The sociology of public problems

Abstract

The following work problematize the constructionist assumptions that underlie the theorization and sociological research of public problems. As such, we review the onto-epistemic components of constructionism and their relationship with the main authors in this research field, with the objective of problematizing them based on pragmatist proposals in the same field. Our proposal is that research on public problems is strengthened by combining both approaches. To prove the point, our argument runs as follows. After the introduction in which we situate the problem, we present the constructionist foundations from the work of Gusfield. Later, we discuss French pragmatist proposals, following D. Cefaï. We finish with a discussion about the relationship with the empirical, analytical, and political scope in the study of public problems.