Social control types and features. Types of control in social work

External social control is a set of forms, methods and actions that guarantee compliance with social norms of behavior. There are two types of external control - formal and informal.

Formal social control, based on official approval or condemnation, is carried out by state authorities, political and social organizations, the education system, the media and operates throughout the country, based on written norms - laws, decrees, resolutions, orders and instructions. Formal social control may also include the dominant ideology in society. Speaking of formal social control, they mean, first of all, actions aimed at making people respect laws and order with the help of government representatives. Such control is especially effective in large social groups.

Informal social control based on the approval or condemnation of relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, public opinion, expressed through traditions, customs or the media. The agents of informal social control are such social institutions as family, school, religion. This type of control is especially effective in small social groups.

In the process of social control, violation of some social norms is followed by a very weak punishment, for example, disapproval, an unfriendly look, a smirk. Violation of other social norms is followed by severe punishments - the death penalty, imprisonment, exile from the country. Violation of taboos and legal laws is most severely punished, and certain types of group habits, in particular family habits, are most mildly punished.

Internal social control- independent regulation by the individual of his social behavior in society. In the process of self-control, a person independently regulates his social behavior, coordinating it with generally accepted norms. This type of control is manifested, on the one hand, in a sense of guilt, emotional experiences, "remorse" for social actions, on the other hand, in the form of an individual's reflection on his social behavior.

An individual's self-control over his own social behavior is formed in the process of his socialization and the formation of socio-psychological mechanisms of his internal self-regulation. The main elements of self-control are consciousness, conscience and will.

Human consciousness - it is an individual form of mental representation of reality in the form of a generalized and subjective model of the surrounding world in the form of verbal concepts and sensory images. Consciousness allows the individual to rationalize his social behavior.

Conscience- the ability of a person to independently formulate his own moral duties and demand from himself their fulfillment, as well as to make a self-assessment of the actions and deeds performed. Conscience does not allow an individual to violate his established attitudes, principles, beliefs, in accordance with which he builds his social behavior.

Will- conscious regulation by a person of his behavior and activities, expressed in the ability to overcome external and internal difficulties in the performance of purposeful actions and deeds. The will helps the individual to overcome his inner subconscious desires and needs, to act and behave in society in accordance with his convictions.

Social control, in fact, is a process by which society, its individual spheres, management systems, subsystems, social units determine whether their actions or decisions are correct, whether they need to be adjusted.

Forms of social control[edit | edit wiki text]

Social control can be exercised in institutional and non-institutional forms.

1. institutional form social control is implemented through a special apparatus specializing in control activities, which is a set of state and public organizations (bodies, institutions and associations).

2. Non-institutional form social control - a special kind of self-regulation inherent in various social systems, control over people's behavior by the mass consciousness.
Its functioning is based mainly on the action of moral and psychological mechanisms, consisting of continuous monitoring of the behavior of other people and assessments of the conformity of its social prescriptions and expectations. A person becomes aware of himself by observing other members of society (organizations, groups, communities), constantly comparing himself with them, assimilating certain norms of behavior in the process of socialization. Society cannot exist without mental reactions, mutual evaluations. It is thanks to mutual contacts that people realize social values, acquire social experience and skills of social behavior.

A variety of institutional social control is state control.Among the types of state control are: political, administrative and judicial.

· Political control carried out by those bodies and persons who exercise the powers of the supreme power. Depending on the political and state structure, these are the parliament, regional and local elected bodies. Political control can be exercised to a certain extent by political parties that have received the support of the majority of the people, especially those represented in government.

· Administrative control carried out by the executive bodies of all branches of government. Here, as a rule, control of higher officials over the actions of subordinates is implemented, inspection and supervisory bodies are created that analyze the implementation of laws, regulations, management decisions, and study the effectiveness and quality of administrative activities.

· Judicial control all the courts at the disposal of the society are carried out: general (civil), military, arbitration and constitutional courts.

However, it is difficult for one state to respond to many social demands and demands, which leads to an aggravation of social conflicts that have a destructive effect on the nature of public life. To do this, it is necessary to have an effective feedback that ensures the participation of citizens in public administration, an important element of which is public control. Therefore, along with state control, public control is a special form of control - public control by society represented by the public, individual citizens, social organizations and movements, public opinion. In a modern democratic society, public control is primarily the activity of established institutions of civil society, formal and informal participation in them by individual citizens and their associations.

Social control can be exercised in institutional and non-institutional forms.

2. Non-institutional form social control is a special kind of self-regulation inherent in various social systems, control over people's behavior by the mass consciousness.
Its functioning is based mainly on the action of moral and psychological mechanisms, consisting of continuous monitoring of the behavior of other people and assessments of the conformity of its social prescriptions and expectations. A person becomes aware of himself by observing other members of society (organizations, groups, communities), constantly comparing himself with them, assimilating certain norms of behavior in the process of socialization. Society cannot exist without mental reactions, mutual evaluations. It is thanks to mutual contacts that people realize social values, acquire social experience and skills of social behavior.

A variety of institutional social control is state control.Among the types of state control are: political, administrative and judicial.

· Judicial control all the courts at the disposal of the society are carried out: general (civil), military, arbitration and constitutional courts.

However, it is difficult for one state to respond to many social demands and demands, which leads to an aggravation of social conflicts that have a destructive effect on the nature of public life. This requires an effective feedback that ensures the participation of citizens in public administration, an important element of which is public control. Therefore, along with state control, public control is a special form of social control - public control by society represented by the public, individual citizens, social organizations, associations and movements, as well as public opinion. In a modern democratic society, public control is the activity, first of all, of the established institutions of civil society and individual citizens - their formal and informal participation in it.

[edit] Types of social control

There are two types of social control processes:

processes that encourage individuals to internalize existing social norms, the processes of socialization of family and school education, during which the internal requirements of society - social prescriptions - take place;

· the processes that organize the social experience of individuals, the lack of publicity in society, publicity - a form of social control over the behavior of the ruling strata and groups;

