Toward a Better Understanding of Social Problems and Policy Making: Institutionalism of William R. Freudenburg

Abstract

What constitutes a social problem? How do policy-making institutions carry out their responsibilities to solve problems that lead to risky consequences? This issue has drawn relatively little attention among researchers in the social sciences, partly because it lies at the interface of social problems and public policy cutting across disciplinary boundaries. This chapter attempts to focus on the issue where social problems and public policy come together with a greater attention to the institutions that are responsible for managing risky outcomes. It summarizes major contributions made by W. R. Freudenburg. Particularly it focuses on the ways that solutions to social problems are not successfully carried out by policy-making institutions. The chapter explains reasons for institutional failures and discusses some future challenges for a fuller understanding of institutional failures.

Citation

Youn, T.I.K. (2013), "Toward a Better Understanding of Social Problems and Policy Making: Institutionalism of William R. Freudenburg", William R. Freudenburg, A Life in Social Research (Research in Social Problems and Public Policy, Vol. 21), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 109-117. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0196-1152(2013)0000021018