturalism of the period 1980s to 1990s on institutional forms of immigrants in the Netherlands.
Social Issues in Karl Marx’s Letter to John Mayer In your letter, it seems that those in power do not listen to you and your generation. This is one sure way of attaining power that is vital for you and your generation to change […]
Social Issues in McMinden, Fictional Town The concepts of social stratification, division of labor, and social distance discussed in the essay appear to be connected by cause-and-effect relation.
Socialist vs. Capitalist Approach to Social Issues Capitalism also refers to a system where the economy is independent of the state. In a Socialist economy, the intellectual property belongs to the government.
Policy Changes and Social Issues The second step within the model is associated with the political stream, in which the previously identified problem is reviewed between communities of policy experts who possess knowledge of the problem.
Rhetoric: Social Issues’ Influences on US Children Such an approach does not allow the readers to be 100% sure that this information is true to life and makes the statement rather weak.
Economic and Social Issues in Japan The events of March 11 contributed to widespread changes in the Japanese society and government. In the midst of the March 11 disaster, a political reformation occurred.
Social Issues in “Born into Brothels” Film It is possible to apply the feminist theory to consider a family featured in the film. In Shanti’s family, this is also the case, and her mother is afraid of her daughter’s future as the […]
Alcoholism as a Social Issue and Its Effect on Families Such children tend to think that they are the causes of the problem, which would end up affecting them psychologically. Since children are not helped to get out of the horrifying scenarios, they end up […]
Workplace Gender Bias: Social Injustice Issues Such situations make companies to classify its workforce based on the class systems17 that involve a consideration of the individual’s achievement and performance at the workplace.
Social Issues in “Too Young to Wed” by Cynthia Gorney In the case of 10-year-old Ayesha who was married off to a 50-year old, the women in the family tried to stop the marriage.
The Social Cost Issue The concept of “social cost” is applied in the economic analysis and estimation of most impacts. The writer observes the economic implications of such impacts on the social realm.
Public Policies Addressing Social Issues in the USA The best form of policy that the US government uses to control lead poisoning in children is the increased awareness to prevent the use of lead in household paints.
Social Issues in Self Help in Hard Times by Zinn The following are the main points from the chapter 15 of the Self Help in Hard Times book that were determined as Zinn’s main points of interest: The first main point of Zinn in this […]
Social Issues in the “Leaving the Streets: Stories of Canadian Youth” The authors of the book are inclined to support the idea that to exit the street life successfully, the street youth should become oriented to the principles of the street disengagement and to breaking all […]
Natural Disasters and Global Social Issues The hurricane led to a major shift in the social arrangement of the populations in the worst affected areas. This led to a significant loss of jobs in the affected areas.
US Public Policies Social Issues In view of this, the article is useful since it provides readers with brief and structured information regarding the differences that The Affordable Care Act makes.
Social Issues of Genital Cosmetic Surgery for Women The labia minora is the main target, and it aims at reducing the size of these lips to avoid protruding beyond the labia majora.
Single Mothers’ Social Issues The little consideration given to single women living in poverty distorts the women and their families. The single mothers who have a heavy burden of caring for their children need help from the government.
Intercollegiate Sports: Social and Cultural Issues A primary goal of this essay is to evaluate the impact of social and cultural issues on the ability to handle stress in the future while being a contestant of one of the intercollegiate sports.
Social Issue of Sexual Assault: Definition and Forms Sometimes it’s not only the ordinary people that are in the dark, even the most important figures that are seen as the role models to the society happen to be in the dark about some […]
Social Issues: Monogamy in Our Life This sort of relations is considered to be the only legal type of bond in the majority of states all over the world.
Social Issues: Abortions Prohibition With this in mind, it is possible to say that the question of abortion is a very keen issue which sets the table for a great number of different debates. However, it is said that […]
Social Issues: Levels of Conversation Impact The results of a conversation depending on the levels of communication between the parties that are involved. In this level of conversation, a self-fulfilling relationship may be developed particularly if the people involved in the […]
Social Issues: Equity Among the African Demographics Combined with the problem of poverty and lack of educational resources, it takes a truly monstrous scale, affecting not only the lives of women in a number of regions of Africa, but also the entire […]
Social Issues: Science Versus Indigenous Ways of Living The opinion of science seems to have become the only credible source of knowledge in a contemporary world, and for a good reason with the recent technological breakthrough and the advent of the era of […]
Social Issues: “A critical Mess” by Scott Rowan In his argument, Rowan, the president of Sherpa Multimedia, explains the pains and frustrations that the Chicago community undergoes when the cyclists take to the streets demonstrating their riding skills and claiming that it is […]
Social Issues: Child Observation in Khalifa Park It was noticed that there was a marked difference in the games boys and girls play and their reactions to winning and losing the games.
Social Issues: Urban Livability and Sustainability In achieving this choice in the United States, for instance, the Federal and State governments should allocate resources according to the development index of the cities in the continent.
Social Issues: Non-Mainstream Body Modification The rise of many art styles and body modifiers, the increase in tattoo parlors dealing in non-mainstream art, and the emergence of websites, books, and magazines containing body art practices led to the rise of […]
Social Issues: Ethnicity-based Jury Nullification This was because most of the jurists were whites, and they believed that whites had the freedom to treat other races the way they pleased.
Social Issues: Hollywood Effects on Suburban Families The actions of the people who lived in the suburbs were largely influenced by the media. On the other hand, the suburban male was the provider and the protector of the house.
The Discussion of WikiLeaks as a Social Issue The circulation of information on the Internet with the help of the media is the characteristic feature of the developing globalization.
Social Issues: Demographic Transition Definition Phase two is considered to be the foundation of demographic transition, where there is a quick decrease in the mortality rate.
Social Issues: Corporal Punishment To begin with, people that support corporal punishment say they do so because they believe that a child needs spanking to learn a discipline.
Social Issues: Teen Pregnancy Lastly, there are no good role models to teach children the importance of abstinence, and this has led them to believe that they should engage in premarital sex to become famous.
Social Issues: Police Protection of the Ku Klux Klan The situation when the police protected the Ku Klux Klan while gassing and arresting the demonstrators can seem to be unexpected and controversial because people are often inclined to associate the Ku Klux Klan with […]
Social Issues: Rites and Ceremonies in People Life The life of a person as the member of the group or community is associated with definite rites and ceremonies which are followed to respond to the traditions, and cultural values developed during the centuries […]
Social Issues: Leisure Lifestyle Erickson confirmed through research that leisure activities originate from the mind, and an individual is motivated to engage in it whenever he or she feels that it would be beneficial.
Social Issues: The Art of Living in Solitude The status of a single person is part and parcel of the modern reality for an increasingly large number of people and at the same time the major cause for psychological and social problems for […]
Social Issues of Human Behavior: Nature and Nurture On the other hand, the nurture view asserts that behaviors are developed and persist according to the upbringing and the environment the individual grows up in.
Social Issues: Appropriateness of Affirmative Action Affirmative action in the sphere of education can be discussed as the appropriate approach to evaluate the admissions of college students because it can guarantee the equal access to the limited educational resources for students […]
Social Issues: Gentrification in Harlem Thus, gentrification in Harlem during the period of 2000-2012 is characterized by changes in the community’s demographics, household income, and economy connected with the arrival of wealthier residents, increased investment, promoted economic and business activities, […]
Social Issues: How Identities are Constructed? In modern times, many people identify themselves with their countries of birth, and this makes them eligible for citizenship rights and other social and economic privileges that are offered by their countries.
Social Issues: Game Theory in Daily Life In effect, game theory can be said to be a basis for making rational decisions whereby the given decisions create impacts on the decision making the ability of other entities in the group, while also […]
Social Issues: Common Sense and Intuition One of the most noteworthy ideas in the book was the suggestion that, in as much as people try to act or say otherwise, from a subconscious point of view, the majority is actually practicing […]
Social Issues: Gender Segregation The Code recognizes the “inherent dignity and worth of every person and to provide for equal rights and opportunities without discrimination”.
Social Issues in the Book “The Academic Illusion” by Ken Robinson In the introductory part of the article, the author focuses on how intelligence is measured. In the last part of the article, the author persuades human beings to change how they perceive education.
Social Issues: Property Ownership White views nature from a different standpoint to Forster’s; while he appreciates nature and the serenity of the place, Forster view of his wood is in terms of monetary value.
Social Issues: Alcoholism as a Mode of Addiction Every single case of alcoholic dependence described in the lecture is perfectly consistent with the existing model, each piece of evidence falling into its place and, therefore, allowing the audience to have an entire picture […]
Social Issues: Challenges Facing Young Immigrants It is against this backdrop that this essay seeks to explore the challenges facing young immigrants in the United States and the proactive measures that can be taken to rescue this vulnerable group in transiting […]
Social Issues: the Freak Shows Popularity This appetite is what drives freak show organizers to find persons with severe deformities to satisfy the curiosity of the public.
Social Issues: Muslim Immigrants in the UK Since the study aims at exploring Muslim immigrants in the UK, it will focus on the struggles of Muslim immigrants in the UK, the policies the UK government uses towards Muslim immigrants, and terrorism challenges […]
Social Issues: Freak Shows The shows gave audiences something they craved, and the audiences gladly paid the organizers for putting up the shows. The second reason for the popularity of freak shows is the financial returns associated with the […]
Immigration as Social Issue in Australia The research will explore the element of trans-nationalism that is likely to be the case with most of these immigrants and its impacts on their continued stay in Australia.
Native Americans: Social Issue In addition, the references of the natives by the mainstream society have led to the under development and have prevented the evolution of the Indian Americans.
Sufficient Justifications of the Legitimacy of Religious Positions on Social Issues Beale points towards the spiritual, historical and divine origins of the bible and utilizes this as the reinforcing factors behind his belief in the bible’s inerrancy and infallibility.
Social Issue: Concepts of Sociological Imagination and Sociological Perspectives Sociology is a subject that offers insight into behavior of individuals and groups of people in a society and its scope covers established relationships between people in a society, the effects of such relationships on […]
White Privilege Social Issue Due to subtle nature of the racism in the modern society, the whites perceive it as just a social factor that differentiate people into privileged and unprivileged classes in the society.
Social and Political Issues The military has been used by the corporations and the wealthy individuals to protect the interests of the nation, which are actually the interests of the corporations and the wealthy.
Social Issues in the “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee The phrase ‘to kill a mocking bird’ stands out as a metaphor in the book To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Gandhi’s contribution towards contemporary social issues Gandhi appreciates the existence of difference in the name of God amongst the Muslims, Hindus and Christians. In order for the concept of non-violence to be applicable, Gandhi is of the opinion that it is […]
Why Is It Important to Address Social Issues in the Classroom?
What Is a Social Issue Example?
What Are the Basic Social Issues?
What Is the Biggest Issue in the World Today?
Is Poverty a Social Issue?
Is Depression a Social Issue?
How Many Social Issues Are There?
Is Stress a Social Problem?
Is Mental Illness a Social Issue?
Is Social Anxiety a Social Issue?
What Are the Four Types of Social Problems?
What Is an Interesting Social Issue?
How Do You Talk About Social Issues?
Why Do We Need to Learn Social Issues?
What Is the Most Common Social Issue?
How Does Social Issues Affect Society?
What Social Issues Are Not Talked About?
What Are the Main Causes of Social Issues?
Is Mental Health a Social Issue?
What Is the Conclusion of Social Issues?
What Are the Current Social Issue?
How Do Social Issues Affect Students?
How Do Social Issues Affect Development?
What Will Happen if the Social Issues Are Not Controlled on Time?
Why Are Social Issues Difficult?
Why Should Social Issues Be Solved Socially?
Bullying Research Topics
Censorship Essay Ideas
Transgender Paper Topics
Illegal Immigration Topics
LGBT Essay Topics
Suicide Topics
Gun Control Titles
Crime Ideas
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Using Psychology to Address Social Problems

Dr. wolff and dr. glassgold speak on psychology's problem solving ability..

Posted October 24, 2020

Psychology affects every aspect of our lives. How can we use this on an individual, communal, and structural level to address social problems?

Joshua R. Wolff , Ph.D. (he/him) is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology (Psy.D. Program) at Adler University in Chicago, IL. Dr. Wolff co-chairs the APA Division 44 (Society for the Psychology of Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity) Subcommittee on Higher Education Accreditation & Policy. Dr. Wolff’s research and publications center on the experiences of LGBTQ+ students in religious university settings, higher education policy, and social determinants of health.

Judith Glassgold, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist and an expert in applying psychology to problems of public policy, focused on mental health. She is a consultant to national civil rights organizations on legislative efforts to improve mental health at the federal, state, and local levels. She is a part-time lecturer at Rutgers University Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology.

Jamie Aten: How would you personally define psychological training pathways?

Joshua Wolff and Judith Glassgold : Professional psychology spans multiple settings and serves very diverse groups of people. Thus, psychological training must also be diverse and give students the training they need for multiple career pathways. Professional psychology needs to expand opportunities for students to go beyond traditional health settings. This means that we need to think broadly about where our students get 'real world' experience — not just in traditional settings (e.g., hospitals, university research labs), but in settings and domains that haven’t been as well explored or may still be underutilized.

Examples that come to mind include forensic settings (jails, prisons), community non-profit organizations, government agencies, K-12 schools, workplace, military and veterans, and early childhood centers. Training also needs to span teaching our students how to communicate beyond academic and medical settings, but also with mainstream media, politicians, and the public.

JA: What are some ways these expanded opportunities can help us live more resiliently?

JW and JG : Psychology affects every aspect of our lives — the ways we make decisions, our motivation , how we feel, how we connect to other people, what types of job responsibilities we enjoy, etc. Thus, psychologists can be useful and improve a person’s quality of life in almost any setting.

We need to think about this on an individual level (e.g., how do we help the person who comes to my office for mental health treatment?), on a community level (e.g., how do we encourage everyone in my city or state to prevent the spread of COVID-19 ?) and structural level (what policies encourage or reduce health and wellbeing?). This means that psychological research needs to think in innovative ways to address social problems that build resiliency in a broad range of settings.

We also need to be better at quickly sharing the results of our research so that the data is useful to the people and communities that might benefit from it the most.

JA: What are some ways people can influence psychological policy?

JW and JG : We find it exciting that there are lots of ways to influence policy! For example, this can be at the institutional level where you advocate for changes to your curriculum or learning. I have seen students get engaged by running for their Student Government Association and making a big impact in their college or graduate school program. This can also be at the systems and structural level — this might include sending an elected official an email about a topic you care about, attending a town hall, joining efforts within professional associations, meeting in person with elected officials or their staff, seeking employment in government or media, and running for office.

There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach – thus, advocacy is diverse, and everyone can engage in different ways. One tip though is ‘don’t go it alone’ (i.e., find other people who share your interests and want to influence policy together).

JA: Any advice for how we might use this knowledge to support a friend or loved one struggling with a difficult life situation?

JW and JG : There are several recent studies that demonstrate that many individuals are struggling, especially those grieving the loss of friends and families, individuals from ethnic minority communities, and essential workers, College and graduate students are experiencing a lot more stress and worry right now due to the COVID-19 pandemic as important life transitions are disrupted. This includes financial stress, worry about loved ones, and social isolation due to remote learning. Thus, I try to remind individuals that it is ‘normal’ to feel discouraged, down, or different right now. I want to keep reminding them that they are not alone in feeling this way because so many of us are in the same boat together.

One option is to stay connected through virtual resources that focus on wellness. Many health insurance companies, state and local governments, clinics, and non-profits are now offering free or low-cost mental health and substance use care for virtual, and telehealth sessions. Now is a great time to speak with a mental health professional to get extra support if that is something you have been thinking about or may need (though always check with your insurance first, since plans and coverage can vary widely!).

JA: What are you currently working on that you might like to share about?

JW : I recently co-authored a report on the impact of COVID-19 on psychology training and education. We sampled a diverse group of leaders within Divisions, affiliates, and a committee of the American Psychological Association (APA). I’m really proud of the Report because people shared some very important concerns, and also identified ways that we can advocate and better support students. You can obtain a free copy of the Report here .

JG : My academic institution committed itself to focusing on social justice during the 2020-2021 academic year. I have made my course relevant to the stresses and issues that we are currently facing in society. For example, my mental health policy class includes material relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic and health equity. I focus on the important research on social determinants of health that can build resilience , slow the pandemic through proactive behavior change, reduce discrimination , and increase equitable policies. Graduate students seem engaged in making a positive difference in areas as diverse as increasing resources for people with neurodiversity , reducing institutional violence, support for immigrants, children’s mental health during the pandemic, and equitable school policies.

Glassgold, J.M. ,& Wolff, J.R (2020). Expanding Psychology Training Pathways for Public Policy Preparedness Across the Professional Lifespan. American Psychologist, 75(7), 933-944. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/amp0000696

Jamie Aten , Ph.D. , is the founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College.

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Social problem-solving might also be called ‘ problem-solving in real life ’. In other words, it is a rather academic way of describing the systems and processes that we use to solve the problems that we encounter in our everyday lives.

The word ‘ social ’ does not mean that it only applies to problems that we solve with other people, or, indeed, those that we feel are caused by others. The word is simply used to indicate the ‘ real life ’ nature of the problems, and the way that we approach them.

Social problem-solving is generally considered to apply to four different types of problems:

Impersonal problems, for example, shortage of money;
Personal problems, for example, emotional or health problems;
Interpersonal problems, such as disagreements with other people; and
Community and wider societal problems, such as litter or crime rate.

A Model of Social Problem-Solving

One of the main models used in academic studies of social problem-solving was put forward by a group led by Thomas D’Zurilla.

This model includes three basic concepts or elements:

Problem-solving

This is defined as the process used by an individual, pair or group to find an effective solution for a particular problem. It is a self-directed process, meaning simply that the individual or group does not have anyone telling them what to do. Parts of this process include generating lots of possible solutions and selecting the best from among them.

A problem is defined as any situation or task that needs some kind of a response if it is to be managed effectively, but to which no obvious response is available. The demands may be external, from the environment, or internal.

A solution is a response or coping mechanism which is specific to the problem or situation. It is the outcome of the problem-solving process.

Once a solution has been identified, it must then be implemented. D’Zurilla’s model distinguishes between problem-solving (the process that identifies a solution) and solution implementation (the process of putting that solution into practice), and notes that the skills required for the two are not necessarily the same. It also distinguishes between two parts of the problem-solving process: problem orientation and actual problem-solving.

Problem Orientation

Problem orientation is the way that people approach problems, and how they set them into the context of their existing knowledge and ways of looking at the world.

Each of us will see problems in a different way, depending on our experience and skills, and this orientation is key to working out which skills we will need to use to solve the problem.

An Example of Orientation

Most people, on seeing a spout of water coming from a loose joint between a tap and a pipe, will probably reach first for a cloth to put round the joint to catch the water, and then a phone, employing their research skills to find a plumber.

A plumber, however, or someone with some experience of plumbing, is more likely to reach for tools to mend the joint and fix the leak. It’s all a question of orientation.

Problem-Solving

Problem-solving includes four key skills:

Defining the problem,
Coming up with alternative solutions,
Making a decision about which solution to use, and
Implementing that solution.

Based on this split between orientation and problem-solving, D’Zurilla and colleagues defined two scales to measure both abilities.

They defined two orientation dimensions, positive and negative, and three problem-solving styles, rational, impulsive/careless and avoidance.

They noted that people who were good at orientation were not necessarily good at problem-solving and vice versa, although the two might also go together.

It will probably be obvious from these descriptions that the researchers viewed positive orientation and rational problem-solving as functional behaviours, and defined all the others as dysfunctional, leading to psychological distress.

The skills required for positive problem orientation are:

Being able to see problems as ‘challenges’, or opportunities to gain something, rather than insurmountable difficulties at which it is only possible to fail.

For more about this, see our page on The Importance of Mindset ;

Believing that problems are solvable. While this, too, may be considered an aspect of mindset, it is also important to use techniques of Positive Thinking ;

Believing that you personally are able to solve problems successfully, which is at least in part an aspect of self-confidence.

See our page on Building Confidence for more;

Understanding that solving problems successfully will take time and effort, which may require a certain amount of resilience ; and

Motivating yourself to solve problems immediately, rather than putting them off.

See our pages on Self-Motivation and Time Management for more.

Those who find it harder to develop positive problem orientation tend to view problems as insurmountable obstacles, or a threat to their well-being, doubt their own abilities to solve problems, and become frustrated or upset when they encounter problems.

The skills required for rational problem-solving include:

The ability to gather information and facts, through research. There is more about this on our page on defining and identifying problems ;

The ability to set suitable problem-solving goals. You may find our page on personal goal-setting helpful;

The application of rational thinking to generate possible solutions. You may find some of the ideas on our Creative Thinking page helpful, as well as those on investigating ideas and solutions ;

Good decision-making skills to decide which solution is best. See our page on Decision-Making for more; and

Implementation skills, which include the ability to plan, organise and do. You may find our pages on Action Planning , Project Management and Solution Implementation helpful.

There is more about the rational problem-solving process on our page on Problem-Solving .

Potential Difficulties

Those who struggle to manage rational problem-solving tend to either:

Rush things without thinking them through properly (the impulsive/careless approach), or
Avoid them through procrastination, ignoring the problem, or trying to persuade someone else to solve the problem (the avoidance mode).

This ‘ avoidance ’ is not the same as actively and appropriately delegating to someone with the necessary skills (see our page on Delegation Skills for more).

Instead, it is simple ‘buck-passing’, usually characterised by a lack of selection of anyone with the appropriate skills, and/or an attempt to avoid responsibility for the problem.

An Academic Term for a Human Process?

You may be thinking that social problem-solving, and the model described here, sounds like an academic attempt to define very normal human processes. This is probably not an unreasonable summary.

However, breaking a complex process down in this way not only helps academics to study it, but also helps us to develop our skills in a more targeted way. By considering each element of the process separately, we can focus on those that we find most difficult: maximum ‘bang for your buck’, as it were.

Continue to: Decision Making Creative Problem-Solving

See also: What is Empathy? Social Skills

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✍️Essay on Social Issues: Samples for 8th, 10th, 12th Class Students

Updated on
Nov 2, 2023

From domestic violence to community discrimination, social issues have become a critical aspect of the contemporary world, which not only hampers the development of a particular region or community but also the entire nation and its credible image. Writing an essay on social issues will give you a broader picture of this multifaceted concept whose boundaries are not limited to our homes or communities. Below we have discussed some essays on social issues for students at different levels.