Subject social control is inextricably linked with deviance, deviant behavior, although it has a broader, sociological significance.
It is possible that the desire for order is innate in man. In any case, all scientific, philosophical, religious constructions are aimed at revealing the patterns (order!) of the World or bringing Order into the Chaos of Being. In a broad, general scientific sense, order is certainty, a regularity in the arrangement of system elements and their interaction with each other. In relation to society, order is understood as certainty, regularity in the structuring of society and the interaction of its elements (communities, classes, groups, institutions).
Social control- a mechanism of self-organization (self-regulation) and self-preservation of society by establishing and maintaining a normative order in a given society and eliminating, neutralizing, minimizing norm-violating - deviant behavior.
But this is too general a definition that needs commentary.
One of the main questions of sociology is how and why is the existence and preservation of society possible? Why does it not disintegrate under the influence of the struggle of various, including antagonistic, interests of classes and groups? * The problem of order and social control was discussed by all sociological theorists from O. Comte, H. Spencer, K. Marx, E. Durkheim to P. Sorokin, T. Parsons, R. Merton, N. Luhmann and others.
* Turner J. The structure of sociological theory. S. 27, 70.
So, O. Comte believed that society is bound by “general consent” (consensus omnium). One of the two main branches of sociology social static (other - social dynamics) - is, according to Comte, the theory of social order, harmony. And basic social institutions (family, state, religion) were considered by scientists in terms of their role in the integration of society. In other words, how institutions social control. Thus, the family teaches to overcome innate egoism, and the state is called upon to prevent the “radical divergence” of people in ideas, feelings and interests*.
* Comte O. The course of positive philosophy // Ancestors of positivism. SPb., 1912. Issue. 4.
G. Spencer, who also stood at the origins of sociology and adhered to organismic ideas about society, believed that three organ systems are inherent in a social organism: supporting (production), distributive and regulatory. The latter just ensures the subordination of the constituent parts (elements) of society to the whole, i.e., it essentially performs the functions social control. Being an evolutionist, H. Spencer condemned revolution as an unnatural violation of order*.
* Spencer G. Basic principles. SPb., 1887.
The starting point for the sociology of E. Durkheim is concept of social solidarity. Classification related to solidarity concepts dual ("dual"). There are two types sociality: simple, based on consanguinity, and complex, based on the specialization of functions that arose in the process of division of social labor. For simple sociality mechanical solidarity of a homogeneous group is characteristic, for a complex one - organic solidarity. To maintain mechanical solidarity, repressive law is sufficient, providing for severe punishment of violators. Organic solidarity should be characterized by restitutive (“restorative”) law, the function of which is reduced to “simple restoration of the order of things”*. Looking ahead, we note that this idea of “restorative law”, “restorative justice” as an alternative to criminal, “compensatory” justice (retributive justice) has become widespread in modern foreign criminology. The more cohesive the society, the higher the degree social integration of individuals, the less deviations (deviations). And the inevitable conflicts in society should be resolved peacefully.
* Durkheim E. On the division of social labor. Method of sociology. M., 1990. S. 109.
The views of the scientist evolved from the primacy of duty and coercion social norms to voluntariness, personal interest of individuals in their acceptance and following them. The true basis of solidarity, according to the “late” Durkheim, is not in coercion, but in an internalized (learned by the individual) moral duty, in a sense of respect for common requirements (group pressure).
Start of special studies social control its functions, institutions, methods are associated with several names. Different authors solve the question of priority in this area of sociological knowledge in different ways.
Undoubtedly a major contribution to the study of problems social control introduced by W. Sumner. Already in his early works he considered the processes control society over the environment and coercive pressure (“collective pressure”) on the members of society, ensuring its cohesion*. Sumner proposed a typology of sources (means) of collective pressure: folk customs, including traditions and mores; institutions; laws. These three social mechanisms provide conformity, but are not sufficient for solidarity, which is itself a by-product of conformity.
* Sumner W. Folkways. Boston, 1906.
As we already know, the key in the theory of G. Tarde - a representative of the psychological direction in sociology and criminology - is "imitation", with the help of which the scientist explained the main social processes, character social facts, the structure of society and the mechanism of its cohesion*. Not surprisingly, typical social The relationship is the teacher-student relationship. G. Tarde paid great attention to the study of various forms of deviance, revealing their statistical patterns. He believed that the results of such studies make it possible to put under control spontaneous social processes. An important factor social control is the socialization of the individual.
* Tard G. Laws of imitation of St. Petersburg, 1892 (last edition - 1999).
For E. Ross, solidarity and cohesion are secondary to social control. It is he who binds individuals and groups into an organized whole. key concept concept of E. Ross - "obedience" *. It can act in two forms: personal-informal and impersonal-official. The first is based on consent. The second is provided through control. Perhaps E. Ross proposed the first classification of mechanisms social control: interior control- ethical and external - political. For the first, group goals are important, for the second, the institutionalized apparatus of means (legal, educational, etc.). More E. Ross considers the family as a factor social control shaping and implementing behavior patterns. The internalization (assimilation) by the individual of these models as personal ideals best ensures obedience.
* Ross E. Social Control. NY, 1901.
R. Park identified three forms social control: elementary sanctions, public opinion, social institutions. In one form or another, these forms control considered by various authors.
From the vast scientific heritage of M. Weber, his constructions of three ideal types of domination are directly related to the problem under consideration: rational, traditional, charismatic *. They can also be considered as types social control. M. Weber himself believed that "the legitimacy of the order can only be guaranteed internally", namely: effectively-emotionally - by devotion; value-rationally - by faith in the absolute significance of order as an expression of immutable values; religiously - the belief in the dependence of good and salvation on the preservation of order. The legitimacy of the order can also be guaranteed by the expectation of external consequences, including law, coercion. The first type of legitimacy, legal or formal-rational, is based on interest. In a rational state, they obey not individuals, but established laws. Their implementation is carried out by the bureaucracy (classic examples are modern bourgeois England, France, the USA). The second type - traditional is based on mores, traditions, habits, which are attributed not only legality, but also sacredness. This type is inherent in a patriarchal society, and the main relationship is master-servant (a classic example is the feudal states of Western Europe). The third type - charismatic (Greek charisma - a divine gift) - is based on the extraordinary abilities of a person - a leader, a prophet (be it Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha or Caesar, Napoleon, finally - A. Hitler, I. Stalin, Mao ...). If the traditional type of domination is supported by the usual - mores, traditions, habits, then the charismatic one rests on the unusual, extraordinary, amazing, supernatural. Weber viewed charisma as a "great revolutionary force" that interrupted the gradualism of traditional development. He was lucky not to live in his native country to the charisma of Hitler, as well as other "leaders" with an extraordinary "gift" ...
*Weber M. Staatssoziologie. Berlin, 1966.
The work of our compatriot P. Sorokin, forced to live and work in exile since 1922, thanks to the coming to power in Russia of charismatic leaders, is largely devoted to the topic social regulation of human behavior. The title and content of his first major scientific work of the Petersburg period, Crime and Punishment, Feat and Reward, is devoted to the mechanism social control*. There are stable forms social behavior - "due", "recommended", "prohibited" and forms social reactions to them are negative (punishment) and positive (reward) sanctions. In general, these forms constitute the regulatory substructure. In "The System of Sociology"** P. Sorokin, paying tribute to the problem social order, examines the mechanism of "organized" forms of behavior. Social reactions to biopsychic stimuli, repeated many times, develop into a habit, and when realized, into a law. The totality of conscious forms of behavior in various areas of social life forms institutions, the totality of the latter constitutes social order or organization.
* Sorokin P. Crime and punishment, feat and reward. SPb., 1913.
** Sorokin P. The system of sociology. Pg., 1920. T. 1.
P. Sorokin attached great importance social stratification and social mobility (in fact, he introduced these concepts into scientific circulation). Hence the role concepts"status" ("rank") as a set of rights and obligations, privileges and responsibilities, power and influence. Difficult vertical mobility eventually leads to a revolution - "shaking up" social strat. Unnatural and violent nature social revolutions makes them undesirable. And the best way to prevent revolutions is to improve the channels of vertical mobility and social control.
In his main work "Social and Cultural Dynamics" * P. Sorokin summarizes his understanding social. Its specificity is the "non-material" component: "norms - values - meanings". It is the presence of values and norms, as well as meanings (without taking into account which it is often impossible to distinguish between a fight and boxing, rape and a voluntary sexual act, etc.) that characterizes social being, in contrast to the inorganic and organic levels of being.
* Excerpts from this fundamental four-volume work, see: Sorokin P. Man. Civilization. Society. M., 1992. S. 425-504.
Problem social control is essential for functionalism and constitutes a significant part of the theory social actions. According to its largest representative, T. Parsons, the functions of reproduction social structures are provided by a system of beliefs, morality, socialization organs (family, education, etc.), and normative orientation in the theory of action plays the same role as space in classical mechanics. In "Structure social actions” Parsons raises the most important question for him: how do the social systems? He sees the answer in two main mechanisms that integrate personality into social system: mechanisms of socialization and social control*(note that from our point of view, socialization is one of the mechanisms social control).
* For details see: Turner J. Decree. op. pp. 70-72.
The mechanisms of socialization, according to Parsons, are the means by which the assimilation (internalization) of cultural patterns - values, attitudes, language - takes place by the individual. The mechanisms of socialization also provide stable and reliable interpersonal relationships that help relieve tension, anxiety, and fatigue.
Mechanisms social control include ways of organizing the role of the status of individuals in order to reduce tension and deviations. To mechanisms control include: institutionalization (ensuring the certainty of role expectations); interpersonal sanctions and gestures (used by actors social actions for the mutual consistency of sanctions); ritual actions (removal of tension in a symbolic way, strengthening of the dominant cultural patterns); structures that ensure the preservation of values and the distinction between “normal” and “deviant”; structures of re-integration (normalization of tendencies towards "deviation"); institutionalization of a system capable of using violence, coercion. In a broad sense, to the mechanisms social control(more precisely, the preservation of the integration of the social system) also applies to socialization, which ensures the internalization (assimilation) of values, ideas, symbols. Parsons also analyzed three methods social control in relation to deviants: isolation from others (for example, in prison); isolation with partial restriction of contacts (for example, in a psychiatric hospital); rehabilitation - preparation for returning to a "normal" life (for example, with the help of psychotherapy, the activities of public organizations such as "AA" - Alcoholics Anonymous).
The Age of Enlightenment and the 19th century were imbued with faith and hope about the possibility of a successful social control and "order". It is only necessary to listen to the advice of educators, the opinion of scientists and work a little to bring reality in line with Reason...
However, a few questions still remain unclear:
What's happened social“order”, are there objective criteria for its evaluation? For the natural sciences, this is probably the level of entropy of the system - its (entropy) decrease or not increase. And for social systems? Maybe synergetics can help us in answering this question?
"Order" for whom? In whose interests? From whose point of view?
Is a society possible without "disorder"? Obviously not. Organization and disorganization, "order" and "disorder" (chaos), "norm" and "deviation" are complementary (in Bohr's sense). Recall that deviations are a necessary mechanism for change and development.
How, by what means, at what cost is “order” maintained (“new order” by A. Hitler, Gulag “order” by I. Stalin, “order” by America in Vietnam and Iraq, the USSR in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Afghanistan, Russia in Chechnya)?
In general, “the order that is held together by our cultural learning appears to be extremely vulnerable and fragile. This is only one of the possible orders, and we cannot be sure that it is the most correct.
* Bauman Z. Think sociologically. M., 1996. S. 166.
Social practice of the XX century. with two world wars, the Cold War, hundreds of local wars, Hitler and Lenin-Stalin concentration camps, genocide, right-wing and left-wing extremism, terrorism, fundamentalism, etc. - destroyed all illusions and myths about "order" and opportunities social control(one of his contemporaries noted: human history was divided into “before” Auschwitz and “after”). The amount of crimes committed by the states - "pillars of order", exceeded the crimes of singles by a hundred times. At the same time, the states - "sponsors of the murders" (N. Kressel) - do not "repent" (maybe with the exception of Germany), but deny, renounce their deeds. S. Cohen in the article “Human Rights and Crimes of States: A Culture of Denial”* names three forms of such refusal (denial):
- denial of the past (denial of the past). Thus, publications appeared in the West declaring the Holocaust a “myth”, domestic Stalinists call the horror of Stalinist repressions a “myth” (however, the recent Duma events on the anniversary of the Holocaust, when many of our elected representatives refused to honor the memory of the victims, indicate that in on this issue we are "catching up" with the West...);
- literal denial - according to the formula "we don't know anything";
- sacramental refusal (implicatory denial) - according to the formula "yes, but ...". Thus, the majority of war criminals, under the pressure of facts, admit: "Yes, it was." And then a “but” follows: there was an order, military necessity, etc.
* Cohen S. Human Rights and Crimes of the State: the Cultural of Denial. In: Criminological Perspectives. A Reader. SAGE, 1996. P. 489-507.
It is not surprising that postmodernism in the sociology of the late 20th century, starting with J.-F. Lyotard and M. Foucault, comes to the denial of the possibility social control over deviant manifestations, expressed categorically and succinctly by N. Luhmann in the words chosen as an epigraph to this chapter. And although it is likely that realistic-skeptical postmodernism - as a reaction to the illusions of the beautiful-souled Enlightenment - is as one-sided as the Enlightenment itself, however, some considerations of a general scientific nature (in particular, the law of increasing entropy in a system) incline us to the side of postmodernism. “The victory of order over chaos is never complete or final... Attempts to construct an artificial order in accordance with an ideal goal are doomed to failure”*.
* Bauman Z. Think sociologically. M., 1996. S. 192, 193.
This does not exclude, of course, the possibility and necessity of systems, primarily biological and social, resist disorganizing entropy processes. As the father of cybernetics N. Wiener wrote, “we are swimming upstream, struggling with a huge stream of disorganization, which, in accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, tends to reduce everything to heat death ... In this world, our first duty is to arrange arbitrary islands of order and system ... We must run as fast as we can in order to stay where we once left off ”*.
* Viner N. I am a mathematician. M., 1967. S. 311.
Most of us fight for life to the end, knowing its inevitability and maintaining courage (or not so much ...) “in spite of” the inevitable (A. Malraux), and “beyond despair” (J.-P. Sartre). But that doesn't change the end result. Each society also ceases to exist sooner or later (how often do we remember Lydia and Chaldea, Babylon and Assyria, the Sumerian empire and the Inca civilization today?). This should not be an obstacle to efforts to self-preserve by organizing and maintaining "order" and reducing chaotic processes, including negative deviant behavior. We must not only forget that organization and disorganization are inextricably linked, one cannot be without the other, and deviations are not only “harmful”, but also “useful” from the point of view of the survival and development of the system.
So the problem social control there is pretty much a problem social order, the preservation of society as a whole.
There is a different understanding social control. At the beginning of the chapter, we gave its most general definition. In a narrower sense social control is a set of means and methods of influencing society on undesirable forms of deviant behavior with the aim of their elimination (elimination) or reduction, minimization.
The social regulators of human behavior are the values developed by society (as an expression of a person’s attitude to certain objects and the properties of these objects that are significant for people) and the norms corresponding to them (legal, moral, customs, traditions, fashion, etc.), i.e. rules , samples, standards, standards of behavior established by the state (law) or formed in the process of joint life. The easiest way to transfer rules (and values) is by personal example and imitation (“do as I do”). However, for complex, "post-primitive" societies, it is not enough. Mankind has developed a specific way of forming, preserving and transmitting (broadcasting) values and norms - through signs. J. Piaget argued: “The main realities created social way ... are the following: 1) rules (moral, legal, logical, etc.), 2) values that correspond or do not correspond to these rules, and 3) signs "*. I note that from my point of view, values are primary in this series, and rules are developed in accordance with values, and not vice versa. However, like everything in science, this is a debatable issue. Finally, the accumulation, storage, transmission of information through sign systems is possible only insofar as signs are given meaning, understandable those who perceive them.
* Piaget J. Selected psychological works. M., 1969. S. 210.
Social control is not limited to the normative regulation of people's behavior, but also includes the implementation of normative decrees and non-normative influence on the behavior of members of society. In other words, to social control include actions to implement prescriptions (norms), measures of responsibility for persons who violate accepted norms, and in some states - of a totalitarian type - and persons who do not share the values proclaimed on behalf of society.
The main methods social control are positive sanctions - encouragement and negative sanctions - punishment ("carrot and stick", "bait and switch").
To the main mechanisms social control include external, carried out from the outside, various social institutions, organizations (family, school, public organization, police) and their representatives with the help of sanctions - positive (encouragement) and negative (punishment), and internal, based on internalized (learned, perceived as one's own) values and norms and expressed concepts honor, conscience, dignity, decency, shame (it is impossible, because it is shameful, conscience does not allow). To the outside control also applies indirectly, associated with public opinion, the opinion of the reference group with which the individual identifies himself (parents, friends, colleagues). The classic formula for indirect control we find in “Woe from Wit” by A. Griboyedov: “What will Princess Marya Aleksevna say ?!” (unless, of course, the princess represents your reference group).
Distinguish formal control, carried out by special bodies, organizations, institutions and their representatives within their official powers and in a strictly established manner, and informal (for example, indirect), punitive (repressive) and deterrent (preventive, preventive).
It is well known that positive sanctions (reward) are much more effective than negative ones (punishment), and internal control much more effective than external. Unfortunately, humanity, knowing this, more often resorts to external control and repressive methods. It is believed that this is "simpler" and "more reliable". The negative consequences of "simple decisions" are not long in coming...
There are various models (shapes) social control and their classification*. One of them, proposed by D. Black (modified by F. McClintock) **, is reproduced in Table. 16.1. Each of the forms shown in the table social control has its own logic, its own methods and language, its own way of defining an event and responding to it. In reality, a combination of several forms is possible.
*Black D. The Behavior of Law. NY: Academic Press, 1976; Daws N. Anderson B. Social Control: The Production of Deviance in the Modern State. Irvington Publishers!:, c, 1983.
** For more details, see the articles by L. Hulsman and F. McClintock in the book: Crime Control Planning. M., 1982. S. 16-31, 99-105.
Table 16.1
Mechanisms social control(according to Black)

