Vernacular Constituents of Moral Discourse: An Interactionist Proposal for the Study of Social Problems

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates the fruitfulness of investigating vernacular resources, especially rhetorical forms, in the social problems process. Social problems discourse is open-ended, its "aboutness" being contingent upon the courses taken by members' practical theorizing on moral order, including one another's claims-making activities. Constructionist studies of social problems discourse can profitably proceed by distinguishing four overlapping but analytically distinct rhetorical dimensions: rhetorical idioms, counterrhetorics, motifs, and claims-making styles. Claims-making activities are directed at problematizing specific condition-categories; rhetorical idioms refer to the distinctive ways in which their problematic status is elaborated. The study of motifs in social problems discourse ought to focus our attention on how morally imbued metaphors and phrases can be intelligibly applied in claims-making. The chapter introduces the concept of claims-making styles in order to suggest a research agenda derived from the central premise of social constructionism—the constitutive character of claims-making activities.

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