ABSTRACT
Social change is a consequence of successful social problems work. This can be change in the world around us, it can be change in how specific conditions and types of people are socially evaluated. This chapter demonstrates the very practical reasons why studying social problems as social constructions should not be dismissed because this perspective ignores objective conditions and rather focuses on what claims-makers say about the world. It describes some of these changes in recent years to encourage us to understand how successful social problems claims-making changes the objective world around us. The chapter helps the reader to think about how successful social problems claims can influence the ways we understand our own lives as well as how we make sense of people around us. Social problems claims themselves can become resources used by practical actors to make sense of our experiences, ourselves, and the people around us.