Generally social control comes down to the fact that society, through its institutions, sets values and norms; ensures their transmission (transmission) and socialization (assimilation, internalization) by individuals; encourages compliance with norms (conformity) or acceptable from the point of view of society, reform; reproaches (punishes) for violation of norms; takes measures to prevent (prevention, prevention) of undesirable forms of behavior.
In a hypothetically ideal (and therefore unrealistic) case, a society ensures the complete socialization of its members, and then neither punishments nor rewards are required. However, even in an ideal society, fellow citizens will find something to complain about! “Imagine a society of saints, an exemplary monastery of exemplary individuals. Crimes in the proper sense of the word are unknown here; however, offenses that seem insignificant to a layman will cause here exactly the same scandal as ordinary crimes cause under ordinary conditions.
* Durkheim E. Norma and pathology // Sociology of crime. M., 1966. S. 41.
Real implementation social control over deviance significantly depends on the power, form of government, political regime in the country*. It is no coincidence that G. W. F. Hegel believed that the forms control over crime "even more characterize a given society than crime itself"**. Theoretical, based on a huge historical material, the study of the role of power and political structures in social control over deviant behavior was carried out by M. Foucault ***. Contemporary measures social control and above all, the prison is the result of the all-encompassing disciplinary power of capitalist society, striving to create a "disciplinary individual." This power is manifested not only in the prison, but also in the barracks, the psychiatric hospital, outside the factory walls, in the school building. The disciplinary power is characterized by hierarchical supervision (systemic observation, constant control), positive and negative sanctions, tests (exams, reviews, training, inspections, etc.). The purpose of the disciplinary control- the formation of "pliable bodies", and its symbol is a prison. But then the whole society “begins to take on a strong resemblance to a prison, where we are all guards and prisoners at the same time”****.
* For more details, see: Gilinsky Ya. Deviance, social control and the political regime. In: Political Regime and Crime. SPb., 2001. S. 39-65.
** Hegel. Philosophy of law. M., 1986. S. 256.
*** Foucault M. Supervise and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. M., 1999; He is. A History of Madness in the Classical Age. SPb., 1997; He is. Will to Truth: Beyond Knowledge, Power and Sexuality. M., 1996.
**** Monson P. A boat in the alleys of the park: An introduction to sociology. M., 1995. S. 63.
This is echoed by the work of our contemporary and compatriot A. N. Oleinik “Prison subculture in Russia: from everyday life to state power”*, in which the author, as a result of empirical research and painstaking analysis, compares Russia as a “small society” (in difference from the "big society" - civilized) with a prison. I can’t resist a long quote: “The tendency towards the reproduction of a “small society” and the incomplete nature of modernization are the main factors that determine the post-Soviet institutional context... The state deliberately suppresses any attempts to form a collective subject, thus contributing to the formation of a desert between everyday life groups of "insiders" and the authorities... And here it doesn't matter what specific form the group of "insiders" takes: the nomenklatura, the families of the president or people from the KGB... Privatization of public space by groups of "theirs" no, it means death even before the birth of civil society... A group of "insiders" seeks to privatize the material resources to which its members have access... Post-Soviet people hate the state, because it reproduces the logic of a group of "insiders" and therefore treats citizens as "strangers". But at the same time, post-Soviet people are incapable of getting rid of such a state in which their own way of life, their own views and behavior materialize”**.

