Social Control Functions Research Articles

Managing Laboratory Work through Skepticism: Processes of Evaluation and Control

Laboratory ethnographies are the shop-floor studies of the knowledge economy. Observational data from 11 months of fieldwork in a multidisciplinary neuroscience lab suggest that scientific skepticism, long understood as an evaluative mechanism, also serves social control and monitoring functions. The author applies insights from organization theory, social psychology, science studies, and the sociology of science to demonstrate that skepticism is socially organized at the microlevel of laboratory interactions. This organization makes skepticism a solution to the problems of control, coordination, and evaluation raised by uncertain scientific work conducted in a physically dispersed multidisciplinary setting. The diverse roles skepticism plays in laboratory interactions resonate with examinations of work in a number of occupational settings while providing direct insight into mechanisms that may account for the patterning of rewards and status across knowledge-intensive workplaces.

Managing Laboratory Work through Skepticism: Processes of Evaluation and Control

Laboratory ethnographies are the shop-floor studies of the knowledge economy. Observational data from 11 months of fieldwork in a multidisciplinary neuroscience lab suggest that scientific skepticism, long understood as an evaluative mechanism, also serves social control and monitoring functions. The author applies insights from organization theory, social psychology, science studies, and the sociology of science to demonstrate that skepticism is socially organized at the microlevel of laboratory interactions. This organization makes skepticism a solution to the problems of control, coordination, and evaluation raised by uncertain scientific work conducted in a physically dispersed multidisciplinary setting. The diverse roles skepticism plays in laboratory interactions resonate with examinations of work in a number of occupational settings while providing direct insight into mechanisms that may account for the patterning of rewards and status across knowledge-intensive workplaces

Emerging issues with mentally ill offenders: causes and social consequences.

Persons with mental illness and co-occurring substance abuse disorders are incarcerated at disproportionately high rates in comparison to the general population. Reasons may include high standards for involuntary commitment, an overall increase in substance abuse and the policy of deinstitutionalization. However, one significant reason may be that psychiatric institutions serve a social control function, which has not been appreciated by policymakers and program developers since deinstitutionalization. This paper presents provider views of the population and issues of concern for clients, families, and the agencies. Discussion includes service-provider response to the population, new program models, and implications for policymakers.

An ethics-based systems approach to indicators of sustainable development

A society that wishes to implement policy for sustainable development is faced with the need to identify both the desired direction of any change that is needed and the criteria by which it will know whether its policy has succeeded. These requirements are usually seen as essentially technical in nature. We argue that the ethical framework that a society uses to govern its continuing relationship with all other life on Earth will act as a filter for the indicators that are selected to implement its social control functions. Choice of the ethical framework is therefore primary. This paper postulates the moral imperative of sustainability, and suggests an ethical statement to rationalise social actions and act as a filter for appropriate indicators. Bossel's general systems approach and the use of his basic orientors of system viability are then described, as a structural framework for specification and definition of indicators of system sustainablity. The approach is illustrated by applying it to the New Zealand economy-environment-society system.

The African-Centered Worldview

Social work interventions with black families and children have been source of controversy, conflict, and disquiet for many decades. Research evidence continues to indicate that Black communities are overrepresented in those services that involve social control functions such as juvenile justice system in its dealings with young Black people, compulsory admissions to psychiatric units, and child protection. Black families are underrepresented in receiving preventative and supportive aspects of service delivery (Barn, 1993; Clarke et al., 1993; Roys, 1993; Lambert and Rowe, 1982; Skellington and Morris, 1992). Black communities and Black professionals in field continue to voice their general dissatisfaction with social work interventions and with disabling effects of social work process (Harris, 1991). The Association of Black Social Workers and Allied Professions (ABSWAP) provided compelling evidence to House of Commons Social Services Committee in 1983 highlighting plight of Black children in care system and was active in identifying need for a legislative framework that addresses race, culture, and language in provision and delivery of services (ABSWAP, 1983). Despite introduction of 1989 Children Act, and in particular Section 22(5)(c), which clearly requires local authorities to give due consideration to the child's religious persuasion, racial origin and cultural and linguistic background in provision of services and service delivery, Black children of all ages and both sexes continue to be overrepresented in public care system

Is There a Jurisprudential Future for the Juvenile Court?

This article considers the arguments for abolition of the juvenile court and suggests that its proponents may not go far enough in their proposals to dismantle the juvenile court's delinquency jurisdiction. While eliminating the juvenile court's delinquency jurisdiction may be justifiable given the court's emphasis on punishment and control, any such proposal also must account for the institutional effects on the court. Particularly, proponents of abolishing the court's delinquency jurisdiction on grounds that it is a flawed criminal court must consider whether that criticism also provides justification for abolition of the juvenile court's status offense jurisdiction since status offenders also are subject to state control for their behaviors. Moreover, even if a separate juvenile court is retained, proponents of abolishing the court's delinquency jurisdiction must take into account the institutional consequences of changing the court's caseload. In light of the juvenile court's social control functions, the use of state power and authority over petty and noncriminal juvenile offenders, and the implications for a coherent account of rights, this article suggests that abolition requires a more significant restructuring than has been previously suggested.

