How Claims Spread: Cross-National Diffusion of Social Problems (review)

How Claims Spread: Cross-National Diffusion of Social Problems. Edited by Joel Best. Aldine de Gruyter, 2001. 306 pp. Paper, $27.00

Why do some ideas experience more success than others on the international stage? How Claims Spread is a collection of works examining how discourse about particular issues in one country influences awareness of them in others. Joel Best situates the volume with an opening essay in which he articulates elements in the diffusion process: claims that a problem exists and requires some action; channels for the claims, which may range from close personal networks to the mass media; social actors who transmit and those who choose whether and what to adopt of those claims. Diffusion of social problems typically is facilitated to the extent countries have similar or "shared" cultures, and international social network linkages. Differences in domestic institutional structures or xenophobia may hinder it. Social construction occurs around these processes. Rather than being adopted wholesale, a theme typically must be reworked to fit the new culture.

A common motif in articles comparing the U.S. with other countries is the American emphasis on individualism. In "Social Problems Claims and the Undefended Border: The Case of Canada and the U.S.," Vincent F. Sacco and Karim Ismali explore similarities and differences in U.S. and Canadian views of what constitutes a social problem. Drawing on S.M. Lipset's (1990. Continental Divide. Routledge) analysis, they find a stress in the U.S. on individual rights, equality and achievement; in Canada there is a greater commitment to the welfare state and access to higher education. They discuss how Canada grapples with the cultural dominance of the U.S., considering questions such as the backlash against the "Americanization" of Canadian universities. Not surprisingly, they find relatively more evidence of U.S.-to-Canada diffusion of ideas (a case in point is the increasing tendency to frame social problems such as crime and homelessness in individualistic terms), although there are indications of Canada-to-U.S. diffusion as well (such as the framing of the U.S. health care debate of the 1990s). In "Successful and Unsuccessful Diffusion of Social Policy: The U.S., Canada, and the Metric System," Grace Ellen Watkins and Joel Best also find strains of U.S. individualism. By contrast, the Canadian desire for a more "paternalistic" state facilitated the Canadian citizenry's acceptance of their government's promulgation of the metric system.

In "Constructing a 'Dangerous Gun Culture' in Britain: New Gun Control Laws, 1997," J. Robert Lilly examines how rhetoric surrounding an atrocity became a vehicle to reinterpret past events to advance present claims. He contrasts discussion around issues of gun control in Britain with that in the U.S., finding much of it organized around individual rights in the U.S., and ideas of community in Britain. In "Reinventing Abortion as a Social Problem: 'Postabortion Syndrome' in the U.S. and Britain," Ellie Lee finds that in Britain, abortion typically is framed as a medical problem, which in turn restricts the ability of antiabortion activists to frame the issue in moral terms, making abortion a private issue between a women and medical practitioners. It is less commonly debated publicly, which renders claims by antiabortion activists about a postabortion syndrome less likely to strike a resonant chord in Britain than in the U.S. In "The Evolution of Road Rage in Britain and the U.S.," Joel Best and Frank Furedi hold that in the U.S., road rage tends to be framed in terms of emotions (particularly anger) of the individuals involved. In Britain, it typically is seen as evidence of an overall decline in civility.

In "Bullying: The British Contribution to the Construction of a Social Problem," Frank Furedi finds that the seriousness with which claims of being bullied in the workplace are taken, tend to parallel the overall legitimacy of trade unions. He cites the example of a teacher receiving...