The Culture of Public Problems: Drinking-Driving and the Symbolic Order Book

Preface and Acknowledgments
1. Introduction: The Culture of Public Problems The Construction of Social Problems: How Phenomena Become Real The Public Character of Social Problems The Structure of Public Problems The Ownership of Public Problems Responsibility: Causal and Political The Cultural Perspective toward Public Actions The Illusions of Authority The Artful Realm of the Public
Part One - Rhetoric and Science: Creating Cognitive Order
2. The Organization of Public Consciousness Conceptual Framework: The Structure of Accident Consciousness The Organization of Knowledge Multiple Frameworks and Alternative Consciousness Accident, Risk, and Certainty
3. The Fiction and Drama of Public Reality Creating the Drinking Driver Fiction as the Shape of Fact Ten Million Alcoholics: The Social History of a Dramatic Fact The "State of the Art" in Drinking-Driving Research The Isometric Fiction: Blood-Alcohol Levels The Universalistic Fiction: Collecting Data The Fiction of Association: Alcohol Involvement Knowledge and Authority: The Ring of Conviction The Dramatic Significance of Fact The Moral Drama of the Drinking-Driver
4. The Literary Art of Science: Comedy and Pathos In Drinking-Driver Research Prologue Act I. Scientific Style: The Rhetoric of Method Act II. Literary Act: The Rhetoric of Substance Act III: The Rhetoric of Social Hierarchies
Part Two - The Ritual of Law: Creating a Moral Order
5. Law as Public Culture The Criminal Metaphor and the Ambiguity of Traffic Law The Utilitarian Metaphor in American Law Traffic Offenses and DUIA: Ordinary Violations and Crimes Law, Alcohol,and Traffic Policy The Ambiguity of Drinking-Driving: Fault without Censure The Legal Style as Public Culture
6. The Legal Myth of Social Order Alcohol, Control, and Release in American Life The Myth of the "Killer-Drunk"
The Theory of Accidents and the Drama of Drinking-Driving The Symbolism of Order and Disorder Law as Negotiated Social Order The Two Levels of Social Order Conclusions
7. The Drama of Public Action The Cultural Drama of Drinking and Driving The Public Drama The Cultural Autonomy of Legal Acts Watergate: An Example of Public Drama
8. The Perspective of Sociological Irony The Ironic Stance Sociological Irony: Utopian and Olympian Science and Politics Notes References Index