New right, new Labour, new welfare?

Discusses attempts by the government’s political opposition (in the UK) to break the consensus on welfare and considers whether the recent change in political power has materially altered the direction of policy relating to care in the community and the role of social workers. Charts the development of the British welfare state from its conception in 1945 through to the present day, focussing on recent reforms in community care provisions and the role of social workers; details how the profession has been undermined by a series of events and profiles the former government’s response. Identifies that the welfare role of social workers has diminished, and been replaced with a social control function. Concludes that, despite the legacy inherited from the previous government, a shift in the political approach to social services and community care provision is discernible.

Spædingsfeltet mellem psykoterapi og social kontrol

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeAt-risk children live in a social context that is characterised with instability and a questionable quality of life. At the same time, for many of these children, their relations and development are not threatened to the extent that a social control action is required, such as removing the child from his or her home. In this greyzone, psychologists who work with these children encounter important, yet difficult, dilemmas: How can one be sure that the therapeutic process is working to the benefit of the child? When will it be necessary or required to take actions of social control? The psychologist has many functions in this area, and the article presents a model where evaluation, therapy, social control, expertise and relational functions are seen as integrated, coexisting and complimentary functions. Theoretical and methodological implications of the model are discussed, and guidelines for intervention are suggested.

From service to social control: Implications of welfare reform for professional practice in the United States

In response to the explosive growth and the changing demographic composition of public welfare recipients, this program has undergone four major reforms over the last three decades: the 1962 'Service' amendments, the 1967 Work Incentive program (WIN), the Family Support Act of 1988, and the 1996 program of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). These reforms have had a profound impact not only on the scope and purpose of public assistance to needy families, but also on the nature of professional social work practice in this area of public social service. An analysis of the major welfare reforms over the last 35 years reveals how the national entitlement to income maintenance and social services has receded, local responsibility and private delivery of service have increased, and emphases on service functions have shifted from rehabilitative social casework/counselling to work-oriented training, job search activities, and local employment. The provision of public assistance has been transformed from a federal entitlement based on needs to a budget-driven-time-limited benefit enveloped by incentives and sanctions, with welfare clients increasingly subject to mandatory participation in work-related activities. This movement from welfare to workfare has infused the professional role of social workers with a steadily expanding function of social control, which is unlikely to encourage professional participation in the public social services.

The birth of the prison: Discipline or punish?

The English title of Foucault's famous examination of the prison is Discipline and Punish, but Foucault for the most part says nothing on punishment and devotes his entire effort to establishing that the prison was conceived to perform the latent social control function of discipline. Since discipline is not a conscious function, there is no conscious effort to justify it. Not surprisingly, the modern prison emerges from Foucault's analysis as a morally questionable public institution. Had Foucault examined the other term of his title and even had he done so in terms provided by his bete noire, Jeremy Bentham, he would have discovered that a good deal of effort was expended to justify the punishment concepts that were incorporated in the prison. The prison, which in any case was not “born” when and how Foucault says it was, emerges as a more complex social and political institution than Foucault makes it out to be. It is also less morally questionable than he claims. This article is an extensive critique of one of the more important arguments about the modern prison produced in this century.

German women and Nazi justice: their role in the process from denunciation to death

This essay examines both the ?legal? repression of women in Nazi Germany and the role that women played in helping to make the Nazi system of social and political control function. It focusses on women and the organs of social control in the city of Cologne and its surrounding area. It combines a computer analysis of all existing cases (circa 30,000) of illegal political activity reported to the state prosecuting attorney (Staatsanwaltschaft) in the district served by the Cologne ?Special Court? (Sonderge richt) with an indepth analysis of a sample of over two hundred of these cases in the city of Cologne and in the neighboring small town of Bergheim. It also analyzes the prison records of the main Cologne jail (Klingelp?tz) during the war years. It argues that though women were important actors in the Nazi control apparatus at the local * Address all communications to Eric A. Johnson, Dept. of History, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan 48859, USA. This essay was written while I was a visiting Professor at the ZA/ZHSF of the University of Cologne. The research for this paper is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (Grant No. RO-22401-92, ?Protest, Popular Opinion and Denuncia tion in Nazi Germany?) and the National Science Foundation (Grant No. SES 9209720, ?RUI: Compliance with and Opposition to Totalitarianism?). I would like to extend my thanks to Ralph Ponemereo of the Zentrum f?r historische Sozialfor schung and Harald Rohlinger of the Zentralarchiv fur Empirische Sozialforschung, both of the University of Cologne, for their significant technical and intellectual support. Also I wish to thank my research assistant Christiane Wever for her hard work, good cheer, and important insights. 1 Frau Werner in Annemarie Tr?ger, ?German Women's Memories of World War n,? in Margaret Randolph Higonnet et. al., eds., Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars (New Haven, 1987), p. 293. On the importance of marriage to German women in the Third Reich in general, see Gabriele Czarnowski, Das kontrollierte Paar. Eheund Sexualpolitik im Nationalsozialismus (Weinheim, 1991).

