Date of Award:
5-2003
Document Type:
Dissertation
Degree Name:
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department:
Sociology and Anthropology
Department name when degree awarded
Sociology
Committee Chair(s)
Gary Kiger
Committee
Gary Kiger
Abstract
This dissertation uses the case of youth gangs in the Mormon Cultural Region to present a synthetic, dialectical theory of social problems, bridging the perspectives of social constructionism and objectivism. The primary assertion of this dissertation is that communities use social problems as tools to establish and maintain social boundaries and to protect the core values and beliefs of the established communal order.
The case of youth gangs in Utah, core of the Mormon Cultural Region, demonstrates that both social problems and the organizations involved with social problems follow a natural-history cycle similar to that reported in social movement literature. Anti-gang organizations, youth gangs, and the gang movement all seem to change forms as they progress through this cycle. Further, the relationship between the claims-making and the ontological increase in social problems is dialectical.
Checksum
561155461b30dedb7e3b9722ea189918
Recommended Citation
Higley, Ramona Avis Linville, "The Case of Youth Gangs in the Mormon Cultural Region A Synthetic, Dialectical Theory of Social Problems: Bridging Social Constructionism and Objectivism" (2003). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023. 4688.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/4688
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