Table of Contents

1 Essay on Social Issues for 8th Class
2 Essay on Social Issues for 10th Class
3 Essay on Social Issue for 12th Class

Essay on Social Issues for 8th Class

Social issues like poverty, inequality, human rights violations, etc. represent some of the most challenging obstacles facing humanity today. These are complex problems that require collective action and a holistic approach to achieve satisfying and sustainable solutions.

One of the most common examples of social issues at the school level is bullying. There are several types of bullying ; physical, social, verbal and cyber. The consequences of any of these immoral behaviours can lead to emotional distress, low self-esteem, and even long-term psychological trauma. This is just one of the many examples of social issues which we encounter regularly.

We must understand the effects of bullying and collectively work to fight against this harmful behaviour. Here are some more examples of social issues:

Mental health issues like anxiety, stress and distress.
Environmental awareness about harmful human activities.
Peer pressure leads to engagement in harmful and risky behaviour.

To overcome these and other social challenges, collective efforts with a holistic approach are necessary, where everyone can work together to create a safe and inclusive environment.

Also Read: The Importance of Emotional Well-Being and Mental Health in Academic Success

Essay on Social Issues for 10th Class

High school in India is known as the 10th class, in which students become more aware of the challenges facing society and how these can affect their personal development and the people surrounding them. From issues like bullying to environmental problems, social issues encompass various forms and negatively affect our society.

One of the most popular social issues these days is environmental pollution, such as air, noise, water, soil, etc. Thanks to harmful human activities like industrialization, deforestation, and overuse of natural resources and conventional sources of energy, our environmental health is degrading at an unprecedented rate.
Vehicular emissions, industrial activities, and the burning of fossil fuels contribute significantly to air pollution, cause air pollution and deteriorate the quality of the air we breathe.
The releasing of industrial waste, agricultural runoff, and improper waste disposal, not only contaminates water bodies but also jeopardizes marine life and human health.
The soil on which we produce our food is contaminated by the use of pesticides, industrial waste, and improper disposal of hazardous materials, and also causes adverse effects on agricultural productivity and biodiversity.

Issues like environmental pollution cannot be solved overnight. To combat environmental pollution, every individual, community and government must consider it as a moral responsibility, where both ecological and economic practices are adopted. Some of the practices to improve environmental health are water conservation, using non-conventional energy sources, recycling, reducing energy consumption, etc.

Essay on Social Issue for 12th Class

Economic inequality, racial abuse, environmental degradation, cyberbullying, human rights violations, etc. are some of the classic examples of social issues. The effects of social issues are not limited to the person facing them, as they can take different shapes. Here are some of the common social issues challenging our society as a whole.

Gender-based violence

This includes domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, and exploring strategies for preventing violence and supporting survivors. To solve this social issue, we need to promote education and raise awareness about gender equality, healthy relationships, and the importance of consent from an early age.

Global Health Disparities

The unequal access to healthcare services in different regions and communities gives rise to global health disparities. To address this issue, we need to increase access to quality healthcare services, such as primary care, vaccinations, maternal and child health services, and essential medicines, especially in underserved and remote areas.

Social Media and Mental Health

These days, most of us are active on social media and are connected to it directly or indirectly. A lot of people face traumatizing experiences because of cyberbullying, social comparison, fear of missing out, privacy concerns, etc. To face such modern challenges, we need to implement educational programs for digital well-being and promote alternative options, such as group discussions, physical activities, etc. We must foster positive and supportive online communities that promote kindness and empathy.

Political Polarization

The diverging attitude of politics, its beliefs and behaviours between individuals or groups can have far-reaching effects on society, influencing various aspects of civic life and community well-being. Political polarization can lead to dilemmas and can hamper the functioning of a society or country as a whole. We need to promote platforms and encourage civil discourse to facilitate open dialogue, active listening, and the exchange of diverse perspectives to encourage mutual understanding and empathy.

Social issues are those problems which affect an individual and society at the same time. Social issues can take any form, from domestic violence to hate crime, gambling or any illicit and illegal activity.

To deal with social issues, we need to implement a holistic approach with collective efforts from everyone, where our goal must be to eradicate a particular social problem. Social issues can be addressed by raising awareness and educating people about them, establishing social support systems and safety nets, and promoting inclusive and equitable practices, etc.

To write an essay on social issues, you need to highlight what social issue means, what are their causes and consequences, and how to address them to achieve sustainable development. You can provide step-by-step information, where different social issues are highlighted with modern solutions.

For more information on such informative topics, visit our essay writing page and follow Leverage Edu .

Shiva Tyagi

With an experience of over a year, I've developed a passion for writing blogs on wide range of topics. I am mostly inspired from topics related to social and environmental fields, where you come up with a positive outcome.

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1.2 Sociological Perspectives on Social Problems

Learning objectives.

Define the sociological imagination.
Explain what is meant by the blaming-the-victim belief.
Summarize the most important beliefs and assumptions of functionalism and conflict theory.
Summarize the most important beliefs and assumptions of symbolic interactionism and exchange theory.

The sociological understanding of social problems rests heavily on the concept of the sociological imagination . We discuss this concept in some detail before turning to various theoretical perspectives that provide a further context for understanding social problems.

The Sociological Imagination

Many individuals experience one or more social problems personally. For example, many people are poor and unemployed, many are in poor health, and many have family problems, drink too much alcohol, or commit crime. When we hear about these individuals, it is easy to think that their problems are theirs alone, and that they and other individuals with the same problems are entirely to blame for their difficulties.

Sociology takes a different approach, as it stresses that individual problems are often rooted in problems stemming from aspects of society itself. This key insight informed C. Wright Mills’s (1959) (Mills, 1959) classic distinction between personal troubles and public issues . Personal troubles refer to a problem affecting individuals that the affected individual, as well as other members of society, typically blame on the individual’s own personal and moral failings. Examples include such different problems as eating disorders, divorce, and unemployment. Public issues , whose source lies in the social structure and culture of a society, refer to social problems affecting many individuals. Problems in society thus help account for problems that individuals experience. Mills felt that many problems ordinarily considered private troubles are best understood as public issues, and he coined the term sociological imagination to refer to the ability to appreciate the structural basis for individual problems.

To illustrate Mills’s viewpoint, let’s use our sociological imaginations to understand some contemporary social problems. We will start with unemployment, which Mills himself discussed. If only a few people were unemployed, Mills wrote, we could reasonably explain their unemployment by saying they were lazy, lacked good work habits, and so forth. If so, their unemployment would be their own personal trouble. But when millions of people are out of work, unemployment is best understood as a public issue because, as Mills (Mills, 1959) put it, “the very structure of opportunities has collapsed. Both the correct statement of the problem and the range of possible solutions require us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society, and not merely the personal situation and character of a scatter of individuals.”

When only a few people are out of work, it is fair to say that their unemployment is their personal trouble. However, when millions of people are out of work, as has been true since the economic downturn began in 2008, this massive unemployment is more accurately viewed as a public issue. As such, its causes lie not in the unemployed individuals but rather in our society’s economic and social systems.

Rawle C. Jackman – The line of hope… – CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

The high US unemployment rate stemming from the severe economic downturn that began in 2008 provides a telling example of the point Mills was making. Millions of people lost their jobs through no fault of their own. While some individuals are undoubtedly unemployed because they are lazy or lack good work habits, a more structural explanation focusing on lack of opportunity is needed to explain why so many people were out of work. If so, unemployment is best understood as a public issue rather than a personal trouble.

Another social problem is eating disorders. We usually consider a person’s eating disorder to be a personal trouble that stems from a lack of control, low self-esteem, or another personal problem. This explanation may be OK as far as it goes, but it does not help us understand why so many people have the personal problems that lead to eating disorders. Perhaps more important, this belief also neglects the larger social and cultural forces that help explain such disorders. For example, most Americans with eating disorders are women, not men. This gender difference forces us to ask what it is about being a woman in American society that makes eating disorders so much more common. To begin to answer this question, we need to look to the standard of beauty for women that emphasizes a slender body (Boyd, et. al., 2011). If this cultural standard did not exist, far fewer American women would suffer from eating disorders than do now. Because it does exist, even if every girl and woman with an eating disorder were cured, others would take their places unless we could somehow change this standard. Viewed in this way, eating disorders are best understood as a public issue, not just as a personal trouble.

Picking up on Mills’s insights, William Ryan (1976) (Ryan, 1976) pointed out that Americans typically think that social problems such as poverty and unemployment stem from personal failings of the people experiencing these problems, not from structural problems in the larger society. Using Mills’s terms, Americans tend to think of social problems as personal troubles rather than public issues. As Ryan put it, they tend to believe in blaming the victim rather than blaming the system .

To help us understand a blaming-the-victim ideology, let’s consider why poor children in urban areas often learn very little in their schools. According to Ryan, a blaming-the-victim approach would say the children’s parents do not care about their learning, fail to teach them good study habits, and do not encourage them to take school seriously. This type of explanation, he wrote, may apply to some parents, but it ignores a much more important reason: the sad shape of America’s urban schools, which, he said, are overcrowded, decrepit structures housing old textbooks and out-of-date equipment. To improve the schooling of children in urban areas, he wrote, we must improve the schools themselves and not just try to “improve” the parents.

As this example suggests, a blaming-the-victim approach points to solutions to social problems such as poverty and illiteracy that are very different from those suggested by a more structural approach that blames the system. If we blame the victim, we would spend our limited dollars to address the personal failings of individuals who suffer from poverty, illiteracy, poor health, eating disorders, and other difficulties. If instead we blame the system, we would focus our attention on the various social conditions (decrepit schools, cultural standards of female beauty, and the like) that account for these difficulties. A sociological understanding suggests that the latter approach is ultimately needed to help us deal successfully with the social problems facing us today.

Theoretical Perspectives

Three theoretical perspectives guide sociological thinking on social problems: functionalist theory, conflict theory, and symbolic interactionist theory. These perspectives look at the same social problems, but they do so in different ways. Their views taken together offer a fuller understanding of social problems than any of the views can offer alone. Table 1.1 “Theory Snapshot” summarizes the three perspectives.

Table 1.1 Theory Snapshot

Functionalism

Functionalism , also known as the functionalist theory or perspective, arose out of two great revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The first was the French Revolution of 1789, whose intense violence and bloody terror shook Europe to its core. The aristocracy throughout Europe feared that revolution would spread to their own lands, and intellectuals feared that social order was crumbling.

The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century reinforced these concerns. Starting first in Europe and then in the United States, the Industrial Revolution led to many changes, including the rise and growth of cities as people left their farms to live near factories. As the cities grew, people lived in increasingly poor, crowded, and decrepit conditions, and crime was rampant. Here was additional evidence, if European intellectuals needed it, of the breakdown of social order.

In response, the intellectuals began to write that a strong society, as exemplified by strong social bonds and rules and effective socialization, was needed to prevent social order from disintegrating. Without a strong society and effective socialization, they warned, social order breaks down, and violence and other signs of social disorder result.

This general framework reached fruition in the writings of Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), a French scholar largely responsible for the sociological perspective, as we now know it. Adopting the conservative intellectuals’ view of the need for a strong society, Durkheim felt that human beings have desires that result in chaos unless society limits them (Durkheim, 1952). It does so, he wrote, through two related social mechanisms: socialization and social integration. Socialization helps us learn society’s rules and the need to cooperate, as people end up generally agreeing on important norms and values, while social integration, or our ties to other people and to social institutions such as religion and the family, helps socialize us and integrate us into society and reinforce our respect for its rules.

Today’s functionalist perspective arises out of Durkheim’s work and that of other conservative intellectuals of the nineteenth century. It uses the human body as a model for understanding society. In the human body, our various organs and other body parts serve important functions for the ongoing health and stability of our body. Our eyes help us see, our ears help us hear, our heart circulates our blood, and so forth. Just as we can understand the body by describing and understanding the functions that its parts serve for its health and stability, so can we understand society by describing and understanding the functions that its parts—or, more accurately, its social institutions—serve for the ongoing health and stability of society. Thus functionalism emphasizes the importance of social institutions such as the family, religion, and education for producing a stable society.

Émile Durkheim was a founder of sociology and is largely credited with developing the functionalist perspective.

Marxists.org – public domain.

Similar to the view of the conservative intellectuals from which it grew, functionalism is skeptical of rapid social change and other major social upheaval. The analogy to the human body helps us understand this skepticism. In our bodies, any sudden, rapid change is a sign of danger to our health. If we break a bone in one of our legs, we have trouble walking; if we lose sight in both our eyes, we can no longer see. Slow changes, such as the growth of our hair and our nails, are fine and even normal, but sudden changes like those just described are obviously troublesome. By analogy, sudden and rapid changes in society and its social institutions are troublesome according to the functionalist perspective. If the human body evolved to its present form and functions because these made sense from an evolutionary perspective, so did society evolve to its present form and functions because these made sense. Any sudden change in society thus threatens its stability and future.

As these comments might suggest, functionalism views social problems as arising from society’s natural evolution. When a social problem does occur, it might threaten a society’s stability, but it does not mean that fundamental flaws in the society exist. Accordingly, gradual social reform should be all that is needed to address the social problem.

Functionalism even suggests that social problems must be functional in some ways for society, because otherwise these problems would not continue. This is certainly a controversial suggestion, but it is true that many social problems do serve important functions for our society. For example, crime is a major social problem, but it is also good for the economy because it creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in law enforcement, courts and corrections, home security, and other sectors of the economy whose major role is to deal with crime. If crime disappeared, many people would be out of work! Similarly, poverty is also a major social problem, but one function that poverty serves is that poor people do jobs that otherwise might not get done because other people would not want to do them (Gans, 1972). Like crime, poverty also provides employment for people across the nation, such as those who work in social service agencies that help poor people.

Conflict Theory

In many ways, conflict theory is the opposite of functionalism but ironically also grew out of the Industrial Revolution, thanks largely to Karl Marx (1818–1883) and his collaborator, Friedrich Engels (1820–1895). Whereas conservative intellectuals feared the mass violence resulting from industrialization, Marx and Engels deplored the conditions they felt were responsible for the mass violence and the capitalist society they felt was responsible for these conditions. Instead of fearing the breakdown of social order that mass violence represented, they felt that revolutionary violence was needed to eliminate capitalism and the poverty and misery they saw as its inevitable results (Marx, 1906; Marx & Engels, 1962).

According to Marx and Engels, every society is divided into two classes based on the ownership of the means of production (tools, factories, and the like). In a capitalist society, the bourgeoisie , or ruling class, owns the means of production, while the proletariat , or working class, does not own the means of production and instead is oppressed and exploited by the bourgeoisie. This difference creates an automatic conflict of interests between the two groups. Simply put, the bourgeoisie is interested in maintaining its position at the top of society, while the proletariat’s interest lies in rising up from the bottom and overthrowing the bourgeoisie to create an egalitarian society.

In a capitalist society, Marx and Engels wrote, revolution is inevitable because of structural contradictions arising from the very nature of capitalism. Because profit is the main goal of capitalism, the bourgeoisie’s interest lies in maximizing profit. To do so, capitalists try to keep wages as low as possible and to spend as little money as possible on working conditions. This central fact of capitalism, said Marx and Engels, eventually prompts the rise of class consciousness , or an awareness of the reasons for their oppression, among workers. Their class consciousness in turn leads them to revolt against the bourgeoisie to eliminate the oppression and exploitation they suffer.

Marx and Engels’ view of conflict arising from unequal positions held by members of society lies at the heart of today’s conflict theory. This theory emphasizes that different groups in society have different interests stemming from their different social positions. These different interests in turn lead to different views on important social issues. Some versions of the theory root conflict in divisions based on race and ethnicity, gender, and other such differences, while other versions follow Marx and Engels in seeing conflict arising out of different positions in the economic structure. In general, however, conflict theory emphasizes that the various parts of society contribute to ongoing inequality, whereas functionalist theory, as we have seen, stresses that they contribute to the ongoing stability of society. Thus while functionalist theory emphasizes the benefits of the various parts of society for ongoing social stability, conflict theory favors social change to reduce inequality.

Karl Marx and his collaborator Friedrich Engels were intense critics of capitalism. Their work inspired the later development of conflict theory in sociology.

Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

Feminist theory has developed in sociology and other disciplines since the 1970s and for our purposes will be considered a specific application of conflict theory. In this case, the conflict concerns gender inequality rather than the class inequality emphasized by Marx and Engels. Although many variations of feminist theory exist, they all emphasize that society is filled with gender inequality such that women are the subordinate sex in many dimensions of social, political, and economic life (Lorber, 2010). Liberal feminists view gender inequality as arising out of gender differences in socialization, while Marxist feminists say that this inequality is a result of the rise of capitalism, which made women dependent on men for economic support. On the other hand, radical feminists view gender inequality as present in all societies, not just capitalist ones. Several chapters in this book emphasize the perspectives of feminist sociologists and other social scientists.

Conflict theory in its various forms views social problems as arising from society’s inherent inequality. Depending on which version of conflict theory is being considered, the inequality contributing to social problems is based on social class, race and ethnicity, gender, or some other dimension of society’s hierarchy. Because any of these inequalities represents a fundamental flaw in society, conflict theory assumes that fundamental social change is needed to address society’s many social problems.

Symbolic Interactionism

Symbolic interactionism focuses on the interaction of individuals and on how they interpret their interaction. Its roots lie in the work of early 1900s American sociologists, social psychologists, and philosophers who were interested in human consciousness and action. Herbert Blumer (1969) (Blumer, 1969), a sociologist at the University of Chicago, built on their writings to develop symbolic interactionism, a term he coined. Drawing on Blumer’s work, symbolic interactionists feel that people do not merely learn the roles that society has set out for them; instead they construct these roles as they interact. As they interact, they negotiate their definitions of the situations in which they find themselves and socially construct the reality of these situations. In doing so, they rely heavily on symbols such as words and gestures to reach a shared understanding of their interaction.

Symbolic interactionism focuses on individuals, such as the people conversing here. Sociologists favoring this approach examine how and why individuals interact and interpret the meanings of their interaction.

An example is the familiar symbol of shaking hands. In the United States and many other societies, shaking hands is a symbol of greeting and friendship. This simple act indicates that you are a nice, polite person with whom someone should feel comfortable. To reinforce this symbol’s importance for understanding a bit of interaction, consider a situation where someone refuses to shake hands. This action is usually intended as a sign of dislike or as an insult, and the other person interprets it as such. Their understanding of the situation and subsequent interaction will be very different from those arising from the more typical shaking of hands. As the term symbolic interactionism implies, their understanding of this encounter arises from what they do when they interact and from their use and interpretation of the various symbols included in their interaction. According to symbolic interactionists, social order is possible because people learn what various symbols (such as shaking hands) mean and apply these meanings to different kinds of situations. If you visited a society where sticking your right hand out to greet someone was interpreted as a threatening gesture, you would quickly learn the value of common understandings of symbols.

Symbolic interactionism views social problems as arising from the interaction of individuals. This interaction matters in two important respects. First, socially problematic behaviors such as crime and drug use are often learned from our interaction with people who engage in these behaviors; we adopt their attitudes that justify committing these behaviors, and we learn any special techniques that might be needed to commit these behaviors. Second, we also learn our perceptions of a social problem from our interaction with other people, whose perceptions and beliefs influence our own perceptions and beliefs.

Because symbolic interactionism emphasizes the perception of social problems, it is closely aligned with the social constructionist view discussed earlier. Both perspectives emphasize the subjective nature of social problems. By doing so, they remind us that perceptions often matter at least as much as objective reality in determining whether a given condition or behavior rises to the level of a social problem and in the types of possible solutions that various parties might favor for a particular social problem.

Applying the Three Perspectives

A robber holding a glock right up to the camera

To explain armed robbery, symbolic interactionists focus on how armed robbers decide when and where to rob a victim and on how their interactions with other criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies.

Geoffrey Fairchild – The Robbery – CC BY 2.0.

To help you further understand the different views of these three theoretical perspectives, let’s see what they would probably say about armed robbery , a very serious form of crime, while recognizing that the three perspectives together provide a more comprehensive understanding of armed robbery than any one perspective provides by itself.

A functionalist approach might suggest that armed robbery actually serves positive functions for society, such as the job-creating function mentioned earlier for crime in general. It would still think that efforts should be made to reduce armed robbery, but it would also assume that far-reaching changes in our society would be neither wise nor necessary as part of the effort to reduce crime.

Conflict theory would take a very different approach to understanding armed robbery. It might note that most street criminals are poor and thus emphasize that armed robbery is the result of the despair and frustration of living in poverty and facing a lack of jobs and other opportunities for economic and social success. The roots of street crime, from the perspective of conflict theory, thus lie in society at least as much as they lie in the individuals committing such crime. To reduce armed robbery and other street crime, conflict theory would advocate far-reaching changes in the economic structure of society.

For its part, symbolic interactionism would focus on how armed robbers make such decisions as when and where to rob someone and on how their interactions with other criminals reinforce their own criminal tendencies. It would also investigate how victims of armed robbery behave when confronted by a robber. To reduce armed robbery, it would advocate programs that reduce the opportunities for interaction among potential criminal offenders, for example, after-school programs that keep at-risk youths busy in “conventional” activities so that they have less time to spend with youths who might help them get into trouble.

Key Takeaways

According to C. Wright Mills, the sociological imagination involves the ability to recognize that private troubles are rooted in public issues and structural problems.
Functionalism emphasizes the importance of social institutions for social stability and implies that far-reaching social change will be socially harmful.
Conflict theory emphasizes social inequality and suggests that far-reaching social change is needed to achieve a just society.
Symbolic interactionism emphasizes the social meanings and understandings that individuals derive from their social interaction.

For Your Review

Select an example of a “private trouble” and explain how and why it may reflect a structural problem in society.
At this point in your study of social problems, which one of the three sociological theoretical perspectives sounds most appealing to you? Why?

Blumer, H. (1969). Symbolic interactionism: Perspective and Method . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Boyd, E. M., Reynolds, J. R., Tillman, K. H., & Martin, P. Y. (2011). Adolescent girls’ race/ethnic status, identities, and drive for thinness. Social Science Research, 40 (2), 667–684.

Durkheim, É. (1952). Suicide (J. Spaulding & G. Simpson, Trans.). New York, NY: Free Press. (Original work published 1897).

Gans, H. J. (1972). The positive functions of poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 78 , 275–289.

Lorber, J. (2010). Gender Inequality: Feminist Theories and Politics . New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Marx, K. (1906). Capital . New York, NY: Random House. (Original work published 1867).

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (1962). The communist manifesto. In Marx and Engels: Selected works (Vol. 2, pp. 21–65). Moscow, Russia: Foreign Language Publishing House. (Original work published 1848).