Social control in relation to society performs two main functions:

a) protective;

b) stabilizing.

Social control is a special mechanism for maintaining public order and social stability, including such concepts as social norms, prescriptions, sanctions, power.

social norms- these are typical standards, requirements, wishes and expectations of appropriate (socially approved) behavior.

Norms are some ideal patterns (templates) that describe what people should say, think, feel and do in specific situations. Norms, of course, vary in scope.

social prescriptions- prohibitions or, on the contrary, permissions to do something (or not to do), addressed to an individual or group and expressed in one form or another - oral or written, formal or informal, explicit or implicit.

In fact, everything that makes society a cohesive, unified, integrated whole, thanks to which it is especially valued and protected, is translated into the language of prescriptions. For example, in almost all societies the following are highly valued: human life and dignity, respect for elders, universally recognized collective symbols (for example, a banner, coat of arms, anthem), religious rites, state laws. Orders are divided into two main types.

First type are norms that arise and exist only in small groups(youth get-togethers, companies of friends, family, work teams, sports teams). For example, the American sociologist Elton Mayo, who in 1927-1932 led the famous Hawthorne experiments, found that in the work teams there are norms that were applied to newcomers accepted into the production team by senior comrades:

¦ do not keep with "their" officially;

¦ do not tell the authorities what can harm the members of the group;

¦ do not communicate with superiors more often than with “your own”;

¦ do not make more products than your comrades.

Second type are norms that arise and exist in large social groups or in society as a whole. These include customs, traditions, mores, laws, etiquette, generally accepted manners of behavior.

Every social group has its own manners, customs and etiquette.

There is secular etiquette, there are manners of young people. National traditions and customs are also generally accepted.

All social norms can be classified depending on how strictly their implementation is observed. For violation of some norms, mild punishment may follow - disapproval, a smirk, an unfriendly look. Violation of other norms can be followed by strong harsh sanctions - expulsion from the country, imprisonment, even the death penalty. If we tried to arrange all the rules in order of increasing severity of punishment for their violation, the sequence would look like this:

1) customs;

2) manners;

3) etiquette;

4) traditions;

5) group habits;

7) laws;

Violations of taboos and legal laws are punished most severely (for example, killing a person, insulting a deity, revealing state secrets), and certain types of group habits, in particular family habits, are much milder (for example, refusing to turn off the light or regularly close the front door).

