Sociology 3.2
Mechanisms of Social Control, Social Order and Conformity.
Most societies use social controls to regulate human behaviour and to make sure most (if not all) individuals conform to the norms and rules of a society.
Most members of society consent to these controls because they are aware of the long-term benefits these could bring
Formal agencies of social control tend to use repressive or coercive types of control, which are expressed in written laws.
The types of control often involve negative sanctions
Evidence suggests that the regular use of negative sanctions may lead to hostility, protest, defiance and overall social instability.
This means that social order is constantly under threat because citizens may see themselves as outsiders and cause what is considered to them as "uprisings"
These potential conflicts have led to many governments seeking to control by consent, persuading individuals that the 'law is blind, and it only seeks to protect all social groups equally.
Control by consent is criticised by Marxists for being an ideological device that aims to convince individuals that these social controls are necessary when in reality, they are used to control the proletariat.
Education is an important agency of social control.
Educational systems can qualify as a form of formal social control since, in many societies, it is considered a crime for parents not to provide basic education to their children. The school also has a formal set of rules for its pupils.
Schools (or individual teachers) can also be considered as a type of informal social control because teachers have a certain extent of freedom on how they manage their class, which can include informal interactions.
The workplace is an important agency of social control because people get to learn specialised skills for a certain job that are essential to the smooth running of the economy
Employers can employ a number of positive sanctions such as pay raises or promotions to reward those who are performing well in the workplace.
Employers can also use negative sanctions (which are underpinned by the law) for those who perform poorly in the workplace.
Employers have the power to give employees informal and formal warnings before completely terminating their employment.
Informal agencies are mostly made up of social groups in which relationships are close and direct, such as families and peer groups.
Social control is often maintained in these groups through informal mechanisms, such as religion, tradition, customs and mores.
David Morgan (1996) suggests that a great deal of interaction between a child and its parents, revolve around encouraging conformity.
For example, a parent may use negative sanctions to discipline a child for deviant behaviour, and positive sanctions to reward them for behaving according to the norms.
Positive sanctions may include praise, an extra show of love and affection, or material things that a child may like.
For negative sanctions, parents may show children a "withdrawal of love" or keeping them from doing or using the things that they like. Some cultures may allow or even encourage the use of physical punishment.
A study in 2013 by Sylvia Y.C.L Kwok found that 72% of Chinese children said that their parents beat them as a form of punishment. Kwok concluded that it is common for Chinese parents to physically and emotionally punish their children to solve conflicts and discipline them.
However, over 40 countries consider physical punishment as a crime.
Evidence shows that peer groups or subcultures work as a powerful form of informal social control.
Most subcultures put a considerable amount of peer pressure onto an individual to conform to the subcultural values and norms which may or may not be deviant from the larger society.
Some adolescents may even identify with spectacular youth subcultures which are often portrayed by the media as 'threatening'.
However majority of the youth do not come in contact with these spectacular youth groups, since they are mostly involved with mundane aspects of life such as peer groups, school and social media.
Peer groups may use positive sanctions such as additional respect or status to reward those who act in ways that are fitting to the overall norms of society.
Peer groups may also use negative sanctions such as gossip, ridicule, shame or exclusion to criticise and control the behaviour of potentially deviant individuals.
It is argued that peer groups may sometimes have more influence over an individual than their parents. However, studies show that these adolescents still end up conforming to the same values as their parents.
An important agency of social control in most cultures and societies is the media.
Several (if not all) types of media reinforce what is considered good or bad in a society
However, critics of media point out that these representations of media are often ideological and sometimes exaggerated.
The media can often encourage negative aspects of society such as patriarchy and the justification of inequalities. For example, the media can shame women who are not up to the patriarchy's 'standards of femininity. They can also enforce stereotypical gender roles.
Marxists can also argue that the media embraces capitalistic values by encouraging conspicuous consumption with advertisements. The media also often praises those who are wealthier by labelling them as self-made, ignoring the possibility that they are just enjoying the wealth that their previous generations owned.
Another important agency of socialisation is religion. However, this can also act as a formal agency of social control in countries that intertwine religion and law (eg.- Sharia Law).
Most religions encourage conformity by promising rewards in the afterlife, spiritual rebirth, nirvana and redemption
For 'sinners' religions threaten them with hellfire or eternal suffering.
In countries where religion shapes the law, those who question and do not follow the teachings of the religion may be punished by the state.
Formal social control is all about maintaining the rule of law within society
Stanley Cohen coined the term "moral panic" after analysing the media response to an incident during a bank holiday in the UK involving the "mods and the rockers" Although there was some violence, Cohen argued that the media had exaggerated the events which had caused the general public to seek a harsh punishment for these two groups of youth.
Stanley Cohen states that moral panic happens when something is suddenly defined by the media as a threat to society.
It is also known that imprisonment is used disproportionately between social groups. For example, the upper class are less likely to be imprisoned due to the connections that they have, or the money they can use to commit bribery. This is also common between racial groups due to racism and racial profiling.
Lately, surveilance has been a medium of social control. It is informal becuase a large aspect of it is internalised by individuals, however it is also formal, because surveilance is mostly used by the government.
Michel Foucault compared modern society to a type of prison named panopticon. In this prison design, it is possible for a single guard placed in the centre to easily observe a large number of prisoners, who in turn are unable to predict whether or not they are being watched. Through this, social control is maintained because prisoners internalise the possibility of being watched, and monitor their own behaviour just in case.
The same principle is evident in modern societies since governments are now implementing the use of surveillance systems, therefore, individuals, in theory, are now trying to monitor their own behaviour, just in case they might be watched.
The use of surveilance by the govenment is often a topic of debate, as some consider it a breach of privacy