Mills, C. W. (1959). The sociological imagination . London, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.

Ryan, W. (1976). Blaming the victim (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: Vintage Books.

A List of 470 Powerful Social Issues Essay Topics

In modern societies, people do everything to live peacefully. Still, tensions often arise. We call them social issues when they start negatively impacting a specific group of people. Poverty, discrimination, and addiction are examples of such problems. We need to confront them to ensure equal treatment for everyone.

Our professional custom writing team created this article to help you write a social issues essay. This comprehensive social issues topics list covers various current problems in America and in the world. Choose among 450 social topics, and get down to writing!

🔝 Top 10 Topics

✅ How to Write About Social Issues

🌐 Social Media Issues Topics
🏥 Health-Related Issues
🌳 Environmental Issues
🔫 War & Violence
🚓 Police & Criminal Justice
👨👩 Gender-Related Issues
🧔🏿 Racism Topics
✈️ Migration & Refugees
⚖️ Human Rights Topics
🗽 Social Issues in America

🔝 Top 10 Social Issues Topics

Types of prisoner rights violations.
Can vaccinations be mandatory?
What makes overpopulation a threat?
Online education as a cause of obesity.
The economic effect of rising sea levels.
The effects of Gender Pay Gap on economy.
Ways to stop racial discrimination in schools.
Can increase of employment help reduce poverty?
Women empowerment and social development.
Can mobile clinics make healthcare more accessible?

Writing on topics related to social issues involves thorough research. It also requires sympathy and tact. Following this guide will help you not to step on anybody’s toes.

Research papers call for an in-depth analysis. Make sure to reference several sources to back up your claims.
Essays revolve around your opinion. Here, good arguments are crucial.
Pick the topic . It can be either contemporary or historical. It’s better to choose something you’re interested in. If nothing comes to mind right away, use a writing topic generator .
Do research . Consult encyclopedias, find books on the topic. It will help you formulate ideas and outline the first draft.
Consider your audience . How much do they know about your subject? How invested are they? Understanding your readers will help you be more considerate.
Even if you have strong feelings about your subject, keep your tone neutral. Make sure not to condemn those who hold opposite views.
Highlight what you personally think is right. Remember that you can’t control how other people will react.
Be frank. Ask yourself: who am I? How do my experiences fit into my topic? Your honest answers will add unique insights to your paper.
Double-check your paper. Does everything you wrote logically flow? Does your argumentative structure make sense? Does it support your thesis? If possible, let your assignment sit for a day. You can edit it later with a fresh perspective.

These are the basics you need if you want to write about social issues. Now you can start your research! The first step is to pick one of the excellent topics about social problems from the list below.

🌐 Social Issues Essay Topics Related to Social Media

Security issues of social media.
Should Instagram be age-restricted?
Social networks’ impact on friendships.
Disadvantages of being an influencer .
Is there freedom of speech in social media?
Should social media ban fake information?
How harmful is social media dependency?
Should employers check employees’ accounts?
Online ethics and business Facebook accounts.
The effect of the cancel culture on mental health.
Cyberbullying: victim and abuser in the online environment.
Should children be allowed to have social media accounts?
Your opinion on memorial pages on social networks for the deceased.
Ways to stay safe on the internet.

How should social media websites deal with hate speech?
Is removing abusive content censorship?
Explore the correlation between social media and mental disorders.
Does Instagram change the way we perceive our lives?
Is modern society forcing us to participate in social networking?
What is identity theft ?
Personal isolation and technology in communication.
The risks of microtransactions in online gaming .
How does your digital presence influence your real life?
Why do some people become dependent on social media ?
Are online networks promoting stalking?
Discuss the digital divide in Washington.
Is Twitter’s cancel culture doing more harm than good?
How do marginalized groups benefit from social media?
How important is data safety?
Are people on social media more aggressive than in real life?
Does the internet shorten our attention span ?
Ways in which social media impacts your interactions with other people.
Marketing, social media, and you: how do influencers impact your buying behavior?
Explore the effect of the internet on students’ lives.
Is Reddit right to allow outrageous content under the principle of free speech?
Politics and Twitter: the consequences of Donald Trump’s tweets .
Does banning online networks from the workplace increase productivity?
What basic ethical principles go overboard on the Internet ?
In how far do social media trends reflect on the general public?
Social media and youth: does it make puberty harder?
The influence of social media platforms on democracy.
What would happen if we could rate everyone online? (Think Community ’s episode “App Development and Condiments”)
Does Instagram inspire a healthy lifestyle?
Why are likes so important?
Debate the effects of speaking out in online communities.
Are Facebook’s profile picture frames a good way of showing support?
Debate social media policies and code of conduct.
Is YouTube spreading propaganda?
Did you ever do something because you’ve read about it on the internet?
Are Twitter hashtags skewing the political discourse?
Examine the gendered experiences of people on the internet.
How do you make yourself heard on social media?
Evaluate the usefulness of Facebook’s Safety Check feature.
Discuss the pros and cons of TikTok challenges.
How does participating in Instagram challenges for social justice help?

🏥 Health-Related Social Issues Topics to Write About

Our health largely depends on the social security system. With access to good healthcare services, we are less likely to develop preventable diseases. Unfortunately, issues are common in the health sector. These interesting essay writing prompts will help you explore social problems related to health:

Are employers not paying enough attention to their employees’ mental health ?
What should a person do if they can’t afford medical treatment?
Why do some countries have higher obesity rates than others?
Should abortion be legal or illegal?
Debate whether a ban on tobacco advertising would help decrease smoking.
What makes Americans start doing drugs ?
Compare projects that help people overcome their addictions.
What is the worst substance to be addicted to?
Who should care for the elders?
Should hospices be free?
Examine why HIV in seniors remains widely unrecognized.
Should we change the drinking age limit?
Whose health is mostly affected by pollution?
Should parents avoid vaccinating their children?
What does it mean to die with dignity?
Should women get extra vacation days at work because of their periods?
Explore the origins of the pro-life movement .
Should non-smokers receive additional break time?
Ways to make navigating easier for visually impaired people .
Discuss stigma against mentally challenged individuals.
The benefits of over-the-counter contraception.
Must women who breastfeed in public cover themselves up?
Psychoactive drugs in the treatment of psychological diseases.
Disabilities and stigmatization: how does being disabled affect one’s social status?
Does gender play an important role in one’s health?
What health issues are affecting African Americans and Hispanics?
Expectations and motherhood: being a childfree woman in a kid-centered society.
How does being malnourished affect a child’s psyche in the long run?
Investigate suicide rates in Pakistan.
Discuss the social acceptance of autism spectrum disorders.
Sociology and psychological diseases: the relationship between circumstance and mental health.
Write about fad diets and their impact.
How does the society you live in discriminate against older adults?
Why is access to quality healthcare unevenly distributed?
Who should decide when to stop life-prolonging treatments?
Is homeopathic treatment for children acceptable?
Describe why going to psychotherapy is widely stigmatized.
What are the social determinants of health?
Why is access to healthcare in rural areas so scarce?
Is the propagation of mindfulness and self-care on social media improving our health?

Examine the connection between poverty and health problems.
Where does our society’s general obsession with weight come from?
Do cultural norms promote drinking alcohol to an unhealthy extent?
Is coffee a drug?
How does the depiction of drug use in the media influence the youth?

🌳 Environmental Social Issues Essay Topics

Environmentalism is not just about saving nature. A damaged environment has adverse effects on humanity and its future. Changing weather and frequent natural disasters affect millions of people. Many are forced to flee their homes. Essays on this subject can cover activism or sustainability.

Is Extinction Rebellion’s form of protest too radical?
What to avoid when traveling in the age of climate change.
How can we ensure global access to drinking water ?
The impact of bottled water on the environment.
Water conservation methods in sub-Saharan Africa.
The influence of tourism on cultural heritage sites.
How does society need to change in the future to slow down climate change?
What caused the rise in climate activism in recent years?
Innovation vs. tradition: getting traditional farmers to implement new sustainable technology.
Describe the importance of waste reduction for our ecosystems.
How can we use our natural resources responsibly?
Discuss what a sustainable diet is like.
The role of packaging in marketing, food safety, and environment.
Why do people deny human-made climate change ?
Why should sociologists study the environment?
What made us reliant on single-use plastic products?
Discuss green infrastructure in water management.
Debate how Greenpeace influences political decision making.
In your opinion, what’s the best environmental organization to donate to?
How successful is PETA in helping animals?
Should mandatory volunteer work substitute compulsory military service?
Urban gardening as a means to ensure food security .
The effect of self-driving electric vehicles on urban environments.
Compare types of sustainable futuristic cities in literature.
How does global warming impact indigenous peoples in South America?
What effects does a deteriorating environment have on labor conditions?
Explain what Oxfam does.
How does globalization impact sustainable agriculture?
What are the most significant achievements of environmental activists in recent years?
What makes politicians hesitant to take action against climate change ?
Investigate what happened to the population of Isle de Jean Charles.
Climate refugees: examine the disasters that cause people to flee their homes.
What are the unintentional consequences of climate-related relocation projects?
Explore the connection between nature and religion.
Ecology and economics: ways to find a balance.
Communities and health: how the way we handle the environment impacts the spread of disease.
Investigate methods for responsible consumption.
Why is sustainable development important for societies?

Contrast the methods of various environmentalist movements.
The world’s overpopulation: causes and effects.
Why can it be difficult to convince older generations to take action against climate change ?
What are the best things everyone can do to protect the environment ?
The role of zoos in wildlife endangerment.
How do changing weather patterns impact our homes?
What caused the increase in natural disasters over the last decade?

🔫 Social Issues Topics: War & Violence

Scientists still debate if violence is a part of human nature. Wars and terrorist attacks are disastrous events that traumatize millions of people. Still, it’s crucial not to forget about more subtle forms of violence. These include emotional neglect, bullying, and brutality in medical care.

What are the main reasons for nations to wage war?
Mental disorders and vulnerability to homicidal death.
The restoration of Germany after the Second World War.
Domestic violence in 20th century Canada.
Describe the most common types of violence against teenagers.
How does a country’s political situation impact domestic violence?
Do splatter movies promote violent behavior ?
Should girls dress modestly to avoid being abused?
What is the use of war monuments?
The issue of girl education in India.
How does war influence the development of children?
Analyze the accuracy of the events depicted in Sam Mendes’ film 1917 .
Everything Quiet on the Western Front and the youth’s attitude towards fighting.
The treatment of veterans in your community.
Why do people join the army?
Connection between school bullying and problems in adult life.
What are the most common reasons for murder ?
How can a family move on after their child has been kidnapped?
Why are veterans more likely to commit suicide than average citizens?
Is human trafficking modern-day slavery?
Investigate how citizens of Cape Town deal with the high crime rate in their city.
What events can lead to an increase in crime?
Explain the socio-economic aftermaths of the Afghanistan war.
Examine the success of Columbia’s DESEPAZ program.
What is the origin of domestic violence?
Do schools in your country work effectively to discourage abusive behavior towards girls?
Why do men tend not to report domestic violence?
How does emotional neglect impact children?
What are the best ways to prevent street violence?
Is there a connection between the strictness of gun laws and homicide rates ?
Why do women hesitate to report rape cases?
Rape and sexual harassment in the military.
An overview of Japanese mafia culture.
The connection between education and violence.
Who profits from war?
Are the US military expenses justified?
What does the “guns vs. butter” model describe?
Give examples of cultural norms justifying violence.
In how far has globalization impacted violent behavior ?
What triggers aggression against healthcare workers?
Ways to manage verbal abuse in social care.
Examine the Chinese phenomenon of Yi Nao.
Investigate the recent decriminalization of domestic abuse in Russia.
What was the impact of the #metoo movement ?
Bullying and sexual harassment at workplace.

🚓 Police & Criminal Justice Topics to Write About

Everyone should feel safe in their community. That’s what a country’s criminal justice system is for. But humans can make mistakes and be biased. Not everyone feels protected by the current system. What can we do to change that? Explore this question in one of the following creative topics:

What does the phrase “ defund the police ” mean?
What makes you feel safe in your community?
Describe the social standing of police officers in your country.
Examine if there’s evidence of structural racism in the police.
Is it possible to achieve true equality ?
Are all professions in criminal justice equally prestigious?
Discuss the concept of juvenile crimes.
Debate castration as a punishment for sexual offenders.
The influence of the internet on human trafficking .
What could the police be substituted with?
How does racial profiling work?
Should people who abuse drugs go to jail?
How do people become homeless in big cities?
Discuss the legitimization of prostitution.
What causes governments to oppose gay marriage ?
The safest ways to deescalate riots.
What are the best methods to discourage people from committing crimes ?
Define civil disobedience and its goals.
Victimology and traditional justice system alternatives.
What makes white-collar crimes more socially acceptable than others?
Reintroducing prisoners to society: obstacles and consequences.
Would society profit from the abolition of prisons?
What are the advantages of community services ?

How does crime differ in various social classes?
Justice for women: the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
How do prejudices influence criminal justice mechanics?
Human services issues from the point of income inequality.
Why was the Hong Kong national security law installed?
How did legalizing all drugs affect Portuguese society?
What are the prominent civil rights issues in your country?
The Captain of Köpenick : the psychological effect of uniforms.
Why was racial segregation widely accepted in America?
How do witness protection programs work?
The right to privacy vs. safety: a case for surveillance cameras.
How can one save their reputation after committing a crime?
Compare the four deviance theories in sociology .
To what extent can biology explain criminal behavior ?
Do police officers need guns?
Should law enforcers need to request permission before using firearms ?
How did dismantling the police department in Camden, NJ impact crime?
Explore the connection between militarization and police violence.
What does the principle of qualified immunity entail?
Debate the use of body cameras by police officers .
Police violence and subterfuge.
What are the social benefits of jury duty?

👨👩 Gender-Related Social Issues Essay Topics

Even today, a lot of people are systematically disadvantaged because of their gender. This problem manifests itself not only in the infamous gender pay gap. For example, in the US, transgender people are banned from serving in the army. And in some countries, women are still denied fundamental rights. If you want to get to the heart of contemporary controversial issues, this section is for you.

Why is the number of women in positions of power still low?
Are quotas the only way to guarantee equal hiring processes?
Pros and cons of unisex bathrooms.
Why are matriarchal societies rare?
Describe how the patriarchy holds back women.
Conflicting theories: gay marriage and feminism.
Does feminism need to be radical?
How does gendered marketing affect child development?
Should insurance companies pay for sex reassignment therapy?
Reasons why some people have problems with they/them pronouns.
What does it mean to be non-binary?
Investigate the treatment of women in Saudi Arabian society.
What makes a profession traditionally female?
Should women be more encouraged to join the military?
Why is it more challenging for men to get full custody?
Find historical examples of women who made a change in their society.
Should professors be required to include more women authors in their reading material?
Examine the treatment of the transgender community in healthcare.
Is gender a purely social construct?
What can a woman do to become more empowered ?
Can a patriarchal society ever achieve true gender equality ?
Are Disney princesses good role models?
Examine the representation of gender variety in popular TV shows.
Gender identity: promotion of equality for sexual orientation.
Discuss the connection between gender-biased language and oppression.
Why are sexist marketing practices still legal?
Should girls capitalize on their attractive looks?
Define the term “gender blindness.”
Do school uniforms promote gender inequality?
Bibiana Steinhaus: a female referee.
Discuss how the battle of the sexes impacted society.
Should men be entitled to more extended paternity leave ?
Can religion ensure equality?
How do stereotypes against women decrease their chances of getting hired?
Why do millions of women still have to choose between having a family or a career?
Explain the gender dynamics in development.
Should men and women play and compete in mixed sports teams?
What do beauty pageants teach girls?
Debate the importance of LGBT studies.
What causes gender dysphoria?
Do blockbuster films have the responsibility to advocate for equality?
Does society need gender roles to function properly?
What makes same-sex marriage a controversial topic in many countries?
Examine adoption laws for gay couples.
Compare gender-based violence in the UK vs. Iran.

🧔🏿 Social Topics for Essays on Racism

Slavery is abolished everywhere in the world. Still, it didn’t put an end to racism. There’s a lot of racial bias fueled by insecurity and ignorance. Because of this, ethnic minorities rarely enjoy equal opportunities. An essay on racism can raise awareness of the problem by shedding light on racial injustice.

How has racism changed over the past hundred years?
Queer of color: history and theory.
Who were the Khmer Rouge ?
Trace the development of anti-discrimination laws in your country.
What caused populist groups to gain popularity in recent years?
Did Donald Trump’s presidency increase racism towards Latin Americans?
What socio-economic issues do African American families face?
Is there a connection between racism and social progress?
Would there be no racism without colonialism?
Discuss subtle forms of everyday racism.
Should women in teaching positions be allowed to wear hijabs ?
Nelson Mandela and the fight against apartheid .
What makes people scared of minorities?
Who benefits from structural racism?
Find out how racism manifests itself in your native language.
Compare the types of social segmentation.
Is the use of the n-word in hip hop empowering?
How did imperialism impact Okonkwo’s life in Things Fall Apart ?
In which areas of life are black Americans institutionally disadvantaged?
Is it appropriate for white people to wear hoop earrings?
The best ways to educate children about race.
How does cultural appropriation become harmful?
Racial prejudice in the movie industry.

Your position on companies renaming well-known brands to avoid claims of racism.
Discuss the problem of racism at institutional and interactional levels.
Will racism ever end?
Is “All lives matter” a racist statement?
How does environmental racism affect the living conditions of minorities?
Investigate the historical persecution of the Romani people.
What makes people racist nowadays?
The internet’s contribution to alleviating racism.
Cultivation of racism in the American society.
How much of a problem is reverse discrimination?
Trace the history of lynching and mob violence against blacks in the American South.
Who was Leo Frank?
How does discrimination differ in rich vs. developing countries?
Racism as a barrier to educational opportunities.
Does social media help fight racist bias?
How to responsibly handle classic movies and literature with racial prejudices.
What constitutes a healthy national identity?
How does modern television portray minorities?
Does your country’s healthcare system disadvantage minorities?
Investigate what happens to the Rohingya people in Malaysia.
Is antisemitism still a problem in your country?
Does nationalism always lead to racism?

✈️ Social Awareness Topics on Migration & Refugees

Migration can have a beneficial effect on a host country’s economy. For instance, migrants can provide vital additional workforce. But an overflow of newcomers can also lead to problems. Most notably, it affects a nations’ cultural and social landscapes. “How should we deal with refugees?” is one of the most challenging political questions today.

How has migration changed over the past 20 years?
Mexican immigration as a political controversy.
Why do migrants from the Middle East face more prejudice than those from Central Europe?
Describe the types of events that can cause major forced displacement .
How should governments plan for migration?
Why do many people in Europe have a negative attitude towards refugees?
Why are foreign workers important to every nation’s economy?
Effective ways to integrate displaced people.
Critique Arizona’s new immigration laws.
Have refugee camps ever been a solution to the problem?
What drives people to immigrate illegally ?
Should the US’ sanctuary cities be dissolved?
Describe the notion of ecological migration.
Should Europe take in more refugees?
Compare resettlement models in Canada vs. Australia.
What’s the difference between expats and migrants?
What factors make illegal immigration undesirable?
Has the public perception of migrants changed over the past years?
How important is it that immigrants speak their host country’s language?
What does social integration ideally consist of?
Discuss Chinese settlement patterns in America.
The advantages of dropping visa restrictions.
How did 9/11 affect the public’s perception of the global movement?
Is it morally right to marry someone just for their passport?
Do illegal immigrants negatively impact their host country’s society?
Does migration cause destabilization?
What does the claim “no one is illegal” advocate?
How does the American green card lottery work?
Should a child born in a foreign country automatically receive citizenship?
American society wouldn’t exist without immigration. Why is it still so hostile towards foreigners?
Explore the link between global movement and the spread of diseases.
Should the government use taxpayer money to upskill refugees ?
Immigrants in Toronto: social and economic challenges.
Can expats from a distinct cultural background ever integrate into a country that doesn’t share their norms?
Discuss the importance of diversity to society.
Is there a connection between immigration rates and crime?
Should expats be eligible for welfare programs ?
Where’s the line between cultural appropriation and integration?
Can binational relationships work?
How do you become a stateless person?
What rights do asylum seekers have in your country?
Is immigration from developing countries a threat to wealthier nations?
Explore moral panics associated with other ethnicities.
What makes Europe attractive to expats?
Describe the common prejudices refugees have to face in Australia.

⚖️ Social Justice Essay Topics on Human Rights

You probably agree that every human deserves access to fundamental rights. Unfortunately, these are continually under threat. And it doesn’t always happen far away from you. Women, the LGBT community, and many others fight for their rights every single day.

Are limitations of human rights during crises justified?
Should we strive to achieve the same rights globally?
Is male circumcision shortly after birth a violation of human rights?
How do you prevent low-income families from sending their children to work?
Capital punishment vs. the right to live.
Can dictatorships ensure human rights?

Is using sensitive language incriminating our freedom of speech?
Describe the achievements of Amnesty International.
Should Europe stop business interactions with countries that violate human rights ?
Examine effective ways to combat food shortages in the Global South.
How can governments secure freedom of speech ?
Should access to the internet be included as a fundamental human right?
Are restrictive laws concerning hijabs violating religious freedom?
Charlie Hebdo and its Muhammad cartoons: did they go too far?
When does satire become harmful?
Examine how human rights are treated in the pornography industry.
Why are LGBT people around the world not granted the same rights as everyone else?
Balancing labor conditions and demand: human rights in the economy.
Who protects stateless persons?
What has changed since the first declaration of human rights?
How was slavery justified back in the day?
Why do women in many countries still not have the same rights as men?
The Handmaid’s Tale : how is the society in Gilead structured?
Discuss how vital the rights to freedom of thought and expression are.
To which rights should prisoners have access to?
Debate the fairness of the utilitarian approach.
How do NGOs help to ensure human rights in Somalia?
Human rights and the Bible : how does the church get away with violations?
Define different perspectives on what constitutes freedom .
What are the most significant human rights issues today?
Ethics and the media: exploiting personal tragedies for attention.
Prisoners are humans, too: rights violations in Guantanamo.
Is combating climate change a human rights issue?
Are cruel traditions such as honor killings justified if they are socially accepted?
How successful is the European Commission of Human Rights?
Is the death penalty a justified measure nowadays?
Should pets have the same rights as humans?
Define the difference between civil and human rights.
If there’s gay pride, why shouldn’t there be straight pride?
Unequal privilege: legal, religious, and social factors.
What would happen if education were free and accessible to everyone?
State terrorism vs. critical terrorism.
Did globalization make us freer?
Is the wellbeing of the majority more important than the wellbeing of a minority?
When, if ever, should men and women have different rights?

