The issue of issues

The address for the Socialsense blog

http://culturalscene.blogspot.com.au/

The Thebarton Senior College Moodle

Course Calendar for your time management

Contact Emma and Malcolm at

emma.hebenstreit@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au

malcolm.mcinerney@thebartonsc.sa.edu.au

The Stage 2 Social Ethics and Stage 1 Social Issues topics raises the issue of what is an issue 

The study of social issues raises the question as to what actually is an issue. It can be said that at the local, national or global level, an issue involves considering the following: 

• Dispute is the essence of any issue.

• Issues often involve contending groups of people with conflicting opinions.

• The hardest part of any study is selecting an appropriate issue. Issues selected for investigation must show clearly conflicting elements and involve choices decided from a range of alternatives.

• The investigation of an issue must consider the roles and perceptions of stakeholders (various groups in those places and other significant groups elsewhere) that have a vested interest in the issue.

An example of an issue is:

'Should the age of drinking alcohol be increased.'

Here are some more examples of issues in the opinion sheet format.

In the Society and Cultures classes at both Stage 1 and 2 you are required to develop and conduct an investigation of a social issue.

To help you with the investigation here are some websites dedicated to exploring and providing information on issues. It would be a useful exercise for you to look at as many issue as possible before deciding on the final topic to conduct your investigation.

Here are some of the sites to explore:

* Newspapers to explore for issues at http://www.theworldpress.com

* Find out the facts on a wide range of issues at http://www.encyclopedia.com

* Research issues at the Social Issue Research Centre at http://www.sirc.org

* Investigate a catalogue of issues at http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Issues

* Find out information for issue studies at http://www.ipl.org/div/subject

* Investigate a directory of issues at http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/issues_and_Causes

* Look at this Australian social action issue site at http://www.actnow.com.au

* Here is a resource with summaries of many issues http://spinneypress.com.au/