Contested Matters

Definition: As used herein, a Contested Matter may be inside or outside the context of a Group or Organization.
(A) Inside the context of a Group or Organization - An inside Contested Matter is a Situation or Crisis confronting a Group or Organization that is (1) important and (2) has spilled outside the confines of the Organization or Group and so is in the public domain. The matter at hand is also (3) Contested. That is to say, a faction of citizens outside the Group or Organization has already taken a Contested stand up against the Group, the Organization, and/or another faction of citizens, and the Contesting parties have not yet been able to reconcile their differences.
Some Situations turn out to be Conditions while others turn out to be Problems. In a Contested Matter, the Nature of the Situation or Crisis is either unknown or unclear or it may be a Super Extraordinary Problem with a known history of development such as chronic homelessness in a given city, i.e., a given Organization.
If a Contested Matter, inside the context of a Group or Organization, is resolved or otherwise addressed it typically results in the formulation of Public Policy. (B) Outside the context of a Group or Organization - An outside Contested Matter refers to a Category of relationships and behaviors among adult Persons, or a Category of other Events, that reaches a Critical Mass that is Understood to constitute a Contested Situation or Crisis by a Critical Mass of adult Persons who Complain, Protest or Advocate for or against, among other things, a change in the Social Order with regard to the Contested Matter. <be> Examples -
An example of an A-type inside Contested Matter is the sexual abuse of children by one or more employees of a large Organization. The fact of the abuse becomes known by the public. There may be many Contested Matters associated with the fact of abuse but one of them may be the question - What is the appropriate punishment for the management of the Organization? That question capsulizes an inside type of Contested Matter. Outside the context of Organizations and Groups, a B-type Contested Matter arises when there is a significant gap between the way things are (Undesirable) and the way they should be (Desirable) according to the Understanding of a Critical Mass of Adults. The Category of "thing" may be a kind of human relationship/behavior, e.g., kids playing street hockey, or another kind of Event, e.g., too many deer colliding with autos in the Neighborhood or Town.
To be a Contested Matter, however, there must be a Critical Mass of the "thing" that gets a Critical Mass of people sufficiently disturbed such that they Complain, Protest or Advocate for or against, among other specific changes, a change in the Social Order which is practically guaranteed to be a Contested undertaking in its own right.
For example, some practical-minded neighbors believe thinning the local deer population by hunting to reduce collisions with autos is appropriate. That, they feel, ought to be the "normal" Solution. That should be the Social Order with regard to this matter. This stance is upsetting to other neighbors who believe the adorable deer should be captured and removed. Which way should the Social Order lean? Contested Matters like this are Contests over the Social Order.
Note that the people adversely affected by the "thing" may or may not be the same people who do the Complaining, Protesting, or Advocating. For example, changing the Social Order with regard to kids being allowed to play street hockey is called for by concerned adults, not by the kids who are playing street hockey.
When they reach a certain Critical Mass, Contested Matters, because they inhabit the public domain, often receive a title and a cadre of Advocates who promote that title that, in turn, attracts Complainers and Protesters. Below is a list of titles from the table of contents of Social Issues in America: an encyclopedia / James Ciment, editor.
Academic Freedom Adoption Advertising, children's Affirmative Action Ageism AIDS/HIV Air Pollution Airline Issues Alcohol Abuse Animal rights Anti-Muslim Discrimination and Violence Anti-Semitism Arson Arts Funding and Censorship At Risk Students: Higher Education Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder Autism Automobile and Highway Safety Bi-lingualism Birth Control Campaign Finance Reform Cancer Capital Punishment Census Issues Cheating, academic Child Abuse and Molestation Child Labor Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Church-State Separation Civil Liberties Civil Rights Coastal Pollution and Wetlands Protection College Sports Computer Crime, Hacking Consumer Debt and Bankruptcy Corporal Punishment Corporate Crime Crime Criminal Rights Cults and Alternative Religions Defense Spending and Preparedness Deforestation and Logging Disability Rights Divorce and Child Support Domestic Violence Downsizing, corporate Drought and aquifer depletion Drug Abuse Drugs, War on Eating Disorders Energy Dependency Environmental Justice Environmentally-inducred Illness Euthanasia Evolution Education Extinction and Species Loss: Biota Invasion and Habitat Destruction Farm crisis Food and Drug Safety Foster Care Gambling Gangs Gay and Lesbian Rights Genetic Engineering Gentrification Global Warming Gun violence and gun control Hate Crimes Hate Internet and Radio Hate Speech Health Care Reform Heart Disease Homelessness Housing costs Human experimentation Identity Theft Immigration Immigration, Illegal Indoor Pollution Infectious Diseaseand Epidemics Infrastructure Deterioration Intellectual Property Rights Journalistic Ethics Judicial Reform Juvenile Justice Legal Services for the Poor Literacy Mandatory Sentencing Marijuana Mass Transit Media Bias Media Consolidation Media Sex and Violence Medical Malpractice Medicare and Medicaid Reform Medicine, alternative Mental Illness Migrant Workers Militia Movement Minimum and Living Wages Money Laundering N(ot) I(n) M(y) B(ackyard) Y(ard) Issue Native Americans and Government Policy Natural Disasters and Disaster Relief Needle Exchange Programs Noise Pollution Nuclear Power and Waste Nuclear Weapons Obesity Occupational Safety and Health Organ and Tissue Transplants Organic Foods Organized Crime Plagiarism Police Abuse and Corruption Pornography Poverty and Wealth Prison Reform and Prisoner Rights Privacy Prostitution Public Opinion Polling Racial Profiling Rape Recycling and Conservation Red-lining and loan discrimination Reproductive Rights and Technology Rioting School Standards and Testing School Violence School Vouchers and Privatization Scientific Research Ethics Secrecy, Governmental Sex Education Sexual Harassment Single Parenting Social Security Reform Space Exploration, costs and benefits Special Education Stem Cell Research Stress Student Rights Suicide Superstores v. Main Street Sweatshops Tax Reform Term Limits Terrorism, Domestic Terrorism, Foreign Terrorism, War on Tobacco and tobacco-related health issues Tort Reform Toxic Waste Traffic Congestion Unemployment Unions Urban Sprawl Veterans' Issues Voluntarism and Volunteering Voting Issues Waste Disposal Water Pollution Weapons of Mass Destruction Welfare and welfare reform Wilderness Protection Women's Rights Xenophobia and Nativism