🗽 Current Social Issues Topics in America

With its variety of races and cultures, America faces many social issues. Its deeply divided political parties add more fuel to the fire. African American rights and police brutality are some of the most pressing issues in the US today.

Consequences of fortifying the American-Mexican border wall.
Should illegal immigrants always be deported when found?
Is the democratic system in the US in need of reform?
What are the social causes of obesity in the USA?
Negative side effects of the war on drugs .
How important is bipartisan cooperation?
What difference does it make if Russia meddled in the 2016 elections?
Police brutality: reasons and countermeasures.
Discuss the importance of reducing medical costs.
Racism and the police: is it an institutional problem?
What are the strictest cultural taboos in American society?
Are there enough women in American leadership positions?
Is sexism a significant problem in the States?
Describe the consequences of voter fraud.
Should schools teach students to be more patriotic ?
Discuss prescription drug abuse in America.
College student debt: is it a fair price to pay for a good education?
Will police presence in schools help curb violence?
What drugs should be legalized vs. remain illegal?
Debate the quality of political education in your state.
Is fake news a severe problem?
Financial literacy as a compulsory subject in high school.
How do you destigmatize taboo topics in society?
Why do conversations about periods make people feel uncomfortable?
Social causes of eating disorders in adults.
Discuss how various religions can live together peacefully.
Describe the NIMBY phenomenon.
What are the benefits and limitations of needle exchange programs?
Find reasons why peaceful protests turn into violent riots.
Are students in the US nowadays under too much stress ?
What are the harmful effects of urban sprawl ?
Can your vote make a difference?
Do American schools need to offer better sex education classes?
What makes people believe the Earth is flat?
Why do conspiracy theories spread so quickly nowadays?
Traffic in California: reasons to invest in public transport.
Are charter schools better than public schools?
Compare the most prominent social movements currently active in America.
The legacy of Occupy Wall Street.
Describe the pros and cons of the Green New Deal.
How successful is special education in the US?
What causes gentrification in American cities?
Is immigration a strain on the American job market?
Tackle the problem of prison overcrowding.
Investigate the effects of ableism in the States.

That’s all we’ve got for you. We hope this article was helpful. Good luck with your essay writing!

🔍 References

Lifestyles & Social Issues: Encyclopedia Britannica
Controversial/Contemporary Issues: How to Write a Research Paper: Campbell University
3 Insights Into Writing about Social Issues: Jane Friedman
Key Issues: eSafety Commissioner
Top 10 Most Common Health Issues: University of Rochester Medical Center
Top 10 Most Important Environmental Issues: Iberdrola.com
War: Social Problems: University of Minnesota
Violence: a Global Public Health Problem: WHO
What Are the Biggest Problems Women Face Today?: Politico Magazine
Issues: National Center for Transgender Equality
List of Issues about Racism: The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
Potential implications of Increasing Significance of Migration: EU
The Biggest Issues Facing Migrants Today — and What We Can Do to Solve Them: World Economic Forum
How Americans See Major National Issues: Pew Research Center
Social Issues and Human Rights: United Nations Environment
Crime & Criminal Justice: Brookings
Social Problems: Oxford Academic Press
Criminal Justice: ProPublica
Structural Racism in America: Urban Institute
Racism and Health: American Public Health Association
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64 Examples of Social Issues Topics for 2024

May 21, 2024

Writing assignments asking students to engage with social justice/social issues topics target skills vitally important to success in college and beyond. They require writers to demonstrate critical, ethical, and dynamic thinking around demanding topics that present no quick and easy solution. Often, they will call for some amount of research, building textual and media literacy and awareness of the research process. In other words, these kinds of essays can be valuable in teaching students how to think and learn for themselves. But another, underappreciated learning outcome of these essays has to do with their function as communication.

This last feature can be easy to overlook in the context of writing assignments. Questions of audience, authority, and impact seem less significant when you know your teacher must read your essay. However, taking these questions seriously can not only enhance your odds of writing an excellent essay, but could also foster skills instrumental to real-world writing situations.

This article provides a list of social justice topics carefully selected to demonstrate the range and scale of available subjects. It also explains how you might approach writing about these issues with an eye for defining them and understanding the audience. Identifying a great topic that interests you enough to write about is an important early step. But what’s equally or even more important is to understand how to write about it clearly, directly, and persuasively.

How to Write a Successful Essay Grappling with Social Issues Topics

Writing about social issues topics is best improved through asking questions about purpose, context, and outcome. Why this topic and not another? Who is the audience, what do they know, and where might they stand on an issue? What are the typical ways others address the issue? What knowledge, perspective, or plan of action has been missing from that conversation? Why is this topic important to think about? Why is this essay important to read? These questions are crucial to delimiting which social justice topics to focus on and the strategy for writing about them. Answering them in the process of selecting a topic and developing a writing plan can help achieve the following components of good essays:

1) Defining the Issue

A frequent problem with student writing involves tackling questions or issues that are overly broad or vaguely defined. When selecting from social issues topics, it’s actually a smart strategy to think small. Rather than purporting to solve world peace, essays work better when drilling down into more localized and easily defined issues. This will help to communicate clearly what the issue is, convince the reader of its relevance, and successfully indicate that a short piece of writing could meaningfully contribute to the conversation around the issue.

2) Finding and Using Evidence

In many cases, essays on social issues topics will require some amount of research. When incorporating secondary evidence, it’s vital to find sources that are relevant to the topic and signal their credibility. However, even if research is not formally required, it can help toward establishing the purpose of a piece of writing within a larger discussion. Looking toward how others typically address an issue can help toward understanding whether an essay should aim to fill a gap in knowledge, supply a missing perspective, or outline actions that have not been proposed.

Successful Essay Grappling with Social Issues Topics (Cont.)

3) understanding audience.

Student essayists are not overly incentivized to think about questions of audience. However, understanding audience can help toward both defining an issue and acknowledging the purpose of writing. The most important thing to reflect on is the audience’s reason for reading a piece of writing. Why should they care about this social issue and what the essay will say about it? Understanding the reason for reading will help toward envisioning the ideal reader. Then, the essay’s language and arguments can be tailored to what that ideal reader already knows about the topic and their likely attitudes and beliefs.

4) Making an argument

This step follows the others and builds upon each. After clearly defining an issue that is appropriate in scope, an essay should clearly state its purpose or position. It should then interpret relevant evidence to support that position or fulfill its purpose. Then, it should aim to convince the audience by organizing evidence and reasoning into paragraphs structured around topic sentences that support the purpose or position. As these steps make clear, the argument is the essay. Making an argument entails justifying the act of writing itself, as well as the reader’s decision to follow the writer in focusing on an issue from a unique vantage point.

The following list of examples indicates some of the range of social issue essay topics. When considering these or other examples, writers should consider how they can foster purposive essays that understand how they are entering and changing the conversation around the issue.

Example Social Issues Topics – Tech and Labor

Artificial intelligence and digital technology.

The environmental impact of emerging AI technologies and industries.
Whether AI is a paradigm-shifting revolution or part of a long, gradual history of technology-assisted creative or technical work.
The biases that exist in AI systems and data and ways of redressing them.
The emergent use of AI tools in modern warfare.
How a specific political movement or group of activists has embraced digital communication technologies to advance a cause.
How digital self-publishing has affected trends and systems in the publishing industry.
How social media algorithms promote addictive behaviors and their effect on minors.
A surprising or disturbing effect of government and corporate digital surveillance practices.

Social Issues Topics (Continued)

Economic and labor issues.

Causes and effects of unionization in industries connected to the gig economy.
Disparities in wages between men and women affecting a key industry like tech.
How changes in minimum wage policies affect other wage earners.
The impact of globalization on labor rights and standards in the film industry.
Comparing the outcomes of universal basic income and guaranteed minimum income as novel social welfare programs.
How faculty and graduate student unionization movements respond to shifting labor and ideological conditions at universities.
What geographical factors and/or trends in property ownership shape income inequality within a select area?
Job fields under threat by automation and AI and strategic responses to the prospect of job replacement.

Example Social Issues Topics –Education and the Environment

The effects of the COVID pandemic on textual and media literacy in children and young adults.
How educators are responding to the challenges and opportunities of generative AI.
Areas of learning affected by bans on “critical race theory” and LGBTQ-related topics in schools.
How digital culture has affected the attention spans of young learners.
The sources of increased student debt and its effects on the culture of higher education.
The history and educational role of political protest on college campuses.
How the end of affirmative action could affect the role colleges have played in promoting wide social mobility.
The source of debates around “school choice” and how it is changing the face of education.

Environment and Sustainability

Geopolitical tensions salient to the transnational effort to combat climate change.
Protest and advocacy strategies adopted by environmental advocates and different ways of measuring their effectiveness.
Solutions for the disproportionate environmental burdens on marginalized communities.
Whether mass consumer behavior or the practices of the economic elite are most responsible for climate crises.
Comparing the effectiveness of political optimism and pessimism in efforts to redress climate change.
Environmental challenges that result from destructive practices of modern warfare including ecocide.
Global meat consumption, its contribution to climate change , and proposed solutions.
The benefits and drawbacks of green capitalist and “de-growth” movements as radically contrasting approaches to combatting climate change.

Example Social Justice Topics – Human Rights and Geopolitics

Human rights and equality.

How the end of Roe v. Wade has changed the political landscape around women’s reproductive rights.
Whether cultural or legal solutions could work best to prevent violence against women.
The alliance between feminists and political conservatives that has emerged in the clash over LGBTQ rights.
How news media outlets have influenced widespread political efforts to curtail the rights of transgender people.
Tensions between private corporations and governments around diversity and inclusion efforts.
The effect of enhanced police oversight by civilians on the disproportionate use of force against minority communities.
Barriers to housing, employment, or health services faced by people with disabilities.
How exploitative work practices affecting minors exist despite legal efforts to curtail them.

International and Geopolitical Issues

How migrant crises have influenced new border and immigration policies.
How contemporary proxy wars differ from earlier methods of international conflict.
Tensions that exist between global humanitarian aid agencies and actors in Global South countries that receive aid.
How efforts to ensure affordable access to medicines across the world were affected by the COVID pandemic.
How globalization has changed the world distribution of wealth inequality.
Weighing the humanitarian costs of solar and electric energy production against those of the oil industry.
How cultural differences around gender and sexuality influence global movements for women’s equality and LGBTQ rights.
How authoritarian and/or religious political movements have become internationalized.

Example Social Justice Topics – The Legal System and Government

Justice and legal system.

Restorative justice alternatives to traditional carceral approaches in the legal system.
Efforts to eliminate cash bail and their potential effect on disparities in pretrial detention and bail practices.
Legal challenges that new technologies have created in terms of defining or prosecuting crime.
Methods of preventing and prosecuting police brutality and harassment.
How the locations of prisons affect local communities and economies.
Ways to combat mass incarceration through rethinking policing and sentencing standards.
Academic, professional, and legal services in prisons and their effect on imprisoned populations.
Mental health challenges present in the legal and carceral systems.

Politics and Governance

Methods of global governance that have emerged to address transnational challenges like climate change and public health.
Questions related to freedom of speech principles that have emerged in the digital age.
Mutual aid efforts that address areas of public need that have been unaddressed through traditional political methods.
How participatory media encourages broader civic engagement and government transparency.
Political solutions for addressing the phenomena of food deserts or food apartheid.
Responses of local governments to sharp increases in homelessness after the COVID pandemic.
The internationalization of culture wars and political polarization around issues relating to race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
Philosophies about the conflict between ideals of multicultural openness and respect for cultural differences.

Final Thoughts – Social Issues Topics

The above social justice topics provide a sense of the large range of urgent issues an essay might topic. However, it’s best to reflect on how a piece of writing can define an issue so as to make clear that it is capable of doing something meaningful with it. That could entail looking for similar, more niche issues to address. Or it could mean deeper thought about an issue for which the writer anticipates they could provide missing information, perspectives, or plans of action. While many readers care about many topics, it’s vital to understand how an essay can create a tangible relationship with an ideal reader. Only then can a writer spur others to think or act in novel and potentially transformative ways.

Additional Resources

Good Persuasive Speech Topics
Debate Topics
Argumentative Essay Topics
60 Senior Project Ideas for High Schoolers
101 Topics for the Science Fair
100 Creative Writing Prompts
High School Success

Tyler Talbott

Tyler holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Missouri and two Master of Arts degrees in English, one from the University of Maryland and another from Northwestern University. Currently, he is a PhD candidate in English at Northwestern University, where he also works as a graduate writing fellow.

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15 Ways to Advance Social Justice in your Community

three photos- donations-woman in sweater-phone news

There are moments in world history when social justice issues come to the forefront of global consciousness. This is such a time. The coronavirus pandemic has uncovered and exacerbated social inequities, especially in the United States. 1 Closely related, due to its social justice component, is the expansion of Black Lives Matter into a worldwide movement. The protest sparked by the killing of George Floyd and police brutality 2 grew into demonstrations against larger issues of racial inequality and systemic racism. Social justice plays a role in nearly every critical problem that we face, from the climate emergency 3 and voter suppression 4 to gun violence 5 and the widening income gap.

Society’s collective lens is now sharply focused on the disparity of experience among different social groups. People are energized regarding crucial issues—LGBTQ legal protections, abuse of women, the rights of immigrants and indigenous peoples, racial discrimination and more. Today’s educators have a unique opportunity to advocate for their students and communities, and to demand substantive change.

Here are 15 ways that you can advance social justice, individually and through alignment with like-minded people in your community and throughout the world.

Examine your beliefs and habits.

Educate yourself about social justice issues., discover your local organizations., take positive action in your own community., harness the power of social media., attend demonstrations and protests..

Idealist - Browse by area of focus, language, and time availability.
GozAround - Search by category and find matches for your abilities and schedule.
VolunteerMatch - Search for local and virtual volunteer work by topic and by organization names.

Get involved with politics through civic engagement.

Make your voice heard on local radio, investigate what’s happening at local colleges or universities., invest responsibly., support minority-owned businesses in your community and online., support artists, writers, and activists who speak out against injustices., be kind, understanding, and compassionate., prepare to meet today’s demands at the university of kansas..

1. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from abcnews.go.com/Business/extreme-inequality-preexisting-condition-covid-19-widened-americas/story? 2. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/timeline-george-floyd-protests-200610194807385.html 3. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from ecowatch.com/environment-social-justice-2646167147.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1 4. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/vote-suppression 5. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/arms-control/gun-violence/ 6. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from mashable.com/2014/12/10/volunteer-work-online/ 7. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from money.usnews.com/investing/slideshows/7-of-the-best-socially-responsible-funds 8. Retrieved on July 1, 2020 from refinery29.com/en-us/2020/06/9849096/find-black-owned-businesses-online-apps

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Section 5. Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Development

Chapter 17 Sections

Section 1. An Introduction to the Problem-Solving Process
Section 2. Thinking Critically
Section 3. Defining and Analyzing the Problem
Section 4. Analyzing Root Causes of Problems: The "But Why?" Technique
Section 6. Generating and Choosing Solutions
Section 7. Putting Your Solution into Practice
Main Section

"Our children have dramatically different life chances depending on where they were born. In Japan or Sweden they can expect to live more than 80 years; in Brazil, 72 years; India, 63 years; and in one of several African countries, fewer than 50 years. And within countries, the differences in life chances are dramatic and are seen worldwide. The poorest of the poor have high levels of illness and premature mortality. But poor health is not confined to those worst off. In countries at all levels of income, health and illness follow a social gradient: the lower the socioeconomic position, the worse the health.

It does not have to be this way and it is not right that it should be like this. Where systematic differences in health are judged to be avoidable by reasonable action they are, quite simply, unfair. It is this that we label health inequity. Putting right these inequities – the huge and remediable differences in health between and within countries – is a matter of social justice. Reducing health inequities is...an ethical imperative. Social injustice is killing people on a grand scale." - excerpt from the 2008 World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health Final Report Executive Summary

What are social determinants of health and development?

“Social determinants” refer to broader social factors, such as income inequality or social exclusion, that lead to or influence health and development outcomes. In Section 4 of this chapter, for instance, a development worker in Mexico tells of realizing that one of the major causes of malnutrition in the area where he was working was not that there simply wasn’t enough food. Sharecropping farmers were able to grow enough to feed their families, but had to borrow seed from the landowner to plant their crops. The terms of the loan were that, for every liter of maize borrowed at planting time, three liters had to be repaid from the harvest. With this high interest rate, peasants went deeper and deeper into debt, and had to use more of their crop each year to pay the landowner. Without power, group solidarity, and influence, the farmers were unable to create conditions that assured the health and well-being of their families.

There is a great deal of research on the social determinants of health. Most of it points to three overarching factors:

Income inequality . Once a country has reached the point of development where most deaths come not from infectious diseases (tuberculosis, dysentery, cholera, malaria, flu, pneumonia, etc.), but from chronic diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer), the economic and social equality within the society is a greater determinant of death rates and average lifespan than the country’s position with regard to others. The United States, for instance, lags behind Japan, Sweden, Canada, and many other less affluent countries in the life expectancy of its citizens. The difference seems to be the size of the gap between the most and least affluent segments of the society.
Social connectedness . Many studies indicate that “belonging” – whether to a large extended family, a network of friends, a social or volunteer organization, or a faith community – is related to longer life and better health, as well as to community participation.
Sense of personal or collective efficacy . This refers to people’s sense of control over their lives. People with a higher sense or stronger history of efficacy tend to live longer, maintain better health, and participate more vigorously in civic life.

Many of the social determinants listed below are specific forms of or contributors to these three categories. At a community level, it may be difficult to influence income inequality directly, but a non-governmental or community-based organization may be able to approach it through addressing a particular issue. A small organization may be able to have more effect on social connectedness and the sense of efficacy, since collective action can influence both social ties and the experience of changing communities and systems.

The World Health Organization, in its publication The Solid Facts, recognizes the need to break these factors down into more manageable pieces. It lists ten factors that affect health and life expectancy, and advocates addressing each within a comprehensive program of social protection that addresses all of them within a society. These ten factors are:

The social gradient (extent of equity or the difference in wealth and opportunity between those with the most and those with the least)
Early life experience
Social exclusion (the opposite of social connectedness)
Unemployment
Social support

The factors listed below are, in most cases, more specific than the three broader determinants discussed above. In addressing social determinants, however, keep in mind these broader factors, and gear programs and policies toward influencing them at whatever level you can, given the resources and scope of your organization.

The social determinants of a particular community health or development issue may be unique to a particular community or group, or may be part of the larger society. People from different immigrant cultures, different social classes, or with different levels of education might experience the same issue very differently because of different social factors.

There are three major ways in which social determinants may affect specific populations. These can also be viewed as levers – points of intervention – that can be used to address those social determinants and lessen their effects.

1. Differences in exposure. Certain population groups, because of economics, geography, or other factors, may be more likely than others to encounter particular health risks. People in poverty, for example, are likely to be exposed to higher levels of stress, economic uncertainty, and unhealthy conditions than their wealthier countrymen.

A specific example : in developing, or even middle-income, countries, poor rural villages may get all their water – for drinking, washing, waste disposal, and other uses – from a single, above-ground source, such as a lake or stream. In that case, the villagers are far more apt to be exposed to water-borne diseases and pollutants than wealthier neighbors who can afford to buy bottled water or drill a well.

2. Differences in vulnerability. Because of their poverty, their exposure to stress and uncertainty, or other factors, those same population groups might find themselves more vulnerable than others to health problems. The inability to pay for regular health care or medical treatment increases the possibility of chronic illness. In the example of the village above, poor nutrition, as a result of poverty, could increase villagers’ vulnerability to water-borne disease, as would the inability to organize to finance a village well.

3. Differences in consequences. Differences in wealth, social standing, connectedness, and other factors can lead to very different outcomes where health issues are concerned. For a middle- or upper-class family in many countries, a minor health problem – missing a few days of work, paying a modest sum for treatment – might be just an annoyance. For a poor family, it might be the difference between a roof over their heads and homelessness, or between children attending school and dropping out to go to work. Discrimination, high stress levels, employment conditions, and other factors can result in disparities in health and health care among different groups.

There are a number of social factors to address to improve conditions for health and development. Some of the more common factors to be addressed are:

Economic factors.

The unemployment rate, for example, has a great influence on such issues as domestic violence, substance use, depression, or physical illness. Economic inequality affects people’s stress levels, exposure to violence and toxins, educational prospects, access to services, high-risk behavior, and mortality rates.

Social inclusion.

Social connectedness and the cohesion of the community have been shown to have a direct relationship to good health and lower mortality rates. These factors can also encourage civic participation in changing conditions that affect group goals.

More education means not only better jobs and more affluence, but also a greater sense of control over one’s life. People with more education have more choices in health, housing, careers, and other areas that affect the quality of their lives.

Racial or ethnic bias.

Social exclusion can be the result of prejudice, which results in different access to health care, education, or other services.

Social norms of acceptance of particular behaviors or practices.

Smoking, or even alcohol abuse, may be an accepted part of the culture of a community. In that case, many more people will adopt it than in a community where it is frowned upon.

Cultural factors.

There are many elements of culture that might have a bearing on social inclusion, efficacy, and income inequality.

Gender roles in different cultures may lead to differences in opportunities for men and women, and to disparities in nutrition, health, education, and life opportunities for their children as well.
Food preferences in different cultures may have profound health effects. For centuries, for instance, the Japanese ate a diet consisting largely of rice, vegetables, and fish, and, at least partly as a result, experienced fewer heart health problems than the meat-and-potato eaters in the United States.

In many cases, people only one generation removed from rural poverty – as typified by many Eastern European immigrants to the U.S. in the early 20th century – may eat more fat because being able to eat fatty foods, such as meat, symbolizes wealth in peasant cultures. Many turn-of-the-20th-century immigrants to the U. S. – the grandparents of contemporary Americans – thought fat children were healthy children, because fat children clearly get enough to eat, as opposed to going hungry. Starvation was a real danger in the time and place of their childhoods.

Religion can have profound effects on both health and development issues.
Attitudes toward mainstream culture can influence everything from medical care to whether or not high school students can attend dances. This, in turn, affects the type and amount of health care received, the sense of connectedness within a community, and many other factors.
Language barriers can cut people off from health care and other services, make it difficult for them to find and keep decent jobs, and affect their children’s education.

The influence of mass media.