A certain degree of disobedience to generally accepted norms, in principle, exists in any society and in any social group.

For example, violation of palace etiquette, the ritual of a diplomatic conversation or marriage can cause embarrassment, put a person in a difficult position. But they are unlikely to entail severe punishment. In other situations, sanctions from the social environment may be more tangible. The use of a cheat sheet in an exam threatens to reduce the grade, and the loss of a library book - a fine in the amount of five times its value. In some societies, where almost everything was under control - hair length, dress code, demeanor - the slightest deviation from tradition was punished very severely. Such was, for example, the nature of social control over the subject population by the rulers of ancient Sparta (in the 5th century BC), as well as by Soviet and party bodies in the former USSR two and a half millennia later.

Norms bind, i.e. integrate, people into a single community, a collective. How does this happen? First, norms are always the duties of one person in relation to another (or others). For example, by forbidding newcomers to communicate with superiors more often than with their comrades, a small group already imposes certain obligations on its members and imposes on them a certain nature of relations with superiors and comrades. Thus, norms form a network of social relations in a group, society.

Secondly, norms are also expectations: from a person who observes this norm, others expect fairly unambiguous behavior. When cars move on the right side of the street, and oncoming cars move on the left, there is an orderly organized movement of vehicles. When traffic rules are violated, not just collisions occur, but also traffic accidents that can lead to human casualties. The effect of norms is no less evident in business. This kind of social activity would be impossible in principle if the partners did not comply with certain written and unwritten norms, rules, and laws. Thus, any norms form a system of social interaction (the same one that we discussed in Chapter 6), which includes motives, goals, and orientation of the subjects of action, and the action itself, and expectations, and evaluation, and means. .

Why do people strive to comply with the norms, but the community strictly monitors this? Norms are the guardians of values. The honor and dignity of the family has been one of the most important values of human society since ancient times. And society appreciates what contributes to its stability and prosperity. The family is the basic unit of society, and caring for it is its first duty. Showing concern for the family, a man thereby demonstrates his strength, courage, virtue and everything that is highly appreciated by others. His social status rises. On the contrary, those who are unable to protect the household are subjected to contempt, their status is sharply reduced. Since the protection of the family and the extraction of livelihood is the basis of its survival, the performance of this most important function in a traditional society automatically makes a man the head of the family. There is no dispute about who is first and who is in charge - husband or wife. As a result, the socio-psychological unity of the family is strengthened. In a modern family, where a man does not always have the opportunity to demonstrate his leading functions, instability is much higher than in a traditional one.

As you can see, social norms are really guardians of order and guardians of values. Even the simplest norms of behavior embody what is valued by a group or society. The difference between a norm and a value is expressed as follows: norms are rules of behavior, values are abstract concepts of what is good and evil, right and wrong, proper and improper, etc.

The leader has the right to perform religious ceremonies, punish fellow tribesmen who violate the requirements prescribed by their status, lead military campaigns, and lead a community meeting. A university professor has a number of rights that distinguish him from a student who does not have this status. It assesses students' knowledge, but, in accordance with its academic position, cannot be penalized for poor student performance. But an officer, according to military regulations, can be punished for violations committed by soldiers.

The academic status of a professor gives him opportunities that other people of the same high status, say, a politician, doctor, lawyer, businessman or priest, do not have. Such, for example, is the distinctive right of a professor to answer some questions of students with the words: "I don't know that." Such a right is explained by the nature of academic knowledge and the state of science, and not by its incompetence.

Responsibilities govern what the performer of a given role or holder of a given status must do in relation to other performers or holders. Rights indicate what a person can afford or allow in relation to other people.

Rights and obligations are more or less strictly defined. They limit behavior to certain limits, make it predictable. At the same time, they are rigidly interconnected, so that one presupposes the other. One cannot exist without the other.

Rather, they can exist separately, but then the social structure is deformed. Thus, the status of a slave in the ancient world assumed only duties and contained almost no rights. In a totalitarian society, rights and obligations are asymmetrical: the ruler and senior officials have the maximum rights, and the minimum duties. On the contrary, ordinary citizens have many duties and few rights. In a democratic society, rights and obligations are more symmetrical. Consequently, the level of development of society depends on how rights and obligations correlate in the social structure.

In fulfilling certain duties, the individual bears a certain responsibility to others. For example, a shoemaker is obliged to deliver his products to the customer on time and with due quality. If this does not happen, he should be punished somehow - lose his contract, pay a penalty, his image and reputation may suffer, he may even be brought to court. In ancient Egypt, there was a law: if an architect built a bad building that collapsed and crushed the owner to death, then the architect was deprived of his life. These are the manifestations of responsibility. They are diverse and depend on the culture, structure of society, historical time.

Rights are inextricably linked with responsibilities. The higher the status, the more rights are given to its owner and the greater the range of duties assigned to him. The status of a laborer does little to oblige. The same can be said about the status of a neighbor, a beggar or a child. But the status of a prince of the blood or a well-known television observer obliges to lead a lifestyle that meets the social standards of the same circle of people with them and justifies the expectations of society.

It turns out that the law did not always exist. It is the result of a long and difficult movement of mankind along the path of civilization. It was not in the primitive society, in which people lived according to established customs and traditions. Customs are rules that are followed out of habit. Traditions are observed by virtue of social coercion. Traditions and customs were surrounded by mysterious rites, rituals and ceremonies, which were performed in a particularly upbeat and solemn atmosphere. For example, the ancient Slavs, honoring the nurse-earth, avoided driving stakes into it and did not make fences in the spring - they took care of it. Since those times, the ritual of kissing the earth, swearing by the earth, keeping a handful of native land has been preserved. People followed the instructions of their ancestors strictly. Such rules were not written down anywhere and were passed down orally from generation to generation. Later they began to be recorded in documents.

Prohibitions (taboos) in human behavior were the prototype of law. For example, it was forbidden to hunt individual animals or have sexual intercourse with relatives. People's lives were regulated. Later, such rules began to be fixed by the power of the state. The most ancient laws have come down to us from Mesopotamia - their author, the Sumerian ruler, who lived in the XXIV century BC. e., tried to regulate market prices with their help. Thus, laws are an instrument of social consent.

Law is a contract between people about the rules of conduct. One part of the rules becomes the obligation of a person to act in this way and not otherwise, and the other part becomes the right to act in this way and not otherwise.

The first limits freedom of action, and the second expands it. Each of us has the right to education, that is, permission to study at a school, college or university. Right means the possibility of behavior. In the ancient laws, there were mainly restrictions on freedom, and the freedoms themselves, especially for the poor, did not exist. Right as freedom is the achievement of the New Age.

Sanctions are not only punishments, but also incentives that contribute to the observance of social norms. Along with values, sanctions regulate the behavior of people in their desire to comply with the norms. Thus, norms are protected from two sides - from the side of values and from the side of sanctions. Social sanctions - an extensive system of rewards for the implementation of norms, i.e. for conformity, for agreeing with them, and punishments for deviating from them, i.e. for deviance. There are four types of sanctions:

¦ positive;

¦ negative;

¦ formal;

¦ informal.

They give four types of combinations that can be represented as a logical square.

Formal positive sanctions (F+) - public approval from official organizations (government, institution, creative union). These are government awards, state awards and scholarships, bestowed titles, academic degrees and titles, construction of monuments, presentation of diplomas, admission to high positions and honorary functions (for example, election as chairman of the board).

