Social Problems and Ideologies

Karen E. Rosenblum is Associate Professor Emerita of Sociology at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, where she also served as Vice President of University Life. She was twice named a Fulbright Senior Lecturer for East Asia (Japan and South Korea). At George Mason’s campus in South Korea, she was a faculty member in Global Studies. She specializes in social problems and comparative approaches to stigma, and with Toni-Michelle C. Travis, she co-authored The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race and Ethnicity, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexuality, and Disability.Toni-Michelle C. Travis is Professor Emerita of Government and Politics at the Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. She was a fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford and Visiting Professor of Political Science at Simmons College. She specializes in American government and federalism and has served as a political analyst on Virginia and national politics. She has taught and conducted research on urban, racial and ethnic, and Virginia politics, and is co-author of The Meaning of Difference and of Uneven Roads: An Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics.

“This book lays a foundation for what is underlying the social problems, particularly the largest ones, we are all struggling to understand and address. By grounding the discussion through a lens of foundational ideologies within American culture, the book provides an exceptionally helpful grid for understanding and unfolding the contents of the thought structures that shape the American experience. This will be a terrific foundational text for those looking at social problems from a structural perspective and it offers a clear and cogent basis from which you can discuss many other social problems.”Elizabeth Scheel-Keita, Professor of Sociology and Director of Applied Sociology, St Cloud State University, USA“This book addresses many of the challenges that students have when trying to 'contextualize' current social issues. Utilizing a lens of foundational ideologies within American culture, the book provides an exceptionally helpful and insightful grid through which to unpack the many layers and dimensions to the thought structures underneath and undergirding the American experience. The book, as such, fills an important gap in the literature and also provides the necessary context for students to better understand current social problems in American society.”Joseph Jakubek, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Appalachian State University, USA

• Introduction1 Federalism2 Capitalism3 Neoliberalism4 Libertarianism5 PopulismFinal Thoughts