The media, particularly television, can send powerful messages about community health and development. In the 1950s in the U.S., smoking was portrayed in movies, magazines, and TV as glamorous and sophisticated. Now, there are no TV ads for cigarettes, virtually no one in the movies smokes, and anti-smoking messages are everywhere. These conditions both reflect and are partially responsible for the fact that fewer than 25% of adults in the U.S. now smoke.

The media can help or hinder other efforts to improve health (through programming that shows people exercising as a matter of course, for instance, or that shows the same people eating fatty fast food or drinking too much). They can also, similarly, encourage or discourage tolerance for others, push a political agenda, or condone or condemn such behavior as solving disputes with violence and engaging in unsafe sex.

It is probably fair to say that all community issues are political to some degree. If a factory is poisoning town wells with its effluent, for example, local officials are faced with the choice of not dealing with the actual cause of the problem (the dumping of waste) and endangering citizens’ health, or addressing the dumping and endangering citizens’ jobs. Politicians with larger constituencies, using poll data, may pander to what they perceive as people’s selfishness and prejudice, passing legislation or instituting policies that discriminate against one group or another, or fly in the face of the public interest. Even honest differences of political opinion – over whether the government should be responsible for providing social services or not, for instance – can have enormous consequences in the community.

Living conditions.

Run-down or inadequate housing, dangerous streets, noise, and blighted neighborhoods all have their effects on those who experience them every day, as do manicured landscapes and calm environments. The stress of living in a difficult situation carries over into many other areas of life.

Location may have a great deal to do with whether people receive services or not. In developing countries, children from isolated villages in the mountains or on the seacoast may have no opportunity for school or medical care, for instance. In the U.S., as mentioned earlier, access to medical care and other services may depend on the availability of transportation. In urban areas, that access may have a lot to do with the neighborhood in which the services are located: another gang’s turf or a neighborhood perceived as hostile may be as effective in denying services as if they didn’t exist at all.

Why address social determinants of health and development?

Reasons for addressing the social determinants of an issue include:

If you want to solve or prevent a problem for the long term, you have to deal with its root causes .

If you address the root causes, you’re more likely to successfully address the issue for the short term as well . To cure a disease, you have to treat more than the symptoms – but you usually have to treat the symptoms, too. Dealing with social determinants will not only resolve the issue over the long term, but will make alleviating the current effects of the issue possible also.

To eliminate cholera, one of the most important steps is to provide people with clean drinking water. During the London cholera epidemic of 1854, John Snow, a physician, mapped the houses where the disease struck. He learned that many of the stricken were drawing water from a pump that tapped a filthy part of the Thames River, because conventional wisdom said it was better than the piped water also available to them – which actually came from a cleaner area. He was able to close the pump and substitute piped for pumped water, almost immediately ending the outbreak. Snow’s insights about the social determinants of cholera, along with the later work of others, eventually helped to eliminate the disease as a threat in most of the developed world. But they also served to stop the 1854 epidemic.

Who should address social determinants of community health and development?

The Community Tool Box advocates for participatory approaches to planning and, in this case, for a participatory approach to analysis and intervention as well. The presence of members of the groups affected by the issue will ensure that everyone knows its full context and history, as well as what various segments of the community might be willing and unwilling to do about it. Those who should be involved include:

Those directly affected by, or at risk for, a particular health condition or community development issue.
Policy makers, legislators, officials, or others who can affect the issue .
Human services staff, administrators, and others (such as police officers, teachers, and coalition members) who are responsible for dealing with the issue at hand.
Respected local figures, including advocates, clergy, and others in the community to whom people turn for support.
Members of groups that may be asked to change or sacrifice or take action in order to address the issue. Employers, landlords and other property owners, health and human service workers, police, and teachers all might fall into this category.

When should you address social determinants of community health and development?

You should always look at the social factors that play a role in community issues, but there are some times when analysis of those factors is particularly important.

When it’s clear that simply focusing on the issue isn’t enough . As cities have found again and again, all the enforcement in the world won’t really stop youth violence. There has to be a change in the culture that creates that violence.

In the late 1960s, Philadelphia was a city of gangs. One night in 1969 in North Philadelphia, there were five shootings in a one-square-block area. The neighborhood was crawling with police who were apparently powerless to stop the string of attempted revenge killings (“attempted” only because only three of the shootings were fatal). What eventually succeeded, a couple of years later, was a peacemaking effort that involved the gang leaders and that addressed the social issues that lay behind the existence of gangs and violence in the neighborhood: the isolation and alienation of black youth from the society at large, the lack of jobs, and the irrelevance of school to kids whose main concern was getting home alive. Gang members formed entrepreneurial businesses – making films, developing clothing lines – and school became relevant because education was necessary to run a business successfully. Community violence lessened as truces were signed and hope for a reasonable life grew.

When you’re advocating for legislation, policy change, or funding to address a community issue . The legislation, policy, or funding – and therefore your advocacy – should address the underlying causes of the problem you’re trying to solve, as well as its symptoms. Otherwise, you’ll be dealing with the symptoms forever.
When you’re trying to demonstrate that fundamental change is needed . Change is difficult for everyone. Trying to get a whole community to change its attitudes and/or behavior is even more difficult. Being able to explain clearly how the changes are related to positive results can make things easier.
When you’re looking for long-term solutions to long-term problems . Long-term solutions are impossible without taking into account the root causes of the problems you want to solve. Analyzing the social determinants of those problems makes it possible to address them, and come to real, permanent solutions.
When your focus is on community wellness and prevention . Whether you’re trying to guard against a disease or debilitating condition, or trying to create a healthy community, you have to look at the issue as a whole in order to be successful. You can’t lower your blood pressure, for instance, without adjusting your diet, exercise, stress levels, and daily activities, all of which may be governed, to some extent, by social as well as personal factors. By the same token, you can’t alter racial tensions in a community without somehow addressing all the history that led to those tensions, the preconceptions and misconceptions on both sides, personal experiences, the attitudes of community officials and police, the racial prejudice endemic in the society, etc.

How do you address social determinants of community health and development?

Now that you’re convinced that addressing the social factors that cause or influence community health and development issues is important, how do you go about doing so? There are really two parts to addressing social determinants. The first is identifying how various social factors affect the issue you’re concerned with, and the second is developing and implementing an action plan based on an understanding of how, and from what angle, to approach them successfully in order to change the way the issue plays out in the community and, ultimately, resolve the problem.

Identifying social determinants

The issue you’re dealing with may be obvious, but it’s likely that all of its social determinants are not. There may be local customs that seem so obvious to the folks you’re working with that they don’t consider them worth mentioning, even though they may control a great deal of the community’s functioning. If they’re unique to that community or region, and you’re not a native, you’ll have to learn about them if you have any hope of changing conditions. In other cases, social factors may have to be traced through several layers of the society before you reach the point where they originate and can be influenced. The way to find out about these and other social determinants is to do a community assessment.

Assess the community to find the social determinants of your issue . The purpose of community assessment is largely to assess the community for needs and assets, but the strategies it proposes are equally useful in searching for social determinants of health and development.

Start by talking to people:
Community leaders
Members of the group most affected by the issue
Government officials
Staff and volunteers of non-governmental health and community development organizations (NGO’s)
Community activists and organizers
Anyone who has a stake in the issue you are trying to address

If there are conflicting factions or “sides” involved in the issue, it’s important to hear from all of them. Even if you’re clear about who’s in the right, or about what needs to happen in order for the issue to be resolved, understanding all points of view can tell you a great deal about the social factors that underlie the situation in the community.

You can hear what people have to say in various ways:

Individual interviews
Group interviews
Focus groups
Community meetings
Informal conversations
Listening and observation at gatherings held for other purposes
Learning as much as you can about community history. Social determinants of health and development often run deep and go back generations.

The Battle of Montaperti was fought between the Italian cities of Florence and Siena, then independent republics, in 1260. In the 21st century, a sports contest between the two, whether on the high school or professional level, often spurs a cry of “Remember Montaperti” by the Sienese – the victors 750 years ago.

Apply critical thinking principles to analyze the results of the assessment. Very briefly, these include:

Make sure your information is accurate.
Consider the reliability of your sources.
Examine and challenge your own and others’ assumptions and biases.
Identify the interests being served or ignored.
Ask the right questions. This could also be considered a principle of critical thinking, and dovetails with the “But why?” technique. Some of the questions you might want to ask are:
Whom does the issue affect?
What do those affected have in common? Class? Race or ethnicity? Gender? Physical characteristics? Geographical origin or location? Behavior or personal practices? Lifestyle? Education? Employment? Personal history? Culture? Interests? Other characteristics?
What is the history of the issue in the community? When did it become an issue? What else was happening at the time, both in the community and in the society at large?
Who stands to gain, and who stands to lose – socially, economically, or politically – if nothing changes?
Who stands to gain, and who stands to lose if changes are made? Is there a win-win option, where everyone benefits?
Who has the power to create change in this situation? What are reasons they may or may not do so?
Where is the issue centered, geographically and socially?
Are there economic aspects to the issue? What would it cost to change the situation or to leave it as it is, and who would bear the cost in either case?

The “But why?” technique is actually quite simple. Once you have the answer to an initial question, you follow up the answer with “But why?” The answer to that question gets another “But why?” until you get as far as you can go. At that point, you have an answer that identifies the root of the problem, and therefore implies a solution.

Addressing social determinants

As we’ve discussed, most social determinants come down to:

Economic inequality
Social connectedness
A sense of efficacy

The lower people’s economic levels, the less connected they are to others – through family, social groups and organizations, faith communities, etc.; the less convinced they are of their ability to control their situations and their lives, the greater the likelihood that they’ll experience more health problems than those in the society who fare better in those categories.

And as we’ve also discussed, particular individuals or populations are most likely to be disadvantaged by health problems because of:

Differences between them and others in the society in the level of their exposure to those problems.
Differences in their vulnerability to those problems.
Differences in the consequences to them of those problems.

These characteristics feed each other in a cycle of poverty and powerlessness. An effective intervention has to break that cycle by understanding the social determinants behind it and changing them and the conditions that they cause in a truly profound way.

You can develop interventions that can reduce people’s exposure to, their vulnerability to, and their consequences from health problems, and that can also encourage gains in economic equality, social connectedness, and efficacy. By doing so, you can help people not only improve their health and that of their children, but move up the ladder of economic and social status, thus cementing their gains, and securing them for the next generation.

This may seem like an impossible task. How can you change a society? It’s hard for governments and even harder for most NGOs and community-based organizations, given the limits on their resources. Major social change often takes not a single type of intervention, but an all-out assault on a number of social factors over a long period of time. Unless you’re a high government official, or have access to unlimited funds, you’re probably not planning anything that broad . . . and you don’t have to.

Rather than trying to concentrate on the huge issues, you can intervene in the environmental and policy conditions that reflect social determinants and that can more easily affect differences in exposure, vulnerability, and consequences. In the process of addressing these types of issues, the folks you’re concerned with can learn much of what they need to change their position in society.

Environmental here refers not just to the natural environment, but to the total environment of the people in question. That includes the built environment – buildings, roads, power sources, farms, etc. – as well as the social environment – culture, social rules and norms, government, business, education, economics, etc.. The term “environment” here encompasses all the natural and human physical, social, economic, and political structures that surround people’s lives.

Environmental and policy conditions include:

Knowledge and skills . Individual and group knowledge and experience affect the availability of resources for supporting health and well-being. A villager who understands how to advocate with the government for clean drinking water, for instance, can greatly enhance the health prospects of his community.

Helping people gain knowledge and skills can be an intervention in itself, or be part of a broader intervention that nonetheless provides participants with tools to safeguard or improve their health and their lives. Some community development programs, for example, include literacy classes as part of the support they provide. With literacy, participants gain skills that allow them to continue and expand the community development activities they’ve begun, or to get jobs that will better serve them and their families. Literacy also gives people who’ve typically been powerless a means to power over their lives by helping them understand the forces working on them (not to mention the terms of contracts and other papers to which they’re asked to agree), and take action on their own behalf. Providing knowledge of specific health issues and practices can have a dramatic effect on the health of a community. Safe sex practices, for instance, can cut down on the incidence of HIV infection, and information about the treatment of infant diarrhea can drastically reduce infant mortality. In both these examples, addressing a specific issue serves to address efficacy, and, in the case of literacy training, economic inequality as well. Depending on how programs are structured, most can also address social connectedness, either by bringing a community or population group together to work on an issue, or by creating a community among those involved (in literacy classes, for example.)

Support within and between groups . Emotional support from family and friends, such as for the stress of difficult work or family situations, helps us cope with situations that cannot be easily changed. Links with other groups, such as faith communities or non-governmental organizations (NGOs), can provide access to goods and services. Just as important, joining with other groups to work for increased resources and better health conditions can permanently improve the quality of community life.

Again, an intervention to connect people or groups with others may stand alone, or may be integrated into a larger concept. A government agency might encourage groups to combine across ethnic or geographic lines in order to receive funding or training for health and community development projects. In a situation where the government is perceived as withholding support, a group of villages without access to health care, for instance, might come together to petition the government for a centrally located health clinic that would be easily reachable for all of them. Groups like this represent the most fundamental kind of community organizing , which brings groups and communities together to advocate for their interests and to take control of what happens to them.

Barriers to, access to, and opportunities for resources and services . Some social groups, such as women or ethnic minorities, face discrimination and other barriers in gaining access to education, jobs, and basic services. The quality and availability of even basic education and health services are unfairly distributed among social groups.

In cases where education, jobs, services, and other necessities are unequally distributed, the appropriate action may be to organize the community, as above, to demand equal treatment; to use the court system to try to gain access and opportunity; or to attempt to address the issue locally, using available community assets and the initiative of local people. If the initiative comes from the government, it might create programs that remove or address barriers to opportunities and services, such as discrimination, unaffordable expense, geographic isolation, lack of transportation, illiteracy, and lack of job skills.

Consequences of Actions . Research has long shown that people are more apt to take or continue action if it rewards them with goods, peer approval, pleasure, status, satisfaction, or the desired results than if it punishes them with high costs, disapproval, misery, loss of status, dissatisfaction, or frustration. If gaining access to health care or to healthy goods or practices is difficult, slow, and tedious, and often ends in failure, it won’t be long before people stop trying.

A possible remedy here is, as above, to improve access and break down barriers to access to goods and services, thus making the attempt to obtain them less frustrating and more likely to be repeated. Strategies might include providing transportation to and from existing services or distribution points, locating new services closer to where they’re needed, or lessening bureaucratic requirements. If the intervention involves action by participants, actions should be planned in small steps, so that people can easily experience success, at least at the beginning. A series of small successes is more likely to develop a sense of efficacy and keep people moving ahead than a grand failure.

Exposure to or protection from hazards . Contact with environmental hazards – polluted water, toxic substances or dangerous practices in the workplace, endemic diseases such as malaria, widespread violence – increase risk for disease or injury. By the same token, actions taken to reduce or eliminate those hazards – drilling a new well, instituting protective workplace safety procedures, disease eradication campaigns, negotiating a peace treaty – work to make disease or injury less probable.

An intervention to decrease or prevent exposure to hazards can take any one of several forms. A self-help program to dig a well or use filters to obtain clean water, channel sewage, grow food without pesticides or chemical fertilizers, eliminate VOCs (volatile organic compounds, often-toxic chemicals – used in glues, dyes, paint, and solvents – that vaporize at room temperature and can affect the health of many people) in a building, or clean up a neighborhood can not only improve health conditions, but increase participants’ sense of efficacy as well. A different approach might involve advocacy for government assistance or services – drilling a well, installing a sewer system, establishing a health clinic, instituting public transportation, etc. – or to pass or prevent laws that affect exposure to health risks. These actions would speak to both social connectedness (community organizing brings communities or groups together to apply pressure and advocate effectively) and participants’ sense of efficacy. A third possibility that also addresses both social connectedness and efficacy might involve an initiative to change the behavior of – or prosecute – a corporation or other party responsible for pollution, unsafe workplace practices, illegal dumping, shoddy and dangerous construction, selling harmful products, or other potential hazards.

Policies . Policies that affect community health and development may be formal or informal, and may be those of governmental or non-governmental bodies (e.g., corporations, institutions, foundations, professional associations). They may relate to the provision of goods and services (e.g., clean water, adequate food, health care, education, housing) or to regulations and their enforcement (e.g., environmental and drug laws, welfare rules, trade regulations, non-discrimination laws in employment and education.) Public policies often mirror a community’s or society’s norms (the unspoken rules of “how things should be”), and, as a result, are often a direct reflection of social determinants.

Changing or instituting policy is generally a matter of advocacy. It’s important because policies can, and do, affect all three of the differences – in exposure, vulnerability, and consequences – that create less healthy conditions for populations at risk. An initiative aimed at policy change can start at any level. It may begin with government, with the realization by legislators, other elected or appointed officials, or an agency that some sizeable group of citizens is in danger of, or already suffering from, disparities in health. It may begin with an NGO or grassroots organization that works with (or is composed of) that group. Or it may begin with the people themselves, who have simply come to the end of their patience with their situation. Policy change is often difficult, but, in the long run, it can be the most effective means of improving health and development outcomes, because it can lead to real social change. The ideal intervention would be one that either originates with, or involves those who will benefit from the change in question, since that gives them control over what happens to them.

Several principles, assumptions, and values help guide collaborative action to create conditions that promote health and development. These include:

Priority issues and strategies for collaborative action are best determined by people most affected by the concern. This can enhance community efficacy and empowerment, and is also most likely to address the issues most important to those involved.
Since health and development outcomes are caused by multiple and interrelated factors at multiple levels, single interventions are likely to be insufficient. This suggests the importance of comprehensive interventions that address environmental and policy conditions at all levels.

Multi-pronged, multi-faceted interventions are the ideal, and are, in general, necessary to create real and permanent social change. The reality for small organizations, however, is that such interventions may not be possible, because of limited resources and geographic and/or political isolation. There are at least two ways to deal with this reality: One is to form a coalition, pulling in other organizations – including national and international NGOs and even the government where possible – to mount a collaborative effort on many fronts. The second is to develop a long-range strategic plan that takes as its base the saying of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, “The longest journey begins with a single step.” That involves starting with a single issue in order to tackle something manageable and achieve a success that will energize and empower those affected. Then you can go on to the next issue and the next, always maintaining and consolidating gains as you go. In this way, you can end up with an effort that addresses the full range of social determinants, without exceeding your capacity at the beginning. It may take a while, but your chances of creating real change are better if you take it step by step, as long as you don’t lose sight of the goal.

Collaborative efforts must bring about change in multiple sectors and systems. (This requires leadership to engage groups with different interests, such as those in business or education, to share resources and responsibilities in common purpose.

Again, depending on your resources, even a coalition or other collaborative body might have to take this one step at a time.

The aim of support organizations is to build capacity so that local people can take action over time and across issues.

Capacity-building involves helping local people gain the skills and knowledge – and establish or strengthen the community organizations and institutions – necessary to allow them to take action and control their own fate. That may entail direct training, using resources like the Community Tool Box, and a certain amount of “on-the-job training”. There’s no substitute for experience in health and community development, although having some background before you’re thrown into it is certainly helpful.

At some point – earlier is usually better than later, and from the beginning is often best – local people have to be directly involved in planning and carrying out strategies for improving their situation. Taking on responsibility and leadership positions builds both a sense of efficacy and connectedness in the local population, and also puts their future where it belongs – in their own hands.

Health and development efforts should involve collaborative partners as catalysts for change. (Partners must convene conversations that lead to addressing the issue, broker relationships, and develop resources for those doing the work of changing communities and systems.)

Partners can be NGOs or community health or development organizations, government agencies, corporations, academic institutions, faith communities – any party that is generally respected, has some clout, and can function as an honest broker.

As is perhaps obvious from the discussion directly above, an important goal of addressing social determinants is strengthening the ability of the community to sustain the changes that an intervention brings about. If a population is malnourished, giving them food is only a temporary solution: helping them to develop self-sufficient and sustainable farming practices, or training them for necessary and available work, on the other hand, can be permanent ones.

Another important goal is to take on tasks that can actually be accomplished. A local entrepreneur, owner of a large and flourishing tire business, a real estate development firm, and several other successful ventures, was asked how he got to the position he was in. His answer was simple: “Crawl, walk, run.” He started small, with something he knew he could handle. When he succeeded at that, he used it as a base to take on something a bit more challenging, consolidated his gains again when he succeeded at that, and just kept going.

Social change often works the same way. Success breeds success, and you’re far more likely to be successful if you attempt something that’s challenging but doable. Once you accomplish it, you have a foundation from which to address the next issue, or the next level of issues. Communities never lack the most important resource – people, and their intelligence and determination – but they may lack the material resources that allow them to attempt overall social change – change that entails addressing several social factors and levels of power – all at once. They can do it, however, if they take it one step at a time.

The last bit of how-to in this section will be familiar to regular Tool Box users. You have to keep taking that one step at a time again and again and again for as far into the future as you want your community to exist. Addressing social determinants of health and development isn’t a one-time thing. People have to maintain their gains and their healthy practices, and teach the next generation what they’ve learned about creating a healthy community, so that it will continue to be one.

“Social determinants” of health and development issues are the social factors that determine or influence the issues. Most fall into the three categories of economic inequality, social connectedness, and sense of efficacy. By understanding and addressing these social factors, you can increase your chances of resolving issues over the long term by getting at their root causes.

It makes sense to use a participatory approach to analyze and address social determinants of health and development issues. By including those who know the history and context of the issue, and by subjecting it to analysis from many minds and perspectives, you’re more likely to arrive at a thorough understanding of it. This kind of analysis is especially effective when it’s clear that simply putting a Band-Aid on the symptoms of the issue isn’t enough, and that you have to employ a long-term strategy in order to address it effectively. Such a strategy may incorporate advocacy for a change in law or policy and leadership training, as well as community-based actions.

A community assessment will help you understand what the social determinants are in a particular case. By asking the right questions to determine community reality – Who is affected and how? What are the patterns in who is affected, who is opposed to action, what are the interests at stake? What are the costs of action and inaction, and who will pay them? – and talking to those affected and others who may already know what the social determinants are in the situation, you can create a complete picture of the issue.

Using that picture, you can address the social factors in order to reduce the population’s exposure to, vulnerability to, and consequences from the issue at hand. The best approach is usually through environmental and policy conditions, rather than through attempting to change social factors – which can be far-reaching and ingrained in the culture of the society – all at once. Work toward incremental, sustainable change, help local people learn the skills to take over and continue the effort themselves, and make sure the effort continues indefinitely, and you’ll ultimately be successful in developing a healthy community.