Informal positive sanctions (H+) - public approval that does not come from official organizations. This is friendly praise, compliments, tacit recognition, benevolent disposition, applause, fame, honor, flattering reviews, recognition of leadership or expert qualities, a smile.

Formal negative sanctions (F-) - punishments provided for by legal laws, government decrees, administrative instructions, orders, orders. These are deprivation of civil rights, imprisonment, arrest, dismissal, fine, deprivation of bonuses, confiscation of property, demotion, demolition, dethronement, death penalty, excommunication.

Informal negative sanctions (N-) are punishments not provided for by official authorities. This is a censure, a remark, a mockery, a mockery, an evil joke, an unflattering nickname, neglect, a refusal to lend a hand or maintain relationships, spreading a rumor, slander, an unfriendly review, a complaint, writing a pamphlet or feuilleton, an exposing article.

The application of social sanctions in some cases requires the presence of outsiders, in others it does not. The dismissal is formalized by the personnel department of the institution and involves the preliminary issuance of an order or order. Imprisonment requires a complex procedure of judicial proceedings, on the basis of which a judgment is issued. Bringing to administrative responsibility, say, a fine for traveling without a ticket, requires the presence of an official transport controller, and sometimes a policeman. The assignment of a scientific degree involves an equally complex procedure for defending a scientific dissertation and the decision of the Academic Council. Sanctions against violators of group habits require a smaller number of persons, but, nevertheless, they are never applied to oneself. If the application of sanctions is committed by the person himself, directed at himself and occurs inside, then this form of control should be considered self-control.

Self-control is also called internal control: the individual independently regulates his behavior, coordinating it with generally accepted norms. In the process of socialization, norms are assimilated so firmly that people, violating them, experience a feeling of embarrassment or guilt. Contrary to the norms of proper behavior, a person falls in love with the wife of his friend, hates his own wife, envies a more successful rival, or wishes the death of a loved one.

In such cases, a person usually has a feeling of guilt, and then they talk about pangs of conscience. Conscience is a manifestation of internal control.

Generally accepted norms, being rational prescriptions, remain in the sphere of consciousness, below which is the sphere of the subconscious, or the unconscious, consisting of elemental impulses. Self-control is aimed at containing the elements of nature, it is based on an effort of will. Unlike ants, bees, and even monkeys, human beings can only continue collective interaction if each individual exercises self-control. About an adult who does not know how to control himself, they say that he "fell into childhood", because it is for children that impulsive behavior, the inability to rule over their desires and whims, are characteristic. Impulsive behavior is therefore called infantilism. On the contrary, behavior in accordance with rational norms, obligations, volitional efforts is a sign of maturity. Approximately 70% of social control is realized through self-control.

The more self-control is developed among the members of a society, the less this society has to resort to external control. And vice versa, the less self-control people have, the more often the institutions of social control, in particular, the army, courts, and the state, have to come into action. The weaker the self-control, the tighter the external control must be. However, strict external control, petty guardianship of citizens hinder the development of self-consciousness and expression of will, muffle internal volitional efforts. Thus, a vicious circle arises, into which more than one society has fallen throughout world history.

Often the dictatorship was established allegedly for the benefit of citizens, in order to restore order in society. But the citizens, accustomed to submit to coercive control, did not develop internal control.

They began to degrade as social beings, that is, they lost the ability to take responsibility and behave in accordance with rational norms. They questioned the very rationality of coercive norms, gradually preparing a reasonable justification for any resistance to these norms. An excellent example is the Russian Empire, where the Decembrists, revolutionaries, regicides, who encroached on the foundations of the social order, received support from public opinion, since resistance was considered reasonable, and not submission to coercive norms.

Social control, figuratively speaking, performs the function of a policeman who regulates traffic: he "penalizes" those who "cross the street" incorrectly. If there were no social control, people could do whatever they want, in the way they like. Inevitably, in social groups, both small and large, there would be quarrels, clashes, conflicts and, as a result, social chaos. The protective function sometimes prevents social control from acting as a champion of progress, but the list of its functions does not include the renewal of society - this is the task of other public institutions. Thus, social control performs the function of a conservative in parliament: it suggests not to rush, it requires respect for traditions, it opposes the new, which has not been properly tested. It acts as the foundation of stability in society. Its absence or weakening leads to anomie, disorder, confusion and social discord.

Values are closely related to social norms. Values are, as we have already said, ideas that are socially approved and shared by most people about what is good, kindness, justice, patriotism, romantic love, friendship, etc. Values are not questioned, they serve as a standard, an ideal for everyone of people. If loyalty is a value, then deviation from it is condemned as a betrayal. If cleanliness is a value, then slovenliness and dirt are condemned as indecent behavior.

No society can do without values. What about individuals? They can choose to share these values or others.

Some are committed to the values of collectivism, while others are committed to the values of individualism. For some, money may be the highest value, for others - moral impeccability, for others - a political career. To describe what values people are guided by, sociologists have introduced the term value orientations into science. This concept describes an individual attitude or choice of specific values as a norm of behavior. Thus, values belong to a group or society, value orientations belong to an individual. Values are beliefs shared by a person with others about the goals to be pursued.

Although the violation of most group habits is punished quite mildly by society, some types of them are highly valued, and severe sanctions follow for violation of them. In the course of the Hawthorne experiments mentioned above, it turned out that newcomers who violated the rules of behavior were subject to severe punishment: they could not talk to them, they could stick an offensive label (“upstart”, “strikebreaker”, “stool duck”, “traitor”), around they could create an intolerable environment and force them to resign, they could even be subjected to physical violence. These habits are called informal group norms. They are born into small rather than large social groups. The mechanism that controls compliance with such norms is called group pressure.

Thus, social norms perform very important functions in society:

¦ regulate the general course of socialization;

¦ integrate individuals into groups, and groups into society;

¦ control deviant behavior;

¦ serve as models, standards of behavior.

Social norms perform their functions depending on the quality in which they manifest themselves:

¦ as standards of behavior (duties, rules);

¦ as expectations of behavior (the reaction of other people).

Protecting the honor and dignity of family members is the duty of every man. Here we are talking about the norm as a standard of proper behavior. This standard corresponds to a very specific expectation of family members, the hope that their honor and dignity will be protected. Among the Caucasian peoples, such a norm is highly valued, and deviation from this norm is punished very severely. The same can be said about the South European peoples. The Italian mafia arose at one time as an informal norm for protecting the honor of the family, and only later did its functions change. Apostates from the accepted standard of behavior were punished by the entire community.

Regulations by themselves do not control anything. People's behavior is controlled by other people based on norms that are expected to be followed by everyone. Compliance with norms, like the implementation of sanctions, makes our behavior predictable. Each of us knows that for an outstanding scientific discovery an official award awaits, and for a serious crime - imprisonment. When we expect a certain act from another person, we hope that he knows not only the norm, but also the sanctions following its implementation or violation. Thus, norms and sanctions are combined into a single whole.

If some norm does not have a sanction accompanying it, then it ceases to operate - to regulate real behavior. It can become a slogan, an appeal, an appeal, but it ceases to be an element of social control.

Thus, social sanctions are a branched system of rewards for the implementation of norms, i.e. for conformity, for agreeing with them, and punishments for deviating from them, i.e. for deviance. Conformism is at least an external agreement with generally accepted norms, because internally an individual can maintain disagreement with them, but not tell anyone about it. In essence, one of the main goals of social control is to achieve conformity on the part of all members of the community.

