| This research presented many different sides of the off-campus housing debate in order to extend the constructionist perspective on social problems by introducing the concept of the social problems cluster. The social problems cluster, a refinement to existing social constructionist concepts, improves our understanding of many social problems. The three major components of the social problems cluster (interacting groups, linking claims, and local context) influence the creation of most---if not all---social problems. Other forms that claims may take include explicit claims, implicit claims, linking claims, and refocusing claims.; I suggested that claims in a social problems cluster are created not only by one or two groups promoting their own understanding of an issue, but by many groups interacting, claiming and counterclaiming in order to publicize their own particular version of events. In any social problems cluster, competing interest groups attempt to gain control over the construction of social problems. In the case of off-campus housing issues, several groups contributed to the final public understanding of the issues included in the social problems cluster. The social problems cluster provides a model for understanding the shifting nature of multiple interacting claims, and also offers insight into how the interaction between claims affects the final understanding of an issue. Finally, data demonstrates that within a social problems cluster, claims may link related issues together, but local processes dictate (1) which claims enter the public record and (2) the relative power that individual interest groups posses in accessing and successfully using public forums. |