Online Resources

ACTION: SDH The aim of this tool from the World Health Organization is to provide public health, and other practitioners on the social determinants of health, with a one-stop portal. ACTION:SDH houses knowledge on the social determinants according to the five social determinants of health action areas identified in the 2011 World Conference on Social Determinants of Health. It also provides a platform for discussion of action on the social determinants of health. There are currently three main features to the tool:

embedded web-pages pages on SDH knowledge relevant to the five action areas for SDH that were identified in the Rio Declaration;
discussion forums that can be used to share tacit knowledge from practice - either by invitation only, or open to all members;
a document repository that initially is housing selected WHO materials on SDH - documents are classified as Examples (case studies), Tools & Resources, and E-library.

Actively Addressing Systemic Racism Using a Behavioral Community Approach - a journal article from Behavior and Social Issues .

Can Hospitals Heal America's Communities? from Democracy Collaborative illuminates the possibilities of hospitals and health systems healing America’s communities and explores how “all in for mission” is the emerging healthcare model.

CDC Health Disparities and Inequalities Report

Health disparities are differences in health outcomes between groups that reflect social inequalities. Despite progress over the past 20 years in reducing this problem, racial/ethnic, economic and other social disparities in health still exists and need to be addressed. This report is the first in a periodic series examining health disparities in the United States. The report can also be found as a PDF .

Chapter 13: Stress and Coping in the "Introduction to Community Psychology" details stress, its different forms, coping, coping strategies and styles, and how individuals and communities become resilient.

Closing the Gap in a Generation 2008 World Health Organization Commission on Social Determinants of Health Final Report Executive Summary

Closing the Gap: Policy into Practice on Social Determinants of Health This discussion paper for the 2011 World Conference on Social Determinants of Health shares experiences on how to address the challenges posed by health inequities and to mobilize commitment to the urgent implementation of feasible actions on social determinants in all countries. The paper lays out the key components that all countries need to integrate in their own context in implementing a social determinants approach, and was used at the World Conference to consider these themes and show how, in all contexts, it is possible to put policy into practice on social determinants of health to improve health, reduce health inequities, and promote development.

BALLE's field guide, The Future of Health is Local , gives health care providers actionable tools and examples on how to align the non-clinical assets of their organizations – such as procurement, employment, and investment – with local economic development strategies to improve human health and revitalize local communities.

Health and Well-Being for All Meeting-in-a-Box from the CDC Foundation is an innovative and compelling way to explore the potential root causes of illness—the social determinants of health—with health and health care professionals at all stages of professional development. It provides everything needed to explore the determinants underlying health problems faced by patients and communities. This hands-on tool simulates a 6-step process for leading change to improve the community’s health.

HealthEquityGuide.org is a website with a set of strategic practices that health departments can apply to more meaningfully and comprehensively advance health equity.

Health Equity Animated: Equity vs. Equality from the Center for Prevention in Minnesota explores the difference between the needs of various communities, and how addressing those specific needs requires specific solutions.

This ColorCode “Housing Is Health Care” podcast delves into how housing — and today’s housing crisis — intersects with health. It also explores how racial discrimination has played a part in causing this crisis, as well as present-day housing segregation on Long Island.

Michael Marmot and the Social Determinants of Health is a video from the American Public Health Association outlining key considerations in addressing the social determinants of health to ensure social justice.

No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of Housing Insecurity for Black Women from The Nonprofit Quarterly.

Pew Charitable Trusts provides an article regarding holistic approaches made by partnerships to promote healthy birth outcomes.

Social Determinants of Health in Rural Communities Toolkit by the Rural Health Information Hub organizes evidence-based models and resources to support the implementation of programs that address the social determinants of health (SDOH) in rural communities across the United States.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Training Plan from the TRAIN Learning Network provides over a dozen hours of training over the foundational concepts and their applications to various issues.

Tackling social determinants of health through community-based initiatives An article by M. Assai, S. Siddiqi, and S. Watts, provided by the British Medical Journal. Also available in PDF format. Also available in print in BMJ, vol. 333, 21 October, 2006.

7 Things Advocates Should Know When Communicating about Health Equity Berkeley Media Studies Group blog about using the media strategically to advance policies that improve health.

Seven Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being is a useful framework for conceptualizing holistic well-being and the conditions that give rise to it, as well as identifying levers for community change and improvement.

Social Determinants and HIV/AIDS is a short discussion of the social determinants of health and their relationship to HIV treatment and prevention, from the British Columbia, Canada, Ministry of Health Services.

Social Determinants of Health and Older Adults covers new resources made available by health.gov specifically focusing on the health of older adults.

The Solid Facts is a booklet about the social determinants of health, edited by Richard Wilkinson and Michael Marmot, from the International Centre for Health and Society at the University College of London.

The Sustainable Development Goals Guide is a preliminary guide on how to "get started" with implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.

Transformational Community Engagement to Advance Health Equity is a report with case studies from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

What is Healthy Equity? This three-minute motion graphic video explains how social, economic, and environmental conditions can create health inequities and how these inequities can affect health disparities.

What is Privilege? A video from BFMP at Buzzfeed.

Print Resources

Bonnefoy, J.,Morgan, A., Kelly, M.,Butt, J., Bergman, V., With Tugwell, P., Robinson,V., Exworthy, M., Mackenbach, J., Popay, J., Pope, C., Narayan, T., Myer, L., Simpson, S., Houweling, T., & Jadue, L,. Constructing the evidence base on the social determinants of health: A guide .

Collie-Akers, V., Landry, S., Ehule, N.J. et al. Enhancing the Capacity of Local Health Departments to Address Birth Equity: The Institute for Equity in Birth Outcomes. Matern Child Health J 25 , 1010–1018 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-021-03135-1

Health in an Unequal World. Harveian Lecture by Michael Marmet. The Lancet, vol. 368, Dec. 9, 2006.

Landry, S., Collie-Akers, V., Foster, K. et al. Assessing the Development of Collective Impact Initiatives Addressing Maternal and Child Health. Matern Child Health J 24, 405–411 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02894-7

Undertaken as work for the Measurement and Evidence Knowledge Network (MEKN) established as part of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health, and run by the Universidad de Desarollo, Chile. November, 2007.

1.2 Defining a Social Problem

Figure 1.2 Sociologist Anna Leon-Guerrero. We use her definition of a social problem.

When you think about the current issues facing our society and our planet, you might name war, addiction, climate change, houselessness, or the global pandemic as social problems. You would be right, sort of. Sociologists need to be more specific than that. Because they are trying to explain what social problems are or how to fix them, they need a much more precise definition. Sociology professor and author Anna Leon-Guerrero (figure 1.2) defines a social problem as “a social condition or pattern of behavior that has negative consequences for individuals, our social world, or our physical world.”(2018:4).

More concretely, it is not just that one person gets sick from COVID-19. The social problem is that our healthcare systems are overwhelmed with sick patients. People are experiencing different rates of exposure to COVID-19. Their health outcomes differ because of their race, class, and gender. Because social problems affect people across the social and physical worlds, the solutions to social problems must be collectively created. It is not enough for one person to get well, although that may really matter to you. Instead, we must act collectively, as groups, governments, or systems to identify and implement solutions. Our health is personal, but getting well depends on all of us.

To talk effectively about social problems, we must understand their characteristics. In this text, we will explore five important dimensions of a social problem :

A social problem goes beyond the experience of an individual.
A social problem results from a conflict in values.
A social problem arises when groups of people experience inequality.
A social problem is socially constructed but real in its consequences.
A social problem must be addressed interdependently, using both individual agency and collective action.

In the following section, we examine each of these five characteristics. Where these characteristics exist, social problems follow. Each component provides an additional layer of explanation about why any human problem is a social problem.

1.2.1 Social Problems: Beyond Individual Experience

Individuals have problems. Social problems, though, go beyond the experience of one individual. They are experienced by groups, nations, or people around the world. An individual experiences job loss, but the wider social problem may be rising unemployment rates. An individual may experience a divorce, but the wider social problem may be changing expectations around marriage and long-term partnerships. Solving a social problem is a collective task, outside of the capability of one individual or group.

Figure 1.3 Sociologist C. Wright Mills, pictured on the left wrote about the Sociological Imagination

In his book The Sociological Imagination , American sociologist C. Wright Mills helps us understand the difference between individual problems and social problems, and connects the two concepts (figure 1.3). Mills (1959) uses the term personal troubles to describe troubles that happen both within and to an individual. He contrasts these personal troubles with social problems, which he calls public issues . Public issues transcend the experience of one individual, impacting groups of people over time.

To illustrate, a recent college graduate may be several hundred thousand dollars in debt because of student loans. They may have trouble paying for living expenses because of this debt. This would be a personal trouble. If we look for larger social patterns, however, we see that as of 2021 about 1 in 8 Americans have student loan debt, owing about 1.6 trillion dollars (Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2021). The volume of this debt, the related laws, policies, and practices, and the harm that is being caused stretch far beyond the experience of a few individuals, resulting in student loan debt becoming a public issue.

In addition to differentiating personal troubles and public issues, Mills also connects them using the sociological imagination , a quality of mind that connects individual experience and wider social forces. He writes, “The sociological imagination enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society. This is its task and its promise” (Mills 1959:6).

In other words, when we use our own sociological imaginations, we connect our own lives with the experiences of other people. We consider how our own past actions and the historical actions of others may have contributed to our current reality. We use our sociological imaginations to consider what the outcomes of our actions or of social policies might be. When you use your sociological imagination, complicated social problems begin to make sense. When Mills linked personal troubles and public issues, he emphasized that individuals are acted upon by wider social forces.

View from inside a thick forest of trees.

Figure 1.4 A society consists of more than individual people, just like a forest consists of more than just individual trees: The forest around Cougar Hot Springs, Oregon—More than just individual trees. Tokyo, Japan—More than individual people.

Building on Mills’s concepts, current sociologists highlight the complex relationships of the social world. In the 2019 Society for the Study of Social Problems Presidential Address, Society president Nancy Mezey explores the topic of climate change as a social problem. Understanding and solving climate change requires a deep understanding of the relationship of people and systems. She emphasizes that “society is not just a collection of unrelated individuals, but rather a collection of people who live in relationship with each other” (Mezey 2020: 606). To make this point, she uses the work of sociologist Allan Johnson. In his book The Forest and the Trees, Johnson compares the physical world to our social world:

In one sense, a forest is simply a collection of individual trees, but it is more than that. It is also a collection of trees that exist in particular relation to one another, and you cannot tell what that relation is by looking at the individual trees. Take a thousand trees and scatter them across the Great Plains of North America and all you have is a thousand trees. But take those same trees and put them close together, and now you have a forest. The same individual trees in one case constitute a forest and in another are just a lot of trees. The “empty space” that separates individual trees from one another is not a characteristic of any one tree or the characteristics of all the individual trees somehow added together. It is something more than that, and it is crucial to understand the relationships among trees that make a forest what it is. Paying attention to that “something more” — whether it is a family or a society or the entire world – and how people are related to it lies at the heart of what it means to practice sociology . (Johnson 2014: 11-12, emphasis added)

Using this comparison, Mezey reminds us human society is made up of interdependent individuals, groups, institutions, and systems, similar to the living ecosystem of the forest. This similarity is illustrated in figure 1.4. The reach of a social problem can also be planet-wide. As the response to COVID-19 demonstrates, migrations between countries, vaccination policies and implementations for any nation, and the responses of health systems in local areas can all impact whether any individual is likely to get COVID-19 or to recover from it. A social problem, then, is one that involves a wider scope of groups, institutions, nations, or global populations.

1.2.2 Social Problems: A Conflict in Values

Social problems can also be defined as issues in which social values conflict. A value is an ideal or principle that determines what is correct, desirable, or morally proper. A society may share common values. For example, a society may value universal education, the ideal that all children should learn to read and write or, at minimum, be in school until they are 18. A different society may value practical experience, focusing on teaching children skills related to farming, hunting, or raising children. When core values are shared, there is no basis for conflict.

Social problems may begin to arise if people cannot agree on values. For example, some groups may value business growth and expansion. They oppose restrictions on pollution or emissions because following these regulations would cost money. In contrast, other groups might value sustaining the environment. They support regulations that limit industrial pollution, even when they cost more money. This conflict in values provides a rich soil from which a social problem may grow.

1.2.3 Social Problems: Inequality

A social problem can arise if there is a conflict between a widely shared value and a society’s success in meeting expectations around that value. For example, to sustain life, people need sufficient water, food, and shelter. To work well, a society values human life and creates infrastructure so that all members have water, food, and shelter. However, even at this most basic level, people experience significant inequality in their access to these resources.

Figure 1.5 In this chart, we see that women experience more food insecurity than men, in every region of the world. In Africa, more than half of all people experience hunger. This rate of food insecurity has also increased around the world between 2015 and 2020. How do you think COVID-19 might have impacted world hunger? Figure 1.5 Image Description

For example, the United Nations reports that one in three people worldwide do not have access to adequate food. That number is rising (United Nations 2020). As we can see in the chart in figure 1.5, women are more likely than men to experience hunger in all regions of the world. The related report also notes that 22 percent of all children worldwide are stunted because they do not have enough to eat (FAO 2021).

In another example at the local level, the Oregon Food Bank explicitly defines hunger as a social problem. They write, “Hunger isn’t just an individual experience; it’s a symptom of barriers to employment, housing, health care and more—and a result of unfair systems that continue to keep these barriers in place” (Oregon Food Bank 2021). In exploring who is hungry in Oregon, they note that communities of color experience greater housing instability and therefore greater food insecurity than White families (Oregon Food Bank 2019). Unequal access and unequal outcomes are both common in our world and fundamental to social problems.

1.2.4 Social Problems: A Social Construction with Real Consequences

Figure 1.6: This 10 minute video on social construction explores what it means to jointly create our social reality. What else do you see that is socially constructed? Note to Reviewers: This 10 minute video on social construction is under construction. The final version will be included with the final version of the book. At the same time, we welcome comments on this draft.

Sociologists delight in statistics, those numbers that measure rates, patterns, and trends. You might think that a social problem exists when things get measurably worse—unemployment rises, food prices increase, deaths from AIDS skyrocket, or gender-related hate crimes explode. Changes in the numbers, or objective measures, provide only part of the story. Sometimes these changes go unnoticed in the wider society and don’t result in conflict or action. Other times a local community takes action, but another local community with similar statistics does not.

To explain this difference, we turn to the fundamental sociological concept of social construction , the idea that we create meaning through interaction with others. This concept asserts that while material objects and biological processes exist, it is the meaning that we give to them that creates our shared social reality. The video in figure 1.6 provides more examples of this concept.

The term social construction was used in 1966 by sociologists Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann. They wrote a book called The Social Construction of Reality . In it, they argued that society is created by humans and human interaction. These interactions are often habits. They use the term habitualization to describe how “any action that is repeated frequently becomes cast into a pattern, which can then be … performed again in the future in the same manner and with the same economical effort” (Berger and Luckmann 1966). Not only do we construct our own society but we also accept it as it is because others have created it before us. Society is, in fact, habit .

For example, a school building exists as a school and not as a generic building because you and others agree that it is a school. If your school is older than you are, it was created by the agreement of others before you. In a sense, it exists by consensus, both prior and current. This is an example of the process of institutionalization, the act of implanting a convention or social expectation into society. By employing the convention of naming a building as a school , the institution, while socially constructed, is made real and assigned specific expectations as to how it will be used.

Another way of looking at the social construction of reality is through an idea developed by American sociologist W. I. Thomas. The Thomas theorem states, “If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Thomas and Thomas 1928). In other words, people’s behavior can be determined by their subjective construction of reality rather than by objective reality. For example, a teenager who is repeatedly given a label—rebellious, emo, goth—often lives up to the term even though it initially wasn’t a part of their character.

Figure 1.7 What do you think the person in the photo, gesturing “Thumbs up” is trying to say? Depending on his country, he may be saying great , on e, or five . Even our gestures are socially constructed.

Sociologists who study how we interact also recognize that language and body language reflect our values. One has only to learn a foreign language to know that not every English word can be easily translated into another language. The same is true for gestures. What does the gesture in figure 1.7 mean? While Americans might recognize a thumbs-up as meaning great , in Germany it would mean one , and in Japan, it would mean five . Thus, our construction of reality is influenced by our symbolic interactions. When we apply this idea of the social construction of reality to social problems, then, we say that a social problem only exists when people say they have one.

A crowd is walking down a street. One woman holds a sign that reads, " Whatever we wear, wherever we go, yes means yes and no means no."

Figure 1.8 In this picture of social protest, the protester is holding a sign “Whatever we wear, wherever we go, Yes means Yes and No means No” Over time our ideas about bodily autonomy, consent, and gender based violence are changing.

Let’s look at the crime of rape to understand this concept more clearly. Initially, rape was defined as a property crime. This view of women’s bodies is profoundly disturbing to us today but was common in seventeenth-century English law. Legally, women were considered the property of their fathers or their husbands. Therefore, rape was legally understood as decreasing the value of their property. Taking this model further, married women could not be raped by their husbands because consent was implied as part of the marriage contract.

When feminists in the 1970s challenged this legal definition, laws related to rape began to change. Rape, which included marital rape, became defined as a crime of violence and social control against an individual person (Rose 1977). In a more recent study, researchers examined how rape was defined in a college community between 1955 and 1990. Early descriptions of rape in school and community newspapers painted the picture that White women students were safe on campus. If they ventured beyond campus to predominantly Black neighborhoods, they risked being raped. Rape was considered a crime committed by a racialized other, a Black or Brown stranger rather than a member of a White student community. This perspective saw police as responsible for keeping women safe (Abu-Odeh, Khan, and Nathanson 2020).

With the work of feminist activists, the concept of rape and the response to rape changed. In the 1970s and 1980s, women’s centers and health professionals defined rape as an act of sexual violence that supported the structural power of men and an issue that threatened women’s health. The person who experienced rape began to be called a survivor rather than a victim . Men who raped or committed other kinds of sexual harassment could be identified as part of the campus community rather than being defined as a stranger or an outsider. The changes in the social construction of rape allowed for more effective community responses in preventing rape, prosecuting rape, and supporting the healing of rape survivors (Abu-Odeh, Khan, and Nathanson 2020).

Feminist activists continue this work. Black activist Tarana Burke founded the #MeToo movement in 2006 so that survivors of sexual violence could tell their stories. These stories highlight how common sexual violence is for women, men, and nonbinary people. It expands our conversation about rape to a wider discussion around the causes and consequences of sexual violence. If you would like to learn more about #MeToo from Burke herself, please watch this TED Talk, “ Me Too Is a Movement, Not a Moment .” Actor Alyssa Milano drew attention to this movement when she tweeted #MeToo in 2017. This movement has resulted in some changes in the law (Beitsch 2018) and in stronger prosecution of perpetrators of sexual violence, in some cases (Carlsen et al. 2018).

In this constructionist view, the definition of rape, the actors in the crime, and the responsibility for fixing the problem changed over time, with significant consequences to the people involved. Even concepts like consent, active agreement to sexual activity (see figure 1.8), are taught and learned. A Cup of Tea and Consent [YouTube] teaches the concept (some explicit language). We will see the usefulness of the social construction of a social problem as we explore each social problem raised in this book.

1.2.5 Social Problems: Interdependent Solutions of Individual Agency and Collective Action

All life is interelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality.

—Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., activist, sociologist, and minister

Figure 1.9 Video: Martin Luther King Jr. A Christmas Speech: . Martin Luther King Jr. asserts that we are all interrelated, another word for interdependence in his Christmas Speech from 1967. While watching the whole speech is optional, you may want to view from minutes 7:10-7:12 to listen to the quote that begins this section.

Our diversity can be a source of innovative solutions to social problems. At the same time, the ways in which we are different divide us. We see bullying, hate crimes, war, gender based violence, and other patterns of treating each other differently based on our social location. At the same time, many of us go to school, raise families, live in neighborhoods, and die of old age. How is it that we are able to maintain our sense of community?

We begin to answer this question by reminding ourselves that the sociological imagination helps us see that there are wider social forces at play in our individual lives. Interdependence is the concept that people rely on each other to survive and thrive (Schwalbe 2018). Martin Luther King Jr. asserts that we are all interrelated, another word for interdependence, in his Christmas Speech from 1967 in figure 1.9. While watching the whole speech is optional, you may want to view from minutes 7:10-7:12 to listen to the quote that begins this section.

Interdependence is everywhere, but specific examples of social, economic, and physical interdependence may help us see it more clearly. With social interdependence, we rely on other people to cooperate to support our life. We give the same cooperation to others in turn. For example, when you consider your own life, you might notice how many people helped you become the person you are. When you were very young, you relied on a parent or caregivers to feed you, to clothe you, to keep you warm, and maybe to read you bedtime stories. As we widen this picture, we see that your caregivers relied on store owners and doctors, farmers and truckers, business people, and friends to support the work of caring for you. You may not have had a happy life, yet you lived long enough to read these words. This book was brought to you by authors, editors, artists, videographers, designers, musicians, librarians, and other students like you. These relationships demonstrate our social interdependence.

In addition to social interdependence, we experience economic interdependence. As we shop for groceries this week, we see empty shelves and rising food prices. COVID-19 is disrupting the global supply chain. Farmers growing oranges in Mexico can’t find laborers to pick the fruit. U.S. car manufacturers can’t get electronic chips manufactured in China. Even when people in Vietnam sew T-shirts or factory workers in Korea build TVs, the ships that carry these products from one country to another wait for dock workers to unload them. Our experiences with COVID-19 underline the truth of our economic interdependence.

We express this economic interdependence in relationships that describe the power of workers and the power of business owners. In 2017, Francis Fox Piven, the president of the American Sociological Association, defined interdependent power, arguing that while wealth and privilege create power, workers, tenants, and voters also have the power of participation. We see interdependent power today in the Great Resignation, with people deciding to resign from their jobs rather than return to work. We see it in restaurants reducing hours or closing down because they can’t find workers to wait tables and bus dishes. We see this in frontline workers becoming even more critical in providing basic services to a quarantined public. We live in a globally interdependent economy.

Finally, and maybe foundationally, we are physically interdependent. I remember being on a boat in a glacial lake in Alaska. The tour guide, a biologist, was asking the people on the tour about how many oceans there were in the world. All of us were desperately trying to remember fifth-grade geography, and counting the various oceans we remembered. Atlantic, Pacific, Indian . . . wait did the Arctic and Antarctic count as oceans? Maybe five? Maybe six? Maybe seven? At each answer, the biologist shook her head, “No.” We were stumped.