§ 2. P. Berger's concept of social control

According to the concept of Peter Berger, each person is in the center of diverging concentric circles representing different types, types and forms of social control. Each subsequent circle is a new control system (see Fig. 17).

Rice. 17. The system of social control according to P. Berger

The outer, largest circle is the political and legal system, represented by a powerful apparatus of the state. Everyone is powerless before him. In addition to our will, the state levies taxes, calls for military service, whether we like it or not, makes us obey its endless laws and charters, rules and regulations, and if necessary, puts us in prison and can take our lives. The individual is in the center of the circle as at the point of maximum pressure (figuratively speaking, one can imagine a person standing on the ground, who is being pressed by a huge column of atmosphere).

The next circle of social control, pressing on the lonely individual, includes morality, customs and mores. Everyone monitors the morality of a person - starting with the morality police and ending with parents, relatives, friends. The first puts us in jail, the second and third use informal sanctions such as condemnation, and the latter, not forgiving betrayal or meanness, can part with us. All of them, each in their own way and within their competence, apply the tools of social control. Immorality is punished by dismissal from work, eccentricity - by the loss of chances to find a new place, bad manners - by the fact that people who value good manners will not invite a person to visit or refuse home. Lack of work and loneliness are, perhaps, no less punishment than being in jail, P. Berger believes.

In addition to the large circles of coercion in which the individual is located along with the rest of society, there are small circles of control, the most significant of which is the circle of control by the professional system. At work, a person is constrained by a mass of restrictions, instructions, professional duties, business obligations that have a controlling effect, sometimes very harsh.

A businessman is controlled by licensing organizations, a worker by professional associations and trade unions, a subordinate by managers, who, in turn, are controlled by higher authorities. Equally important are the various ways of informal control by colleagues and employees.

P. Berger writes about this as follows: “... For clarity, the reader can imagine a doctor who puts a patient unprofitable for the clinic into treatment; the entrepreneur who advertises inexpensive funerals… the government official who persists in spending less than his budget; an assembly line worker who unacceptably, from the point of view of his colleagues, exceeds production norms, etc. In these cases, economic sanctions are applied most often and effectively: a doctor is denied practice ... an entrepreneur can be expelled from a professional organization ...

The sanctions of public boycott, contempt, ridicule can be just as serious. Any professional role in society, even the most insignificant, requires a special code of conduct ... Adherence to this code, as a rule, is as necessary for a professional career as technical competence and appropriate education.

Control by the professional system is of great importance, since the profession and position, among other things, regulate what an individual can and cannot do in non-productive life: what voluntary associations he can join, what his circle of acquaintances will be, in what area he can allow yourself to live.

The next circle of control includes informal demands on the individual, because each person, in addition to professional ones, is also involved in other social relations. These relationships have their own systems of control, many of which are more formal and some even more rigid than professional ones. For example, the rules for admission and membership in many clubs and fraternities are as rigid as the rules by which the management staff at IBM is selected. Thus, the social environment represents an independent system of social control. It includes distant and close, unfamiliar and familiar to the individual people. The environment makes its demands on a person, unwritten laws, which represent a wide range of phenomena. These may include dress and speech patterns, aesthetic tastes, political and religious beliefs, and even table manners.

Thus, the circle of informal requirements describes the area of possible actions of an individual in certain situations.

The last and closest circle to the individual, which also forms a system of control, is the group of people in which the so-called private life of the individual passes, that is, this is the circle of his family and personal friends. Social or, more precisely, normative pressure on the individual does not weaken here - on the contrary, there is every reason to believe that in a certain sense it even increases. No wonder - after all, it is in this circle that the individual establishes the most important social connections for himself. Disapproval, loss of prestige, ridicule or contempt in the circle of relatives and friends have a much greater psychological weight for a person than similar sanctions coming from strangers or strangers.

At work, the boss can fire a subordinate, depriving him of his livelihood. But the psychological consequences of this formal economic action will be truly disastrous, says P. Berger, if his wife and children experience this dismissal. Unlike other control systems, pressure from loved ones can occur precisely when the individual is completely unprepared for it. At work, in transport, in public places, a person, as a rule, is alert and potentially ready to confront any threat.

The inner part of the last circle, its core, is the intimate relationship of husband and wife. It is in the most intimate relationships that a person seeks support for the most important feelings that make up the I-image. To stake these connections is to risk losing yourself. “It is not surprising that often people who are bossy at work instantly give way at home to their wives and cringe when their friends’ eyebrows crawl up in displeasure.”

A person, having looked around himself and successively listed everyone to whom he must yield, obey or please by virtue of his being in the center of concentric circles of social control - from the federal tax service to his own mother-in-law - eventually comes to the conclusion that society with all its bulk suppresses him.

§ 3. Agents and instruments of social control

Social control is the most effective way by which the powerful institutions of society organize the life of ordinary citizens. The tools, or in this case the methods of social control, are of great variety, they depend on the situation, the goals and the nature of the particular group in relation to which they are used. The range of their application is huge: from clarifying one-on-one relationships between specific people to psychological pressure, physical violence, economic coercion of a person by the whole society. It is not necessary that control mechanisms be aimed at condemning an undesirable person or encouraging others to be disloyal towards him.

"Disapproval" is most often expressed not in relation to the individual himself, but in relation to his actions, statements, interactions with other persons.

Unlike self-control, which was discussed above, external control is a set of institutions and mechanisms that guarantee compliance with generally accepted norms of behavior and laws. It is divided into formal (institutional) and informal (intragroup).

Formal control is based on the approval or disapproval of official authorities and administration.

Informal control is based on approval or condemnation from a group of relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, as well as from public opinion, which is expressed through traditions and customs or the media.

The traditional rural community controlled all aspects of the life of its members: the choice of a bride, methods of courtship, determining the name of a newborn, methods for resolving disputes and conflicts, and much more. There were no written rules. Public opinion acted as a controller, most often based on the opinion expressed by the oldest members of the community. Religious requirements were organically woven into a single system of social control.

Strict observance of rituals and ceremonies associated with traditional holidays and ceremonies (for example, betrothal, marriage, childbirth, maturity, harvesting) brought up a sense of respect for social norms, instilled a deep understanding of their necessity.

Informal control can also be performed by the family, circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances. They are called agents of informal control. If we consider the family as a social institution, then we should talk about it as the most important institution of social control.

In compact primary groups, extremely effective and at the same time very subtle control mechanisms, such as persuasion, ridicule, gossip and contempt, constantly operate to curb real and potential deviants. Ridicule and gossip are powerful tools of social control in all types of seed groups. Unlike formal methods of control, such as reprimands or demotions, informal methods are available to almost everyone. Both ridicule and gossip can be manipulated by any intelligent person who has access to their transmission channels.

Not only business organizations, but also universities and churches successfully use economic sanctions to keep their staff from deviant behavior, i.e. behavior that is regarded as out of line.

Detailed (petty) control, in which the leader intervenes in every action, corrects, corrects, etc., is called supervision. Supervision is carried out not only at the micro, but also at the macro level of society. Its subject is the state, and in this case supervision turns into a specialized public institution, which grows into a huge system covering the entire country. Such a system of formal control agents includes detective bureaus, detective agencies, police stations, informer services, prison guards, convoy troops, courts, censorship, etc.

