PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

The primary objective in scientifically examining social problems is preparing the grounds for solving them. One of the essential steps in designing concrete practical measures to address social problems is determining the order of priority between social problems, as social problems are innumerable, while a society's resources in resolving them are limited. Iranian researchers have made several attempts at prioritising Iran's social problems. Yet, in addition to being very few, they suffer from several methodological flaws that drastically diminish their credibility. In the article at hand, we will first analyse the key concepts of social problem and methodology. Thereafter, we will examine the various methods and criteria used in the most credible studies available that have attempted to prioritise Iran's social problems. From this examination and analysis, we have inferred five principal theoretic steps that need to be observed in the prioritisation of social problems so as to ensure the credibility and practical applicability of the article: (1) deciding who determines the priorities, (2) defining a particular theoretic approach, (3) drafting a comprehensive list of prospective social problems, (4) ensuring the homogeneity of the proposed social problems, and (5) defining a clear and distinct criterion for prioritisation.