A serene view of the ocean with seagulls walking in the sand.

Figure 1.10 The Pacific Ocean at Lincoln City, Oregon, or maybe just one view of our planet’s one ocean.

She revealed that scientists who study the ocean now say that we have just one ocean (even though the ocean in figure 1.10 happens to be the Pacific Ocean, a few blocks from my house). It contains all the ocean water across our entire planet. Debris from a tsunami in Japan washed up on beaches from the tip of Alaska to the Baja peninsula and Hawaii. Rivers contribute up to 80 percent of the plastics pollution found in the ocean. We see that the COVID-19 virus travels with people around the world as infections move from place to place. As we cross the globe on our feet, bikes, camels, trains, cars, and airplanes, our diseases travel with us. We are physically interdependent.

Two people wearing masks associated with avoiding spread of COVID 19 are bumping elbows in greeting.

Figure 1.11 When do we comply with the social norms of mask-wearing and elbow bumping?

Each of these ways of considering our interdependence matters when it comes to studying social problems and creating change. Because our actions affect one another, any social problem or solution ripples through our social world. For example, social scientists are examining mask-wearing during COVID-19.

In the video “ The Importance of Social Norms” (episode 8 on the website) , researcher Dr. Vera te Velde from the University of Queensland explores mask-wearing behavior around the world. She wanted to find out what would make mask wearing a social norm. Social norms are the rules or expectations that determine and regulate appropriate behavior within a culture, group, or society.

Dr. de Velde finds that when people trust each other and their government, they are much more likely to wear masks. Trust and shared agreement around social norms encourage consistent behavior. In other words, when we notice our interdependence and trust that others will follow social norms, we are more likely to follow them too. Sociologist Michael Schwalbe, in The Sociologically Examined Life, calls this mindfulness of interdependence. When we are aware, or mindful, of how our actions impact others, we are noticing our interdependence. We then often act for the good of all.

The interdependent nature of social problems also requires interdependent solutions. For this, we look at individual agency and collective action. The discipline of sociology always asks why? , but the sociologists who study social problems are particularly committed to taking action. They try to understand why a problem occurs to inform policy decisions, create community coalitions, or support healthy families. In the best cases, they seek to know their own biases and work to remediate them, so their research is used to create change. This challenge is explicitly stated by SSSP President Mezey:

The theme for the 2019 SSSP [Society for the Study of Social Problems] meeting is a call to sociologists and social scientists in general to draw deeply and widely on sociological roots to illuminate the social in all social problems with an eye to solving those problems. The theme calls us to speak broadly and widely, so that our discipline becomes a central voice in larger public discourses. I am calling on you, the reader, through this presidential address to focus on what is perhaps the largest social problem: climate change. Indeed, because we have been focusing on individual rather than social solutions regarding climate change—we are now facing grave and imminent danger. (Mezey 2020:606)

Society president Mezey tells us that studying problems is not enough. We must focus on the most critical social problem—climate change, to support all of us in taking action.

Addressing social problems requires individuals to act. Social agency is the capacity of an individual to actively and independently choose and to affect change. In other words, any individual can choose to vote, to protest, to parent well, or to be authentic about who they are in the world. Each act of positive social agency matters to that person and their community, even if the small waves of change are hard to see in the wider world.

Collective action refers to the actions taken by a collection or group of people, acting based on a collective decision. whose goal is to enhance their condition and achieve a common objective (Sekiwu and Okan 2022). These kinds of actions people take are creative responses to local issues. We typically think of collective action as a protest march or a social movement. Collective action can also be setting up the Salmon River Grange as the distribution center for food, clothes, and pizza for survivors of the Echo Mountain Fire. It could also be reinvigorating an Indigenous language or connecting businesses and nonprofits so you can provide digital literacy skills training. People, communities, and organizations imagine the future they want to see, and take organized action to make it happen.

To confront the social problems of our world, we need a both/and approach to their resolution. We act with individual agency to create a life that is healthy and nurturing and we act collectively to address interdependent issues.

1.2.6 Licenses and Attributions for Defining a Social Problem

1.2.6.1 open content, shared previously.

“Social Construction of Reality” is adapted from “ Social Construction of Reality ” by Tonja R. Conerly, Kathleen Holmes, Asha Lal Tamang, Introduction to Sociology 3e , Openstax , which is licensed under CC BY 4.0 . Modifications: Summarized some content and applied it specifically to social problems. License Terms: Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/introduction-sociology-3e/pages/1-introduction

Figure 1.3. “ Sociologist C Wright Mills ” by Institute for Policy Studies is licensed under CC BY 2.0 .

Figure 1.4a. Photo by Deric is licensed under the Unsplash License .

Figure 1.4b. Photo by Chris Chan is licensed under the Unsplash License .

Figure 1.7. Photo by Aziz Acharki is licensed under the Unsplash License .

Figure 1.8. Photo by Raquel García is licensed under the Unsplash License .

Figure 1.11. Photo by Maxime is licensed under the Unsplash License .

Figure 1.9 “ Martin Luther King, Jr., Christmas Sermon ” by Mapping Minds is licensed under the Standard YouTube License .

1.2.6.3 Open Content, Original

“Defining a Social Problem” by Kimberly Puttman is licensed under CC BY 4.0 .

Figure 1.5. “Chart of World Hunger” by Kim Puttman and Michaela Willi Hooper, Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0 .

Figure 1.6. “ Social Construction Video (Draft) ” by Liz Pearce, Kim Puttman and Colin Stapp, Open Oregon Educational Resources is licensed under CC BY 4.0 .

Figure 1.10. Photo by Kimberly Puttman is licensed under CC BY 4.0 .

Image Description for Figure 1.5:

Globally, and in every region, the prevalence of food insecurity is higher among women than men

A line chart shows moderate or severe food insecurity for both women and men in different regions of the world from 2015 to 2020. The lines are often close, but women are always more food insecure than men. Throughout the world, food insecurity has risen for both women and men (from around 20% in 2015 to over 30% for women in 2020). The two lines diverge the most for Latin America and the Caribbean, where food insecurity went from approximately 25% in 2015 to over 40% in 2020. Food insecurity rates for both men and women are highest in Africa (almost 60% for both men and women in 2020) and lowest in North America (between 10 and 15% in 2020).

Data source: State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021, prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO.

This simplified version created by Michaela Willi Hooper and Kimberly Puttman and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

[Return to Figure 1.5]

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CAREER FEATURE
22 May 2024

Can mathematicians help to solve social-justice problems?

Rachel Crowell 0

Rachel Crowell is a freelance journalist near Des Moines, Iowa.

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Activists holding boards protest in downtown Detroit

Detroit community members have raised concerns about gunshot-tracking technology, ShotSpotter. Mathematics are being used to study the effectiveness of such policing. Credit: Malachi Barrett

When Carrie Diaz Eaton trained as a mathematician, they didn’t expect their career to involve social-justice research. Growing up in Providence, Rhode Island, Diaz Eaton first saw social justice in action when their father, who’s from Peru, helped other Spanish-speaking immigrants to settle in the United States.

But it would be decades before Diaz Eaton would forge a professional path to use their mathematical expertise to study social-justice issues. Eventually, after years of moving around for education and training, that journey brought them back to Providence, where they collaborated with the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council on projects focused on preserving the local environment of the river’s drainage basin, and bolstering resources for the surrounding, often underserved communities.

By “thinking like a mathematician” and leaning on data analysis, data science and visualization skills, they found that their expertise was needed in surprising ways, says Diaz Eaton, who is now executive director of the Institute for a Racially Just, Inclusive, and Open STEM Education at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

For example, the council identified a need to help local people to better connect with community resources. “Even though health care and education don’t seem to fall under the purview of a watershed council, these are all interrelated issues,” Diaz Eaton says. Air pollution can contribute to asthma attacks, for example. In one project, Diaz Eaton and their collaborators built a quiz to help community members to choose the right health-care option, depending on the nature of their illness or injury, immigration status and health-insurance coverage.

“One of the things that makes us mathematicians, is our skills in logic and the questioning of assumptions”, and creating that quiz “was an example of logic at play”, requiring a logic map of cases and all of the possible branches of decision-making to make an effective quiz, they say.

Maths might seem an unlikely bedfellow for social-justice research. But applying the rigour of the field is turning out to be a promising approach for identifying, and sometimes even implementing, fruitful solutions for social problems.

Mathematicians can experience first-hand the messiness and complexity — and satisfaction — of applying maths to problems that affect people and their communities. Trying to work out how to help people access much-needed resources, reduce violence in communities or boost gender equity requires different technical skills, ways of thinking and professional collaborations compared with breaking new ground in pure maths. Even for an applied mathematician like Diaz Eaton, transitioning to working on social-justice applications brings fresh challenges.

Mathematicians say that social-justice research is difficult yet fulfilling — these projects are worth taking on because of their tremendous potential for creating real-world solutions for people and the planet.

Data-driven research

Mathematicians are digging into issues that range from social inequality and health-care access to racial profiling and predictive policing. However, the scope of their research is limited by their access to the data, says Omayra Ortega, an applied mathematician and mathematical epidemiologist at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. “There has to be that measured information,” Ortega says.

Lily Khadjavi used a pivotal set of traffic-stop data from the Los Angeles Police Department in her statistics class at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Loyola Marymount University

Fortunately, data for social issues abound. “Our society is collecting data at a ridiculous pace,” Ortega notes. Her mathematical epidemiology work has examined which factors affect vaccine uptake in different communities. Her work 1 has found, for example, that, in five years, a national rotavirus-vaccine programme in Egypt would reduce disease burden enough that the cost saving would offset 76% of the costs of the vaccine. “Whenever we’re talking about the distribution of resources, there’s that question of social justice: who gets the resources?” she says.

Lily Khadjavi’s journey with social-justice research began with an intriguing data set.

About 15 years ago, Khadjavi, a mathematician at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, was “on the hunt for real-world data” for an undergraduate statistics class she was teaching. She wanted data that the students could crunch to “look at new information and pose their own questions”. She realized that Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) traffic-stop data fit that description.

At that time, every time that LAPD officers stopped pedestrians or pulled over drivers, they were required to report stop data. Those data included “the perceived race or ethnicity of the person they had stopped”, Khadjavi notes.

When the students analysed the data, the results were memorable. “That was the first time I heard students do a computation absolutely correctly and then audibly gasp at their results,” she says. The data showed that one in every 5 or 6 police stops of Black male drivers resulted in a vehicle search — a rate that was more than triple the national average, which was about one out of every 20 stops for drivers of any race or ethnicity, says Khadjavi.

Her decision to incorporate that policing data into her class was a pivotal moment in Khadjavi’s career — it led to a key publication 2 and years of building expertise in using maths to study racial profiling and police practice. She sits on California’s Racial Identity and Profiling Advisory Board , which makes policy recommendations to state and local agencies on how to eliminate racial profiling in law enforcement.

In 2023, she was awarded the Association for Women in Mathematics’ inaugural Mary & Alfie Gray Award for Social Justice, named after a mathematician couple who championed human rights and equity in maths and government.

Sometimes, gaining access to data is a matter of networking. One of Khadjavi’s colleagues shared Khadjavi’s pivotal article with specialists at the American Civil Liberties Union. In turn, these specialists shared key data obtained through public-records requests with Khadjavi and her colleague. “Getting access to that data really changed what we could analyse,” Khadjavi says. “[It] allowed us to shine a light on the experiences of civilians and police in hundreds of thousands of stops made every year in Los Angeles.”

The data-intensive nature of this research can be an adjustment for some mathematicians, requiring them to develop new skills and approach problems differently. Such was the case for Tian An Wong, a mathematician at the University of Michigan-Dearborn who trained in number theory and representation theory.

In 2020, Wong wanted to know more about the controversial issue of mathematicians collaborating with the police, which involves, in many cases, using mathematical modelling and data analysis to support policing activities. Some mathematicians were protesting about the practice as part of a larger wave of protests around systemic racism , following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wong’s research led them to a technique called predictive policing, which Wong describes as “the use of historical crime and other data to predict where future crime will occur, and [to] allocate policing resources based on those predictions”.

Wong wanted to know whether the tactics that mathematicians use to support police work could instead be used to critique it. But first, they needed to gain some additional statistics and data analysis skills. To do so, Wong took an online introductory statistics course, re-familiarized themself with the Python programming language, and connected with colleagues trained in statistical methods. They also got used to reading research papers across several disciplines.

Currently, Wong applies those skills to investigating the policing effectiveness of a technology that automatically locates gunshots by sound. That technology has been deployed in parts of Detroit, Michigan, where community members and organizations have raised concerns about its multimillion-dollar cost and about whether such police surveillance makes a difference to public safety.

Getting the lay of the land

For some mathematicians, social-justice work is a natural extension of their career trajectories. “My choice of mathematical epidemiology was also partially born out of out of my love for social justice,” Ortega says. Mathematical epidemiologists apply maths to study disease occurrence in specific populations and how to mitigate disease spread. When Ortega’s PhD adviser mentioned that she could study the uptake of a then-new rotovirus vaccine in the mid-2000s, she was hooked.

Applied mathematician Michael Small has turned his research towards understanding suicide risk in young people. Credit: Michael Small

Mathematicians, who decide to jump into studying social-justice issues anew, must do their homework and dedicate time to consider how best to collaborate with colleagues of diverse backgrounds.

Jonathan Dawes, an applied mathematician at the University of Bath, UK, investigates links between the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their associated target actions. Adopted in 2015, the SDGs are “a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity,” according to the United Nations , and each one has a number of targets.

“As a global agenda, it’s an invitation to everybody to get involved,” says Dawes. From a mathematical perspective, analysing connections in the complex system of SDGs “is a nice level of problem,” Dawes says. “You’ve got 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Between them, they have 169 targets. [That’s] an amount of data that isn’t very large in big-data terms, but just big enough that it’s quite hard to hold all of it in your head.”

Dawes’ interest in the SDGs was piqued when he read a 2015 review that focused on how making progress on individual goals could affect progress on the entire set. For instance, if progress is made on the goal to end poverty how does that affect progress on the goal to achieve quality education for all, as well as the other 15 SDGs?

“If there’s a network and you can put some numbers on the strengths and signs of the edges, then you’ve got a mathematized version of the problem,” Dawes says. Some of his results describe how the properties of the network change if one or more of the links is perturbed, much like an ecological food web. His work aims to identify hierarchies in the SDG networks, pinpointing which SDGs should be prioritized for the health of the entire system.

As Dawes dug into the SDGs, he realized that he needed to expand what he was reading to include different journals, including publications that were “written in very different ways”. That involved “trying to learn a new language”, he explains. He also kept up to date with the output of researchers and organizations doing important SDG-related work, such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria, and the Stockholm Environment Institute.

Dawes’ research 3 showed that interactions between the SDGs mean that “there are lots of positive reinforcing effects between poverty, hunger, health care, education, gender equity and so on.” So, “it’s possible to lift all of those up” when progress is made on even one of the goals. With one exception: managing and protecting the oceans. Making progress on some of the other SDGs could, in some cases, stall progress for, or even harm, life below water.

Collaboration care

Because social-justice projects are often inherently cross-disciplinary, mathematicians studying social justice say it’s key in those cases to work with community leaders, activists or community members affected by the issues.

Getting acquainted with these stakeholders might not always feel comfortable or natural. For instance, when Dawes started his SDG research, he realized that he was entering a field in which researchers already knew each other, followed each other’s work and had decades of experience. “There’s a sense of being like an uninvited guest at a party,” Dawes says. He became more comfortable after talking with other researchers, who showed a genuine interest in what he brought to the discussion, and when his work was accepted by the field’s journals. Over time, he realized “the interdisciplinary space was big enough for all of us to contribute to”.

Even when mathematicians have been invited to join a team of social-justice researchers, they still must take care, because first impressions can set the tone.

Michael Small is an applied mathematician and director of the Data Institute at the University of Western Australia in Perth. For much of his career, Small focused on the behaviour of complex systems, or those with many simple interacting parts, and dynamical systems theory, which addresses physical and mechanical problems.

But when a former vice-chancellor at the university asked him whether he would meet with a group of psychiatrists and psychologists to discuss their research on mental health and suicide in young people, it transformed his research. After considering the potential social impact of better understanding the causes and risks of suicide in teenagers and younger children, and thinking about how the problem meshed well with his research in complex systems and ‘non-linear dynamics’, Small agreed to collaborate with the group.

The project has required Small to see beyond the numbers. For the children’s families, the young people are much more than a single data point. “If I go into the room [of mental-health professionals] just talking about mathematics, mathematics, mathematics, and how this is good because we can prove this really cool theorem, then I’m sure I will get push back,” he says. Instead, he notes, it’s important to be open to insights and potential solutions from other fields. Listening before talking can go a long way.

Small’s collaborative mindset has led him to other mental-health projects, such as the Transforming Indigenous Mental Health and Wellbeing project to establish culturally sensitive mental-health support for Indigenous Australians.

Career considerations

Mathematicians who engage in social-justice projects say that helping to create real-world change can be tremendously gratifying. Small wants “to work on problems that I think can do good” in the world. Spending time pursuing them “makes sense both as a technical challenge [and] as a social choice”, he says.

However, pursuing this line of maths research is not without career hurdles. “It can be very difficult to get [these kinds of] results published,” Small says. Although his university supports, and encourages, his mental-health research, most of his publications are related to his standard mathematics research. As such, he sees “a need for balance” between the two lines of research, because a paucity of publications can be a career deal breaker.

Diaz Eaton says that mathematicians pursuing social-justice research could experience varying degrees of support from their universities. “I’ve seen places where the work is supported, but it doesn’t count for tenure [or] it won’t help you on the job market,” they say.

Finding out whether social-justice research will be supported “is about having some really open and transparent conversations. Are the people who are going to write your recommendation letters going to see that work as scholarship?” Diaz Eaton notes.

All things considered, mathematicians should not feel daunted by wading into solving the world’s messy problems, Khadjavi says: “I would like people to follow their passions. It’s okay to start small.”

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01494-7

Connolly, M. P. et al. PharmacoEconomics 30 , 681–695 (2012).

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Khadjavi, L. S. Chance 19 , 43–46 (2006).

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Dawes, J. H. P. World Dev. 149 , 105693 (2022)

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A Better Framework for Solving Tough Problems

Start with trust and end with speed.

Apple Podcasts

When it comes to solving complicated problems, the default for many organizational leaders is to take their time to work through the issues at hand. Unfortunately, that often leads to patchwork solutions or problems not truly getting resolved.

But Anne Morriss offers a different framework. In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem and explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important for effective change leadership. As she says, “Let’s get into dialogue with the people who are also impacted by the problem before we start running down the path of solving it.”

Morriss is an entrepreneur and leadership coach. She’s also the coauthor of the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems .

Key episode topics include: strategy, decision making and problem solving, strategy execution, managing people, collaboration and teams, trustworthiness, organizational culture, change leadership, problem solving, leadership.

HBR On Strategy curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock new ways of doing business. New episodes every week.

Listen to the full HBR IdeaCast episode: How to Solve Tough Problems Better and Faster (2023)
Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR On Strategy , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock new ways of doing business.

When it comes to solving complicated problems, many leaders only focus on the most apparent issues. Unfortunately that often leads to patchwork or partial solutions. But Anne Morriss offers a different framework that aims to truly tackle big problems by first leaning into trust and then focusing on speed.

Morriss is an entrepreneur and leadership coach. She’s also the co-author of the book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems . In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem. Some, she says, can be solved in a week, while others take much longer. She also explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important for effective change leadership.

This episode originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in October 2023. Here it is.

CURT NICKISCH: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. I’m Curt Nickisch.

Problems can be intimidating. Sure, some problems are fun to dig into. You roll up your sleeves, you just take care of them; but others, well, they’re complicated. Sometimes it’s hard to wrap your brain around a problem, much less fix it.

And that’s especially true for leaders in organizations where problems are often layered and complex. They sometimes demand technical, financial, or interpersonal knowledge to fix. And whether it’s avoidance on the leaders’ part or just the perception that a problem is systemic or even intractable, problems find a way to endure, to keep going, to keep being a problem that everyone tries to work around or just puts up with.

But today’s guest says that just compounds it and makes the problem harder to fix. Instead, she says, speed and momentum are key to overcoming a problem.

Anne Morriss is an entrepreneur, leadership coach and founder of the Leadership Consortium and with Harvard Business School Professor Francis Frei, she wrote the new book, Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leaders Guide to Solving Hard Problems . Anne, welcome back to the show.

ANNE MORRISS: Curt, thank you so much for having me.

CURT NICKISCH: So, to generate momentum at an organization, you say that you really need speed and trust. We’ll get into those essential ingredients some more, but why are those two essential?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, the essential pattern that we observed was that the most effective change leaders out there were building trust and speed, and it didn’t seem to be a well-known observation. We all know the phrase, “Move fast and break things,” but the people who were really getting it right were moving fast and fixing things, and that was really our jumping off point. So when we dug into the pattern, what we observed was they were building trust first and then speed. This foundation of trust was what allowed them to fix more things and break fewer.

CURT NICKISCH: Trust sounds like a slow thing, right? If you talk about building trust, that is something that takes interactions, it takes communication, it takes experiences. Does that run counter to the speed idea?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, this issue of trust is something we’ve been looking at for over a decade. One of the headlines in our research is it’s actually something we’re building and rebuilding and breaking all the time. And so instead of being this precious, almost farbege egg, it’s this thing that is constantly in motion and this thing that we can really impact when we’re deliberate about our choices and have some self-awareness around where it’s breaking down and how it’s breaking down.

CURT NICKISCH: You said break trust in there, which is intriguing, right? That you may have to break trust to build trust. Can you explain that a little?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, well, I’ll clarify. It’s not that you have to break it in order to build it. It’s just that we all do it some of the time. Most of us are trusted most of the time. Most of your listeners I imagine are trusted most of the time, but all of us have a pattern where we break trust or where we don’t build as much as could be possible.

CURT NICKISCH: I want to talk about speed, this other essential ingredient that’s so intriguing, right? Because you think about solving hard problems as something that just takes a lot of time and thinking and coordination and planning and designing. Explain what you mean by it? And also, just how we maybe approach problems wrong by taking them on too slowly?

ANNE MORRISS: Well, Curt, no one has ever said to us, “I wish I had taken longer and done less.” We hear the opposite all the time, by the way. So what we really set out to do was to create a playbook that anyone can use to take less time to do more of the things that are going to make your teams and organizations stronger.

