Walls and Bridges: Social Justice and Public Policy

1. A Social Ethics Approach to Social Problems

One A Social Ethics Approach to Social Problems There are many who would sacrifice much for their children, fewer for their grandchildren. —Robert Heilbroner, Twenty-first Century Capitalism I HOPE THIS TEXTBOOK will guide students to acquire: 1. a sociological understanding of contemporary social problems and accurate information about them; 2. awareness of their social origins, collective definition, and how they might be effectively treated; 3. discernment on the importance of sociological theory, methods, and multilevel analyses; 4. a social ethics approach to public policy addressing social problems; 5. social activism—a commitment to positive change in society and in the larger global community. This is, perhaps, the age of moral ambiguity. More and more, isolated individuals , disconnected from external moral reference points, have come to view themselves as the sole judge of moral decisions. In fact, 93 percent of all 1 Americans report that they alone determine what is moral in their lives. What has happened to what has classically been referred to as society’s “collective conscience” or“moral consensus” (what Durkheim, [1893] 1964, called“mechanical solidarity”)? Accordingly, morality is collectively constructed, not individual, in nature. What holds society together are the emotional bonds that foster a sense of obligation or duty to social good. Ideally, these bonds prevail over purely selfish, private, egotistic motives (Cortese & Mestrovic, 1990; Cortese, 1990; Durkheim [1912] 1965: 482). Émile Durkheim ([1897] 1951) discovered that individuals with low social integration are linked to high rates of suicide. As a consequence of this lack of collective aspect of moral support, Americans are increasingly coming to view the key moral issues of the day as “gray”—without a clear right and wrong. More than one-third of Americans believe there is no clear right or wrong position when it comes to the following issues: affirmative action (54 percent); creationism in schools (52 percent); the right to die (44 percent); school busing (44 percent); homosexuality (43 percent); flag burning (38 percent); pornography (38 percent); and capital punishment (37 percent). S O C I A L P R O B L E M S : A H I S T O R I C A L A P P R O A C H During the late nineteenth century, the United States (as well as Western Europe ) was undergoing rapid and basic social change. Such changes resulted in a variety of social problems. Flourishing industrial cities in the Northeast and North Central states produced a regular flow of migration and rural inhabitants who were tugged by the prospect of decent employment. Surges of immigrants from other countries also gushed into the United States for basically similar reasons. The hopes of these newcomers were dashed by the stark contrast between expectations and the actual conditions they encountered in the cities. Their poor economic situation forced them to reside in crowded crime-infested ethnic ghettos. They labored in dangerous conditions and faced an often-antagonistic social climate. There was also cultural conflict and economic competition among the different new residents of the cities. The new discipline of sociology, with its scientific method to social interaction , human groups, and society, was perfectly geared to examining the urgent social problems of the time. Sociologists began to study how social and physical environments affect individuals and groups. 2 Wa l l s a n d B r i d g e s Some of these original social problems are still with us today: Poverty, crime, unemployment, inadequate health care, homelessness, racial and ethnic conflict, education, and gender inequality. Today, there are still many people who arrive in the United States crossing international boundaries and aspiring to a better life. However, because of scant education and employment skills, language obstacles, and ethnic stereotypes, immigrants soon become stuck in destitute poverty. Undocumented workers cross the border between the United States and Mexico only to struggle with life circumstances similar to those who emigrated from Mexico nearly one hundred years ago. Certainly, this pervasive pattern is not universal for immigrants. Ethnic enclave theory is based on the notion that immigrant workers may be part of a special type of economy that provides unusual routes of upward mobility (Portes, 1981; Wilson & Martin, 1982; Butler & Wilson, 1988). It is rooted in community solidarity, a reserve of disadvantaged ethnic laborers, and vertical and horizontal integration. An ethnic enclave is a grouping of immigrants who organize a variety of business enterprises (Portes & Bach, 1985: 203). At the top of...