Solutions to Social Problems: Lessons From Other Societies

This reader examines how other advanced industrial societies have dealt with social problems with relative success and looks how these strategies may be applicable to the United States. For each social problem considered, several articles have been selected. These articles either describe the situation in a single country or in multiple countries, or expressly contrast the situation of a country or countries with the United States.

Table of Contents:

IN THIS SECTION:

1.) BRIEF

2.) COMPREHENSIVE

BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Part One: Introduction

Section 1: The Comparative Approach to Social Problems

Part Two: Problems of Inequality

Section 2: Poverty

Section 4: Gender

Section 6:  Age

Part Three: Institutional Problems

Section 7: Families

Section 8: Schools

Section 9: Work 

Section 10: Health Care and Delivery

Part Four:  Problems of People, Resources, and Place

Section 11: Cities

Section 12: Environment

Part Five: Individual Deviance

Section 13: Crime and Crime Control

COMPREHENSIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Preface

Part One: Introduction

Section 1: The Comparative Approach to Social Problems

1.  U. S. Social Problems in Comparative Perspective, D. Stanley Eitzen (revised)

2.  The European Social Model, T. R. Reid

3.  The Swedish Welfare State, D. Stanley Eitzen (revised)

4.  How Canada Stole the American Dream, Duncan Hood (new)

Part Two: Problems of Inequality

Section 2: Poverty

5.  Poverty, Work, and Policy:  The United States in Comparative Perspective, Gary

            Burtless and Timothy M. Smeeding (new)

6.  How Other Countries Fight the War on Poverty, Sid Ryan (new)

Section 3: Income and Wealth Inequality

7.  Income and Wealth Inequality, Americans for Democratic Action (new)

8.  Inequality Here and There, Claude S. Fischer, Michael Hout, Martin Sanchez Jankowski, Samuel R. Lucas, Ann Swidler, and Kim Voss

Section 4: Gender

9.  Europe Crawls Ahead, Megan Rowling

10.  Gender Equality in Sweden, Swedish Institute (new)

Section 5: Sexual Orientation

11.  Social Shift Opens Door to Gay Marriage Plan (Canada), Clifford Krauss

12.  Gay Rights and European Citizenship, Joydeep Sengupta

Section 6:  Age

13   As Good As It Gets: What Country Takes the Best Care of its Older Citizens?  Mike Edwards

14.  We Should Rejoice in an Ageing Society, So Long as We Plan Properly for It, Hamish McRae

15.  We’re Not Finnished With You Yet, Gail Edmondson (new)

Part Three: Institutional Problems

Section 7: Families

16. Atlantic Passages:  How Europe Supports Working Parents and Their Children, Janet C. Gornick (new)

17.  The Father Generation, Rainer Stumpf (new)

18.  Teen Pregnancy:  Trends and Lessons Learned, Heather Boonstra (new)

Section 8: Schools

19. Early Childhood Education and Care in Advanced Industrialized Countries, Sheila B. Kamerman (new)

20. Learning from South Korean Schools, David J. Lynch (new)

21.  A World Transformed:  How Other Countries Are Preparing Students for the Interconnected World of the 21st Century, Vivien Steward (new)

Section 9: Work 

22. The Vanishing American Vacation, Don Monkerud (new)

23. A New WPA? Ryan A. Dodd (new)

Section 10: Health Care and Delivery

24. International Health Systems, Physicians for a National Health Program

25.  Has Canada Got the Cure? Holly Dressel (new)

Part Four:  Problems of People, Resources, and Place

Section 11: Cities

26. New Lessons from the Old World, Jay Walljasper

27. I Love Paris on a Bus, a Bike, a Train and in Anything but a Car, Serge Schmemann (new).

Section 12: Environment

28.  Flush with Energy,  Thomas L. Friedman (new)

29.  Scandinavia Gets Serious on Global Warming, Bruce E. Johansen (new) 

30. The $6.66-a Gallon-Solution, Simon Romero

Part Five: Individual Deviance

Section 13: Crime and Crime Control

31.  Lawless, But Gunless, Ken MacQueen (new)

32.  Reducing Crime by Harnessing International Best Practices, Irvin Waller and Brandon C. Welsh

Section 14: Drugs

33.  Does Europe Do It Better: Lessons from Holland, Britain and Switzerland, Robert J. MacCoun and Peter Reuter

34.  Europe: Curing, Not Punishing, Addicts, Rick Steeves (new)

D. Stanley Eitzen (Ph. D., University of Kansas) is professor emeritus of sociology at Colorado State University, where he taught for twenty-one years, the last as John N. Stern Distinguished Professor.  Prior to that he taught at the University of Kansas.  He is the former editor of The Social Science Journal.  His scholarship has focused on social inequality, homelessness, poverty, power, family, criminology, and the sociology of sport.  He has authored or co-authored twenty-four books on these topics.  His books that fit closely with Solutions to Social Problems:  Lessons from Other Societies 5e are Social Problems 11e, Solutions to Social Problems From the Bottom Up:  Successful Social Movements,   Solutions to Social Problems from the Top Down:  The Role of Government, Solutions to Social Problems:  Lessons from State and Local Governments,  and Globalization:  The Transformation of Social Worlds.

Eric Strayer, Hartnell College                       

“I highly recommend Eitzen’s Solutions to Social Problems: Lessons from Other Societies for any course that studies U.S. social problems.  I have found it to be a real eye-opener for my students and a great way to introduce them to primary source material.”

Eric Strayer, Hartnell College

“The Eitzen text is a valuable component to the course [Stratification] Students always clamor for answer to troubling social problems and Eitzen’s text provides me an excellent set of readings to address the student’s desire to know ways others have dealt with problematic issues.”

Douglas F. George, UCA