Part 1 Images and issues: has the gene for alcoholism been discovered three times since 1980? a new media analysis, Peter Conrad and Dana Weinberg; safe spaces and social movements, William A. Gamson; from bums to the homeless - media constructions of persons without homes from 1980-1984, J. William Spencer; diagnozing urban "depression" - neighbourhood experiences vs. federal forms, Kee Warner and Viola Garcia. Part 2 Social problems narratives: what Waco stood for - jokes as popular constructions of social problems, Kathleen S. Lowney and Joel Best; cultural adolescence in America - denial and avoidance in the romance of James Fennimore Cooper, Nadesan Permaul; reconstructing a life - claiming themes of gay men in a heterosexist culture, Chris A. Faircloth. Part 3 Law and social policy: women heading households - gender in research and social policy, Marietta Morrissey; regulating new reproductive technologies - an examination of the emergence of legislation in two Australian states, Sharyn L. Roach Anleu; the place of a general theory of law in social problems inquiry - a Marxist-oriented approach, A. Javier Trevino. Part 4 Holocaust studies: the politics of collective memory - the Holocaust in Israel and West Germany, Ronald J. Berger; resistance under extreme oppression - responses in Auschwitz, Lisa White Smith; the Holocaust and the construction of the sacred - the emerging mythos of the "crucified clan", Marvin Prosno and Gary Brock.