The early impact of the grant of autonomy to government educational institutions in Pakistan

This paper explores the recent innovation in Pakistan of the grant of financial and administrative autonomy to selected colleges in Punjab. The origins and rationale behind the privatization scheme are analysed, together with its actual organizational structure. A pilot study of two autonomous colleges, based on participants’ reactions, is described. Seven themes emerge: alternative types of autonomy desired; financial and administrative problems; political interference; social divisiveness; teacher insecurity; standards and discipline; and competition between institutions. It is concluded that the ‘autonomy’ is not working as intended, and that negative perceptions from staff outweigh any optimistic interpretations from user groups. Theoretical perspectives which examine the use of the ‘market’ to deepen the social control function of education are implicated.

Education and the Struggle for Empowerment of Young People with Special Educational Needs

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the way in which the concept of empowerment through education has been understood in the post‐war period, as faith in the potential of education to improve the position of socially marginalised groups gave way to a more pessimistic view, accompanied by individualist notions of empowerment through consumer choice. Within the mainstream literature there has been much discussion of the tension between the social control and emancipatory functions of education, but this debate has rarely been extended to children with special educational needs. More critical accounts have sometimes adopted an over‐deterministic perspective. Case studies of three young people are used to explore the meaning of empowerment through education. It is evident that this varies greatly according to the severity of their disability. No matter how empowerment is construed, however, the extent to which their educational experiences provide them with some degree of choice and autonomy depends on a wide range...

Authoritarianism and the Functions of Courts: A Time Series Analysis of the Philippine Supreme Court, 1961–1987

Focusing on the independent and powerful pre–martial law Philippine Supreme Court, we investigate the impact of the establishment and breakdown of authoritarianism on the court's performance of the functions of conflict resolution, social control, and administration. We develop hypotheses concerning and models of the impacts of the onset, consolidation, and breakdown of martial law authoritarianism under Ferdinand Marcos on that court's handling of the three functions. Using Box-Jenkins time series analysis methods, we assess the impacts of the onset, consolidation, and breakdown of Marcos's authoritarianism on the Supreme Court's functional performance. In our analysis, authoritarianism had no impact on the Court's performance of the conflict resolution function; authoritarianism's onset increased and its breakdown decreased the Court's performance of the routine administrative function; and authoritarianism's onset decreased but its consolidation increased the Court's performance of the social control function.

Discussion of Klassen & Burnaby and McKay & Weinstein-Shr: Beyond Assimilationist Literacy Policies and Practices

The preceding articles by Burnaby and Klassen and by McKay and Weinstein-Shr help point out the disjunction between the assumptions underlying literacy policies and program practices and the experiences of those for whom-but frequently not with whomthey have been developed. These authors demonstrate that the key to understanding language and literacy policies is based upon deconstructing the common assumptions and contradictions which underlie policy formation and program practices. Both articles underscore the importance of ethnographic research as a means of informing policy, particularly regarding those students who would benefit from literacy instruction but who are not enrolled in any program. The examples cited demonstrate that because there is life, language, and literacy beyond the world of English, there are many reasons to acknowledge, maintain, and promote native-language literacy and biliteracy. McKay and Weinstein-Shr's brief historical discussion of language and literacy policies as instruments of gatekeeping offers one example of how these policies have functioned as instruments of social control (Leibowitz, 1974). I will add an interpretive commentary to McKay and Weinstein-Shr's historical discussion, before returning to the articles because an historical-structural approach (see Tollefson, 1991) helps to further understand this function of social control. It also provides a framework for understanding educational remedies as well as the experiences and problems of language minorities. Historical and contemporary English language and literacy policies can have a number of functions including representing responses of dominant groups to subordinate groups. Official policies and program practices are established through institutions controlled by dominant groups. Thus, the individual experiences of language minorities, as they attempt to acquire literacy and a second language, can also be understood within the context of struggles between groups with un-

Personal and Social Education: Curriculum Innovation and School Bureaucracies in Malta

Abstract The rationale behind a personal and social education (PSE) initiative coordinated by the author in Malta1 is critically reviewed. The social context for the emergence of PSE in a number of countries is compared and contrasted, linking this ‘new’ development with issues of legitimation on the one hand, and problems posed by bureaucratic school structures on the other. Some of the normative dilemmas with PSE are explored, notably its tendency to reduce ‘education’ to a technocratic focus on the development and learning of skills. It is suggested that there is a danger that PSE could become yet another compensatory divide which reinforces the social-control function of schools, but that this can be averted if there is a creative rapprochement between two disparate educational perspectives, namely humanistic education and critical theory/pedagogy. The convergence of the two approaches would ensure that both the personal and the political goals of a true education would be achieved.

