Writing in the 1950s, the American sociologist C. Wright Mills (1959, pp. 7-10) drew a distinction between 'personal troubles' and public issues. He suggested that although there were many "troubles' or 'problems' that individuals experienced in their lives, not all of these emerged as "public issues" which commanded public interest and attention or which were seen as requiring public responses what can we do about X?'). Mills's use of the term "personal' may be slightly misleading, since it implies that it is the difference between individual and collective experience that matters. For us, however, the important distinction is between issues that are "private' (that is, to be handled within households, families or even communities and those which are "public' (that is, to be handled through forms of social intervention or regulation). One factor that may make a difference to whether things are perceived as private troubles or public issues is scale or volume. If only a few people experience some form of trouble, then it is likely to remain a private matter and not attract public concern. If, however, large numbers of people begin to experience this same trouble or fear they might it may become a public issue.