ABSTRACT
This book begins with the commonsense framework of a type of person, called a practical actor, a term referred to a type of person like you or me in our daily lives. It introduces to a social construction perspective that also is called the problem definition perspective in public policy. Social construction perspectives on social problems are applications of more general social construction theoretical perspectives. The book lays out in simple form the most basic points in this framework so that we can get on to the major topic of what kinds of questions it leads us to ask about social problems. It uses two concepts that will be useful in examining constructionists' questions about social problems. The first concept is social problems work. The second concept for examining these questions is the social problems game. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.