And the way we set up the book is okay, it’s really a five step process. Speed is the last step. It’s the payoff for the hard work you’re going to do to figure out your problem, build or rebuild trust, expand the team in thoughtful and strategic ways, and then tell a real and compelling story about the change you’re leading.

Only then do you get to go fast, but that’s an essential part of the process, and we find that either people under emphasize it or speed has gotten a bad name in this world of moving fast and breaking things. And part of our mission for sure was to rehabilitate speed’s reputation because it is an essential part of the change leader’s equation. It can be the difference between good intentions and getting anything done at all.

CURT NICKISCH: You know, the fact that nobody ever tells you, “I wish we had done less and taken more time.” I think we all feel that, right? Sometimes we do something and then realize, “Oh, that wasn’t that hard and why did it take me so long to do it? And I wish I’d done this a long time ago.” Is it ever possible to solve a problem too quickly?

ANNE MORRISS: Absolutely. And we see that all the time too. What we push people to do in those scenarios is really take a look at the underlying issue because in most cases, the solution is not to take your foot off the accelerator per se and slow down. The solution is to get into the underlying problem. So if it’s burnout or a strategic disconnect between what you’re building and the marketplace you’re serving, what we find is the anxiety that people attach to speed or the frustration people attach to speed is often misplaced.

CURT NICKISCH: What is a good timeline to think about solving a problem then? Because if we by default take too long or else jump ahead and we don’t fix it right, what’s a good target time to have in your mind for how long solving a problem should take?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, we’re playful in the book and talking about the idea that many problems can be solved in a week. We set the book up five chapters. They’re titled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and we’re definitely having fun with that. And yet, if you count the hours in a week, there are a lot of them. Many of our problems, if you were to spend a focused 40 hours of effort on a problem, you’re going to get pretty far.

But our main message is, listen, of course it’s going to depend on the nature of the problem, and you’re going to take weeks and maybe even some cases months to get to the other side. What we don’t want you to do is take years, which tends to be our default timeline for solving hard problems.

CURT NICKISCH: So you say to start with identifying the problem that’s holding you back, seems kind of obvious. But where do companies go right and wrong with this first step of just identifying the problem that’s holding you back?

ANNE MORRISS: And our goal is that all of these are going to feel obvious in retrospect. The problem is we skip over a lot of these steps and this is why we wanted to underline them. So this one is really rooted in our observation and I think the pattern of our species that we tend to be overconfident in the quality of our thoughts, particularly when it comes to diagnosing problems.

And so we want to invite you to start in a very humble and curious place, which tends not to be our default mode when we’re showing up for work. We convince ourselves that we’re being paid for our judgment. That’s exactly what gets reinforced everywhere. And so we tend to counterintuitively, given what we just talked about, we tend to move too quickly through the diagnostic phase.

CURT NICKISCH: “I know what to do, that’s why you hired me.”

ANNE MORRISS: Exactly. “I know what to do. That’s why you hired me. I’ve seen this before. I have a plan. Follow me.” We get rewarded for the expression of confidence and clarity. And so what we’re inviting people to do here is actually pause and really lean into what are the root causes of the problem you’re seeing? What are some alternative explanations? Let’s get into dialogue with the people who are also impacted by the problem before we start running down the path of solving it.

CURT NICKISCH: So what do you recommend for this step, for getting to the root of the problem? What are questions you should ask? What’s the right thought process? What do you do on Monday of the week?

ANNE MORRISS: In our experience of doing this work, people tend to undervalue the power of conversation, particularly with other people in the organization. So we will often advocate putting together a team of problem solvers, make it a temporary team, really pull in people who have a particular perspective on the problem and create the space, make it as psychologically safe as you can for people to really, as Chris Argyris so beautifully articulated, discuss the undiscussable.

And so the conditions for that are going to look different in every organization depending on the problem, but if you can get a space where smart people who have direct experience of a problem are in a room and talking honestly with each other, you can make an extraordinary amount of progress, certainly in a day.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah, that gets back to the trust piece.

ANNE MORRISS: Definitely.

CURT NICKISCH: How do you like to start that meeting, or how do you like to talk about it? I’m just curious what somebody on that team might hear in that meeting, just to get the sense that it’s psychologically safe, you can discuss the undiscussable and you’re also focusing on the identification part. What’s key to communicate there?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Well, we sometimes encourage people to do a little bit of data gathering before those conversations. So the power of a quick anonymous survey around whatever problem you’re solving, but also be really thoughtful about the questions you’re going to ask in the moment. So a little bit of preparation can go a long way and a little bit of thoughtfulness about the power dynamic. So who’s going to walk in there with license to speak and who’s going to hold back? So being thoughtful about the agenda, about the questions you’re asking about the room, about the facilitation, and then courage is a very infectious emotion.

So if you can early on create the conditions for people to show up bravely in that conversation, then the chance that you’re going to get good information and that you’re going to walk out of that room with new insight in the problem that you didn’t have when you walked in is extraordinarily high.

CURT NICKISCH: Now, in those discussions, you may have people who have different perspectives on what the problem really is. They also bear different costs of addressing the problem or solving it. You talked about the power dynamic, but there’s also an unfairness dynamic of who’s going to actually have to do the work to take care of it, and I wonder how you create a culture in that meeting where it’s the most productive?

ANNE MORRISS: For sure, the burden of work is not going to be equitably distributed around the room. But I would say, Curt, the dynamic that we see most often is that people are deeply relieved that hard problems are being addressed. So it really can create, and more often than not in our experience, it does create this beautiful flywheel of action, creativity, optimism. Often when problems haven’t been addressed, there is a fair amount of anxiety in the organization, frustration, stagnation. And so credible movement towards action and progress is often the best antidote. So even if the plan isn’t super clear yet, if it’s credible, given who’s in the room and their decision rights and mandate, if there’s real momentum coming out of that to make progress, then that tends to be deeply energizing to people.

CURT NICKISCH: I wonder if there’s an organization that you’ve worked with that you could talk about how this rolled out and how this took shape?

ANNE MORRISS: When we started working with Uber, that was wrestling with some very public issues of culture and trust with a range of stakeholders internally, the organization, also external, that work really started with a campaign of listening and really trying to understand where trust was breaking down from the perspective of these stakeholders?

So whether it was female employees or regulators or riders who had safety concerns getting into the car with a stranger. This work, it starts with an honest internal dialogue, but often the problem has threads that go external. And so bringing that same commitment to curiosity and humility and dialogue to anyone who’s impacted by the problem is the fastest way to surface what’s really going on.

CURT NICKISCH: There’s a step in this process that you lay out and that’s communicating powerfully as a leader. So we’ve heard about listening and trust building, but now you’re talking about powerful communication. How do you do this and why is it maybe this step in the process rather than the first thing you do or the last thing you do?

ANNE MORRISS: So in our process, again, it’s the days of the week. On Monday you figured out the problem. Tuesday you really got into the sandbox in figuring out what a good enough plan is for building trust. Wednesday, step three, you made it better. You created an even better plan, bringing in new perspectives. Thursday, this fourth step is the day we’re saying you got to go get buy-in. You got to bring other people along. And again, this is a step where we see people often underinvest in the power and payoff of really executing it well.

CURT NICKISCH: How does that go wrong?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, people don’t know the why. Human behavior and the change in human behavior really depends on a strong why. It’s not just a selfish, “What’s in it for me?” Although that’s helpful, but where are we going? I may be invested in a status quo and I need to understand, okay, if you’re going to ask me to change, if you’re going to invite me into this uncomfortable place of doing things differently, why am I here? Help me understand it and articulate the way forward and language that not only I can understand, but also that’s going to be motivating to me.

CURT NICKISCH: And who on my team was part of this process and all that kind of stuff?

ANNE MORRISS: Oh, yeah. I may have some really important questions that may be in the way of my buy-in and commitment to this plan. So certainly creating a space where those questions can be addressed is essential. But what we found is that there is an architecture of a great change story, and it starts with honoring the past, honoring the starting place. Sometimes we’re so excited about the change and animated about the change that what has happened before or what is even happening in the present tense is low on our list of priorities.

Or we want to label it bad, because that’s the way we’ve thought about the change, but really pausing and honoring what came before you and all the reasonable decisions that led up to it, I think can be really helpful to getting people emotionally where you want them to be willing to be guided by you. Going back to Uber, when Dara Khosrowshahi came in.

CURT NICKISCH: This is the new CEO.

ANNE MORRISS: The new CEO.

CURT NICKISCH: Replaced Travis Kalanick, the founder and first CEO, yeah.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, and had his first all-hands meeting. One of his key messages, and this is a quote, was that he was going to retain the edge that had made Uber, “A force of nature.” And in that meeting, the crowd went wild because this is also a company that had been beaten up publicly for months and months and months, and it was a really powerful choice. And his predecessor, Travis was in the room, and he also honored Travis’ incredible work and investment in bringing the company to the place where it was.

And I would use words like grace to also describe those choices, but there’s also an incredible strategic value to naming the starting place for everybody in the room because in most cases, most people in that room played a role in getting to that starting place, and you’re acknowledging that.

CURT NICKISCH: You can call it grace. Somebody else might call it diplomatic or strategic. But yeah, I guess like it or not, it’s helpful to call out and honor the complexity of the way things have been done and also the change that’s happening.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, and the value. Sometimes honoring the past is also owning what didn’t work or what wasn’t working for stakeholders or segments of the employee team, and we see that around culture change. Sometimes you’ve got to acknowledge that it was not an equitable environment, but whatever the worker, everyone in that room is bringing that pass with them. So again, making it discussable and using it as the jumping off place is where we advise people to start.

Then you’ve earned the right to talk about the change mandate, which we suggest using clear and compelling language about the why. “This is what happened, this is where we are, this is the good and the bad of it, and here’s the case for change.”

And then the last part, which is to describe a rigorous and optimistic way forward. It’s a simple past, present, future arc, which will be familiar to human beings. We love stories as human beings. It’s among the most powerful currency we have to make sense of the world.

CURT NICKISCH: Yeah. Chronological is a pretty powerful order.

ANNE MORRISS: Right. But again, the change leaders we see really get it right, are investing an incredible amount of time into the storytelling part of their job. Ursula Burns, the Head of Xerox is famous for the months and years she spent on the road just telling the story of Xerox’s change, its pivot into services to everyone who would listen, and that was a huge part of her success.

CURT NICKISCH: So Friday or your fifth step, you end with empowering teams and removing roadblocks. That seems obvious, but it’s critical. Can you dig into that a little bit?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. Friday is the fun day. Friday’s the release of energy into the system. Again, you’ve now earned the right to go fast. You have a plan, you’re pretty confident it’s going to work. You’ve told the story of change the organization, and now you get to sprint. So this is about really executing with urgency, and it’s about a lot of the tactics of speed is where we focus in the book. So the tactics of empowerment, making tough strategic trade-offs so that your priorities are clear and clearly communicated, creating mechanisms to fast-track progress. At Etsy, CEO Josh Silverman, he labeled these projects ambulances. It’s an unfortunate metaphor, but it’s super memorable. These are the products that get to speed out in front of the other ones because the stakes are high and the clock is sticking.

CURT NICKISCH: You pull over and let it go by.

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah, exactly. And so we have to agree as an organization on how to do something like that. And so we see lots of great examples both in young organizations and big complex biotech companies with lots of regulatory guardrails have still found ways to do this gracefully.

And I think we end with this idea of conflict debt, which is a term we really love. Leanne Davey, who’s a team scholar and researcher, and anyone in a tech company will recognize the idea of tech debt, which is this weight the organization drags around until they resolve it. Conflict debt is a beautiful metaphor because it is this weight that we drag around and slows us down until we decide to clean it up and fix it. The organizations that are really getting speed right have figured out either formally or informally, how to create an environment where conflict and disagreements can be gracefully resolved.

CURT NICKISCH: Well, let’s talk about this speed more, right? Because I think this is one of those places that maybe people go wrong or take too long, and then you lose the awareness of the problem, you lose that urgency. And then that also just makes it less effective, right? It’s not just about getting the problem solved as quickly as possible. It’s also just speed in some ways helps solve the problem.

ANNE MORRISS: Oh, yeah. It really is the difference between imagining the change you want to lead and really being able to bring it to life. Speed is the thing that unlocks your ability to lead change. It needs a foundation, and that’s what Monday through Thursday is all about, steps one through four, but the finish line is executing with urgency, and it’s that urgency that releases the system’s energy, that communicates your priorities, that creates the conditions for your team to make progress.

CURT NICKISCH: Moving fast is something that entrepreneurs and tech companies certainly understand, but there’s also this awareness that with big companies, the bigger the organization, the harder it is to turn the aircraft carrier around, right? Is speed relative when you get at those levels, or do you think this is something that any company should be able to apply equally?

ANNE MORRISS: We think this applies to any company. The culture really lives at the level of team. So we believe you can make a tremendous amount of progress even within your circle of control as a team leader. I want to bring some humility to this and careful of words like universal, but we do think there’s some universal truths here around the value of speed, and then some of the byproducts like keeping fantastic people. Your best people want to solve problems, they want to execute, they want to make progress and speed, and the ability to do that is going to be a variable in their own equation of whether they stay or they go somewhere else where they can have an impact.

CURT NICKISCH: Right. They want to accomplish something before they go or before they retire or finish something out. And if you’re able to just bring more things on the horizon and have it not feel like it’s going to be another two years to do something meaningful.

ANNE MORRISS: People – I mean, they want to make stuff happen and they want to be around the energy and the vitality of making things happen, which again, is also a super infectious phenomenon. One of the most important jobs of a leader, we believe, is to set the metabolic pace of their teams and organizations. And so what we really dig into on Friday is, well, what does that look like to speed something up? What are the tactics of that?

CURT NICKISCH: I wonder if that universal truth, that a body in motion stays in motion applies to organizations, right? If an organization in motion stays in motion, there is something to that.

ANNE MORRISS: Absolutely.

CURT NICKISCH: Do you have a favorite client story to share, just where you saw speed just become a bit of a flywheel or just a positive reinforcement loop for more positive change at the organization?

ANNE MORRISS: Yeah. We work with a fair number of organizations that are on fire. We do a fair amount of firefighting, but we also less dramatically do a lot of fire prevention. So we’re brought into organizations that are working well and want to get better, looking out on the horizon. That work is super gratifying, and there is always a component of, well, how do we speed this up?

What I love about that work is there’s often already a high foundation of trust, and so it’s, well, how do we maintain that foundation but move this flywheel, as you said, even faster? And it’s really energizing because often there’s a lot of pent-up energy that… There’s a lot of loyalty to the organization, but often it’s also frustration and pent-up energy. And so when that gets released, when good people get the opportunity to sprint for the first time in a little while, it’s incredibly energizing, not just for us, but for the whole organization.

CURT NICKISCH: Anne, this is great. I think finding a way to solve problems better but also faster is going to be really helpful. So thanks for coming on the show to talk about it.

ANNE MORRISS: Oh, Curt, it was such a pleasure. This is my favorite conversation. I’m delighted to have it anytime.

HANNAH BATES: That was entrepreneur, leadership coach, and author Anne Morriss – in conversation with Curt Nickisch on HBR IdeaCast.

We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about business strategy from Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review.

When you’re ready for more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world’s top business and management experts, you’ll find it all at HBR.org.

This episode was produced by Mary Dooe, Anne Saini, and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. Special thanks to Rob Eckhardt, Maureen Hoch, Erica Truxler, Ramsey Khabbaz, Nicole Smith, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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108 Social Issues Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
To help you get started, here are 108 social issues essay topic ideas and examples that you can use as inspiration for your next writing assignment: The impact of social media on mental health. Income inequality and its effects on society. Police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. The rise of fake news and its impact on democracy.
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In order to solve some social issues, we need a common approach. No society is free from social issues, almost every one of them has some social issue or the other. ... Conclusion of the Essay on Social Issues. A society can successfully end social issues if they become adamant. These social issues act as a barrier to the progress of society ...
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Tip #1: Show some respect. If your grandmother is anything like mine, she has told you (likely more than once) to "respect your elders.". Her words of wisdom ring true not only when it comes to respecting (all) people in your daily life but also when writing essays. Here's an example.
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The list of social problems is huge. In the US, some predominant social issues include the growing divide between rich and poor, adolescent pregnancy. More like child abuse and neglect, crime, domestic violence, drug use, environmental contamination. Others like ethnic conflict.
Social Problems and Ways to Solve Them
Social Problems and Ways to Solve Them Essay. Social theories suggest the allocation of the following functions of war and terrorism. First, these are conducive to social solidarity, the importance of symbols, and the experience of civilians and war veterans. Second, war promotes the interests of the military-industrial complex, while ...
Tips for Writing a Social Issues Essay · The Inspiration Edit
A social issue essay is an assignment meant to test our thoughts about social problems existing in our world today. These social issues have significant impacts on our modern society. The main idea behind writing a social issues essay is an expression of our opinions, ideas, or sentiments about the latest social topics and how it affects everybody.
Social Issues Essay
Social issues include poverty, child marriage, violence, crime, illiteracy, racial discrimination, gender bias, economic inequality, caste discrimination etc. Poverty is a severe social issue in rural areas, giving way to a lack of food and education, malnutrition, crime and violence. Gender bias and casteism are very evident in developing ...
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Social issues are the threads that intricately weave through the fabric of our society, demanding our attention, empathy, and action. They are the challenges and complexities that affect individuals, communities, and even entire nations, often leaving a profound impact on people's lives. These issues stem from the interconnectedness of our ...
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1. personal problem when certain social conditions are causing these people to experience the same personal problems. For example, many families experience poverty personally, but all of them are a part of a larger social pattern of unemployment, a social factor not caused by these families (Mills, 1959).
149 Social Issues Essay Topic Ideas & Examples
Social Issues in "Too Young to Wed" by Cynthia Gorney. In the case of 10-year-old Ayesha who was married off to a 50-year old, the women in the family tried to stop the marriage. The Social Cost Issue. The concept of "social cost" is applied in the economic analysis and estimation of most impacts.
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Judith Glassgold, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist and an expert in applying psychology to problems of public policy, focused on mental health. She is a consultant to national civil rights ...
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Social problem-solving is generally considered to apply to four different types of problems: Impersonal problems, for example, shortage of money; Personal problems, for example, emotional or health problems; Interpersonal problems, such as disagreements with other people; and. Community and wider societal problems, such as litter or crime rate.
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Essay on Social Issue for 12th Class. Economic inequality, racial abuse, environmental degradation, cyberbullying, human rights violations, etc. are some of the classic examples of social issues. The effects of social issues are not limited to the person facing them, as they can take different shapes. Here are some of the common social issues ...
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Social problems arise from fundamental faults in the structure of a society and both reflect and reinforce inequalities based on social class, race, gender, and other dimensions. Successful solutions to social problems must involve far-reaching change in the structure of society. Symbolic interactionism.
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Choose among 450 social topics, and get down to writing! Contents. 🔝 Top 10 Topics. How to Write About Social Issues. 🌐 Social Media Issues Topics. 🏥 Health-Related Issues. 🌳 Environmental Issues. 🔫 War & Violence. 🚓 Police & Criminal Justice.
64 Examples of Social Issues Topics for 2024
Rather than purporting to solve world peace, essays work better when drilling down into more localized and easily defined issues. This will help to communicate clearly what the issue is, convince the reader of its relevance, and successfully indicate that a short piece of writing could meaningfully contribute to the conversation around the ...
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Take positive action in your own community. You can learn about issues within your community by watching local news broadcasts, reading the newspaper, and listening to podcasts. Write letters and call your elected city and state officials regarding the issues your community faces. Find your elected officials' contact information here.
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11. Safe Drinking Water. With large-scale IoT and the cloud, we now have the ability to monitor infrastructure on a global scale. If we applied this technology and aligned strategy, I believe we ...
Section 5. Addressing Social Determinants of Health and Development
Reasons for addressing the social determinants of an issue include: If you want to solve or prevent a problem for the long term, you have to deal with its root causes. If you address the root causes, you're more likely to successfully address the issue for the short term as well. To cure a disease, you have to treat more than the symptoms ...
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Social Issues Essay for School Students in 800+ Words. This article is a representation of social issues that prevail in our country and the world as a whole. It highlights the root causes why such situations arise. The essay on social issues also states how these problems can be addressed. How such issues affect the peace and development of ...
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A social problem goes beyond the experience of an individual. A social problem results from a conflict in values. A social problem arises when groups of people experience inequality. A social problem is socially constructed but real in its consequences. A social problem must be addressed interdependently, using both individual agency and ...
Essay On Social Issues
Now that we are in the 21st century, the people have to rise above the hate and bigotry in society and solve the social issues, along with the help of the government, for a prosperous and a better tomorrow for our next generation. 10 Lines on Social Issues Essay. Social issues are a problem that influences the common citizen of a country.
Social Problems: Causes and Solutions
This essay will look at social problems and the difficulty of solving them. I will start by looking at common factors relating to social problems. Common factors relating to social problems. All social problems are prone to a number of different definitions and interpretations.
Can mathematicians help to solve social-justice problems?
Maths might seem an unlikely bedfellow for social-justice research. But applying the rigour of the field is turning out to be a promising approach for identifying, and sometimes even implementing ...
Social Isolation and Loneliness: Understanding a Mental Health Crisis
Social isolation can be described as a deficit in a person's actual social network or relationships (de Jong-Gierveld J et al.2006); loneliness refers to the negative and unpleasant feelings that arise from the difference between a person's desired and actual social network or relationships (Peplau & Perlman 1982). Social isolation can be ...
A Better Framework for Solving Tough Problems
But Anne Morriss offers a different framework. In this episode, she outlines a five-step process for solving any problem and explains why starting with trust and ending with speed is so important ...
IMF Working Papers
Using a comprehensive drought measure and a panel autoregressive distributed lag model, the paper finds that worsening drought conditions can result in long-term scarring of real GDP per capita growth and affect long-term price stability in Fragile and Conflict-Affected States (FCS), more so than in other countries, leaving them further behind. Lower crop productivity and slower investment are ...
About The Public Health Associate Program
The Public Health Associate Program (PHAP) trains early-career professionals who have a recent college degree and are interested in public health and service. PHAP has over 100 associates fulfilling hands-on public health workforce needs at any given time in nearly all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia.
IMF Working Papers
This paper discusses connections between female economic empowerment and government spending. It is an abbreviated overview for non-gender-experts on how fiscal expenditure may support female economic empowerment as an interim step toward advancing gender equality. From this perspective, it offers a preliminary exploration of key factors and indicators associated with gender-differentiated ...

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