constructing deviance adler and adler
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Constructing Deviance Adler and Adler. Part IV. I. Moral Entrepreneurs: Campaigning. Awareness Moral Conversion Moral Panic. Part 4. A. Moral Entrepreneurs. Those who construct moral meanings & associate them with particular acts or conditions by drawing on power & resources of: - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Part IV
AwarenessMoral Conversion
Moral Panic
Part 4
Those who construct moral meanings & associate them with particular acts or conditions by drawing on power & resources of:InstitutionsAgenciesSymbols or ideasCommunication to audiences
Part 4
Rule-creating: politicians, public crusaders, teachers, parents, school administrators, business leaders
Rule-enforcing: police, prosecutors, judges, and other informal agents of control such as dormitory RAs
Part 4
By individualsFirst Lady Nancy Reagan “Just Say No”; John Walsh for founding Missing and
Exploited Children’s Network and the TV show America’s Most Wanted;
Michael Moore for documentaries about big business and violence
By Groups – Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)Group Against Smoking Pollution (GASP)
Part 4
Moral entrepreneurs manufacture public morality through a multi-stage process, beginning first with the generation of awareness of a problem
Claims-making: danger-messages are generated about specific issues such as drunken-driving, hate crimes, second-hand smoke, outsourcing, school violenceIn this stage will draw upon experts and
employ several rhetorical methods including statistics and particular case examples
Part 4
Claimsmakers must draw on elements of drama, novelty, politics and cultural myths to gain visibility for their issue
They seek to attract media attention through hunger strikes, demonstrations, civil disobedience, marches, and picketing
They seek support of sponsors and opinion leaders – celebrities for public endorsements
Part 4
Temporary but widespread concern about an issue, promoted by much media attention and sometimes legislative attention, takes center stage
Triggered by specific event at right moment, draw attention to a specific group as a target, have provocative content revealed, and supported by formal and informal communication outlets
Part 4
MoneyRace and ethnicity
GenderAge
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Money: can be used for campaign contributions to sway politicians to favor and disfavor new laws, to fund favorable research, and to fight restrictive lawsuits
Race and ethnicity: dominant white group behaviors less likely to be defined and enforced as deviant
Gender: women have less social power than males are more subject to labeling
Age: Younger and older people hold less respect in our society
Part 4
Part 4
Same powerful groups have greater resources to avoid being labeled
They may hire media and legal experts to foster positive collective images: gun owners are “upstanding” citizens,
drug or alcohol companies promote favorable images
Differential Social Power
Part 4
How do powerful groups avoid being labeled?
How are rules created and implemented?
Part 4
Part IVChapter 15
Part 4: Ch. 15
The cultural origins and nature of anti-drug appeals must be understood
Drug wars & anti-drug crusades involving marked public concern about a specific drug or drugs are not simply reflections of problems people are experiencing: Such drug scares are a recurring social
phenomena in their own right
Part 4: Ch. 15
Alcohol: Temperance Movement to Prohibition; primarily led by middle-class, Protestant, white (WASP) Americans reacting to drinking behaviors of Catholic immigrants from Europe
Part 4: Ch. 15
Anti-opium den laws of San Francisco in 1875 directed against Chinese immigrants
Anti-marijuana laws of Great Depression directed at Mexican Americans and later connected to drop-out, hippie counterculture that was corrupting morality of the youth
More recently in 1980s the crack cocaine scare, directed against urban, poor African- Americans
Part 4: Ch. 15
A kernel of truth Media magnification Politico-moral entrepreneurs Professional interest groups Historical context of conflict Link a form of drug-use to a
“dangerous class” Scapegoating a drug for a variety of
social problems
Part 4: Ch. 15
Part 4: Ch. 15
First, claims about evil of drugs provide a welcome vocabulary of attribution and something to blame for social problems
Second, American society, predicated on Protestantism and capitalism emphasize self-control; As a result loss of such control is to be
avoided at all cost! Third, we live today in a new consumer
culture that exacerbates the issue of self-control; It is this on-going dynamic between self-
control and self-indulgence that empowers our drug scares
Part 4: Ch. 15
Of the drugs that are classified as illegal, which ones are thought to be the most serious or dangerous?
What are drug scares and in what ways are they correlated with minority groups?
Part 4: Ch. 15
Part IVChapter 16
Deviance is socially constructed The ability to define and construct reality is
closely connected to the power structure of society
Status conflicts, and resultant status degradation ceremonies of behavior characteristic of a lower status, enhance the status of those who condemn and abstain from such behavior
Deviance creates political competition in which moral entrepreneurs originate moral crusades aimed at generating reform
Such moral crusades are dominated by members of upper social strata of society
Status Politics & the Creation of Deviance
Part 4: Ch. 16
Moral crusades may be either assimilative or coercive reforms Assimilative: sympathy for deviant
engenders integrative efforts aimed at lifting the repentant to higher moral plane of the upper status group (education)
Coercive: deviants viewed as denying moral and status superiority of reformers (law and force)
Moral entrepreneur cannot succeed alone: must enlist broader public support
Status Politics & the Creation of Deviance
Part 4: Ch. 16
Political dynamics involved in construction of deviance may be seen in the efforts to end smoking in public facilities
Cigarette smoking universally accepted in 1940s, 1950s and 1960s until surgeon general’s report on health risks of smoking in 1964
More people today see smoking as socially deviant, unclean and intrusive to others
The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking
Part 4: Ch. 16
Abstinence and bodily purity are key to nonsmoker’s claim of moral superiority
Antismoking movement has targeted a lifestyle typical of the working classes; Moral entrepreneurs crusading against
smoking are of higher social status, the “knowledge” class of educators, therapeutic and counseling professions
Early remedial efforts focused on publicizing the perils of smoking, reflecting a strategy of assimilative reform through education:Resulted in decline in smoking
The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking
Part 4: Ch. 16
Remaining smokers have become redefined as enemy
Focus of social control efforts to ban smoking in public places as evidence mounted on adverse effects of smoking on nonusers
Success of antismoking crusade rooted in moral crusaders ability to mobilize power, aided by government campaigns, and widely publicized health risks of smoking
Success of this moral crusade also related to deviance being connected with lower social status groups, whose stigmatization reinforce existing power structure
The Status Politics of Cigarette Smoking
Part 4: Ch. 16
Study hypothesis: supporters of smoking ban would be of higher social status than those opposing it
Site of research: Shasta County, California
Referendum to ban smoking in public places passed by 56% majority; special election by those opposing it lost again by 58% majority;Ordinance went into effect July,1993
Part 4: Ch. 16
Interviews with five leading moral entrepreneurs and five status quo defenders
Primary concern of moral entrepreneurs was health but three also made negative comments about smoking, thereby degrading the status of smokers
Part 4: Ch. 16
“Smoking is no longer an acceptable action”
“Smoke stinks”“It is just a dirty and annoying habit”
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Status quo defenders also had two arguments: a person’s right (freedom) and business profits
Smoking viewed as a constitutionally protected right of free individuals
Worries about loss of smoking customers with a ban
Part 4: Ch. 16
Debate between proponents of ban to prohibit smoking in public places versus those defenders of individuals’ right to decide where to smoke reflect a difference in social power
Winners in moral and stigma contests generally represent higher social classes, involve symbolic dimension, and this was reflected in current study
Part 4: Ch. 16
Is the association of tobacco with lower-status persons a factor in the crusade against smoking in public facilities?
Compare anti-smoking campaigns to those of the tobacco company and its glorification in the movies. How “mixed” are the messages?
Part 4: Ch. 16