Social Problems and Social Movements

Abstract Both the sociology of social movements and the sociology of social problems experienced intellectual revivals that began in the 1970s. The study of social movements shifted from accounting for movements' members' discontent, to an effort to understand why movements succeeded or failed, based on models that emphasized framing, resource mobilization, opportunity structures, and identity politics. Similarly, the study of social problems turned from the analysis of harmful social conditions to an emphasis on the process by which social problems were socially constructed.