Immigrants, Natives and the French Welfare State: Explaining Different Interactions with a Social Welfare Program

This research note examines immigrants and natives’ interactions with foyers d'hébergement or lodging hostels in France. These populations differ in how they locate foyers, the importance they attach to the social dimensions of this institution, and their responses to its social control function. North African and especially Algerian immigrants show the greatest differences from the French. Ethnicity accounts for the variation between immigrants and natives’ methods of entering the foyers. Length of residence in France plays a great role in shaping immigrants’ responses to the foyer as a social institution and as a social control mechanism. These findings demonstrate how the welfare state affects immigrants differently from natives, and the respective roles of ethnicity and the migration-adaptation process.

Psychopathic disorder: a category mistake?

Although the concept of psychopathy retains its currency in British psychiatry, apparently being meaningful as well as useful to practitioners (1), it is often taken to refer to a purely legal category with social control functions rather than a medical diagnosis with treatment implications. I wish, in this brief article, to suggest that it is essentially, and most usefully, an ethical category which stands outside the diagnostic framework of present-day psychiatry.

Social Structure, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction

Two hundred and seventy five randomly selected social workers who were practicing in Massachusetts in 1988 were studied to better understand burnout and job satisfaction. The findings from hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that perceived lack of autonomy and the influence of the funding sources are major contributors to burnout, and perceived autonomy and bureaucratization are major contributors to job satisfaction. The findings challenge the assumption that bureaucracy is the most efficient form of organization and question the ideological and social control functions of organizations. A focus on the effects of the organizational structure as it contributes to burnout and job satisfaction is suggested for policy, practice, and professional decisions.

The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis

Ballantine/Hammack Sociology of Education Seventh Edition Chapter1 Sociology of Education: A Unique Perspective for Understanding Schools Sociology and Education U.S. Schools in the Early Twenty-First Century: Applying Sociological Findings Theoretical Approaches in the Sociology of Education Open Systems Approach Research Methods in Sociology of Education Organization of the Book Chapter 2 Conflicting Functions and Processes in Education: What Makes the System Work? Conflicting Functions of Education Importance of Processes in Educational Systems Function of Socialization: What We Learn and How We Learn It Function of Cultural Transmission and Process of Passing On Culture Function of Social Control and Personal Development Function of Selection and Allocation: Sorting Process Function of Change and Innovation: Looking to the Future Chapter 3 Education and the Process of Stratification Crisis in Schooling Process of Stratification: Is Inequality Inevitable? Stratification and Equality of Educational Opportunity Chapter 4 Gender, Race, and Class: Attempts to Achieve Equality of Educational Opportunity Gender and Equality of Educational Opportunity Class, Race, and Attempts to Rectify Inequalities in Educational Opportunity Integration Attempts Educational Experience of Selected Minorities in the United States Improving Schools for Minority Students Chapter 5 School as an Organization Social System of the School Goals of the School System School as an Organization Centralized versus Decentralized Decision Making: Fight over Control of Schools Chapter 6 Formal School Statuses and Roles: The Way It Spozed to Be Meaning of Roles Professionals in the Educational System Roles in Schools Chapter 7 Students: Core of the School Student Characteristics School Failures and Dropouts Students and the Informal System Students and Their Environments Chapter 8 Informal System and the Hidden Curriculum: What Really Happens in School? Open Systems Approach and the Informal System Educational Climate and School Effectiveness Power Dynamics and Roles in the Informal System Chapter 9 Educational System and the Environment: A Symbiotic Relationship Environment and the Educational System School Systems' Environments: Interdependence Between Institutions Chapter 10 System of Higher Education History and Development of Higher Education Theoretical Approaches to Higher Education Characteristics of Higher Education in the United States Functions of the Higher Education System Higher Education as an Organization Roles in Higher Education Environmental Pressures on Higher Education Outcomes of Higher Education Problems and Reform in Higher Education Chapter 11 Educational Systems Around the World: A Comparative View Comparative Educational Studies Theoretical Perspectives in Comparative Education Global Institutional Interdependence Stages of Economic Development and Educational Change Higher Education Around the World Chapter 12 Educational Systems Around the World: Britain, China, and Post-Colonial Africa Education in Britain Education in the People's Republic of China Formal Education in Colonial Africa Chapter 13 Educational Movements and Reform Nature of Educational Movements Early Educational Movements Alternative Education and Related Movements Structural and Curricular Changes in the Schools References Index