Formal control historically arose later than informal - during the period of the emergence of complex societies and states, in particular, ancient Eastern empires. Although, undoubtedly, we can easily find its forerunners in an earlier period - in the so-called chiefdoms (Chiefdom), where the circle of formal sanctions officially applied to violators was clearly outlined - up to expulsion from the tribe and the death penalty. All kinds of rewards were also established in chiefdoms.

However, in modern society, the importance of formal control has increased significantly. Why? It turns out that in a complex society, especially in a country with a population of many millions, it is much more difficult to maintain order and stability. After all, informal control over the individual by such a society is limited to a small group of people. In a large group, it is ineffective. Therefore, sometimes it is called local (local). On the contrary, formal control is all-encompassing, it operates throughout the country. It is global, and it is always carried out by special people - agents of formal control. These are professionals, that is, persons specially trained and paid for performing control functions. They are carriers of social statuses and roles. They include judges, policemen, psychiatrists, social workers, special church officials, etc. If in traditional society social control rested on unwritten rules, then in modern societies it is based on written norms: instructions, decrees, decrees, laws. Social control has gained institutional support.

Formal control, as we have already said, is carried out by such institutions of modern society as courts, education, the army, production, the media, political parties, and the government. The school controls with the help of assessments, the government - with the help of the system of taxation and social assistance to the population, the state - with the help of the police, the secret service, state channels of radio, television and the press.

Control methods, depending on the sanctions applied, are divided into:

¦ tough;

¦ soft;

¦ straight;

¦ indirect.

The names of the methods of control are different from what you learned above about the types of sanctions (remember them), but the content of both is largely similar. The four control methods may overlap (Table 11).

Table 11

Combinations of formal control methods

Let us give examples of such intersections.

1. Mass media are instruments of indirect soft control.

2. Political repressions, racketeering, organized crime - to tools of direct strict control.

3. The action of the constitution and the criminal code - to the instruments of direct soft control.

4. Economic sanctions of the international community - to the instruments of indirect strict control.

§ 4. General and detailed control

Sometimes control is equated with management. The content of control and management are similar in many respects, but they should be distinguished. The mother or father controls how the child does homework.

Parents do not manage, but rather control the process, since the goals and objectives were set not by them, but by the teacher. Parents only monitor the progress of the task. It was the same in production: the head of the workshop set goals and objectives, determined the deadlines and the final result, and ordered the foreman to control the execution process.

The passenger boarded the bus, did not take a ticket, and after a few stops the controllers entered. Having discovered a violation of the law (according to the law, the passenger is obliged to pay for the fare even if he has traveled only one stop), the controller applies measures of influence to him - he is fined for traveling without a ticket. A man descended into the subway, and there are controllers at the entrance at the turnstile. I went down the escalator - and below in a special booth there is also a controller, although he is called an employee of the subway. His duty is to ensure that standing passengers keep to the right side, and passing passengers to the left. Another of his duties is to ensure that heavy things are not placed on the escalator handrails.

Thus, control is a narrower concept than management.

The head of the workshop can exercise control independently, or can entrust it to his deputy. Control can be combined with management, and can be carried out independently of it. At the same time, control and management have a number of common features. So, both of them are characterized by scale. One person controls the entire country and controls the implementation of laws throughout its territory, and the other - a limited number of subordinates. You guessed who we are talking about. The first is the president of the country, and the second is the site foreman, foreman or squad leader.

The difference between management and control lies in the fact that the former is expressed through leadership style, and the latter through methods.

Control methods can be general and detailed.

Let us give examples of both.

1. If the manager gives a task to a subordinate and does not control the progress of its implementation, then he resorts to general control.

2. If the manager intervenes in every action of his subordinates, corrects, corrects, etc., he uses detailed control.

The latter is also called supervision. Supervision is carried out not only at the micro, but also at the macro level of society. The state becomes its subject, and it turns into a minor social institution. Surveillance grows to the size of a large-scale social system covering the entire country. Such a system includes

¦ detective bureaus;

¦ detective agencies;

¦ police stations;

¦ whistleblower service;

¦ prison guards;

¦ escort troops;

¦ censorship.

With general control, only the final result is monitored, and nothing more. The teacher sets the task - to write an essay about the lifestyle of the ancient Greeks. At the end of the week, he will check the quality of the work performed and give an appropriate assessment. What kind of literature you will use, in what vein you will complete the task, whom you will attract to help yourself, the teacher is not interested in this case. It gives you complete freedom.

However, the teacher may do otherwise. He defines the task, deadlines, scope of the task, but, in addition, indicates the literature, provides a work plan, requires that you do the work yourself, without involving anyone to help. In addition, he asks to show him every other day those fragments of the essay that you managed to write, so that he can correct you in time, and, if necessary, direct you. It controls the entire progress of the execution. This is fine-grained control. Freedom of action in this case is extremely limited.

Since control is included in management as an integral part of it, but a very important part, we can conclude that management itself will change depending on the type of control. The part, if important enough, determines the character of the whole. So control methods affect the management style, which, in turn, has two types - the authoritarian style and the democratic style.

To get an idea of detailed control, try to make a detailed plan where you will write down all your actions every day for two weeks. And then check their implementation. The same is sometimes done in the enterprise. The employee draws up a personal plan, and the boss controls its implementation.

In the first case, you yourself stand “behind your back” and exercise self-control, and in the second, “behind” the employee is his boss, who exercises external detailed control.

1. Mechanisms of social control play a crucial role in strengthening all the institutions of society. In relation to society, social control performs two main functions:

a) protective;

b) stabilizing.

Social control is a special mechanism for maintaining public order, social stability and includes such concepts as social norms, regulations, sanctions, power.

2. Social norms are typical standards, requirements, wishes and expectations of appropriate (socially approved) behavior. Norms are some ideal patterns (templates) that describe what people should say, think, feel and do in specific situations. They certainly differ in their scale. Social prescriptions are a prohibition or, on the contrary, permission to do something (or not to do), addressed to an individual or group and expressed in one form or another - oral or written, formal or informal, explicit or implicit. Norms integrate people into a single community, collective and form a network of social relations in a group, society.

3. Sanctions are not only punishments, but also incentives that contribute to the observance of social norms. Norms are protected from two sides - from the side of values and from the side of sanctions. Social sanctions are a branched system of rewards for the implementation of norms, for agreeing with them, i.e. for conformity, and punishments for deviating from them, i.e. for deviance.

There are four types of sanctions:

¦ positive;

¦ negative;

¦ formal;

¦ informal.

4. Values are closely related to social norms. Values are socially approved and shared by most people ideas about what is good, kindness, justice, patriotism, romantic love, friendship, etc. Values are not questioned, they serve as a standard, an ideal for all people. To describe what values people are guided by, the concept value orientations. This concept describes the choice of certain values by a particular individual or group of individuals as a norm of behavior.

5. According to the scheme developed by P. Berger, each person is in the center of diverging concentric circles representing different types, types and forms of social control. The outer circle is the politico-judicial system, followed by public morality, then comes the professional system and the system of informal requirements, the closest circle of social control to the person is the family and private life.

6. Unlike internal self-control, external control is a set of institutions and mechanisms that guarantee compliance with generally accepted norms of behavior and laws. It is divided into formal (institutional) and informal (intragroup).

formal control based on the approval or condemnation of official authorities and administration. Informal control is based on approval or condemnation from a group of relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, as well as from public opinion, which is expressed through traditions and customs or the media.

Control questions

1. What are the two main types of social prescriptions?

2. What is the classification of social sanctions?

3. What does the concept of self-control mean and what is its significance in the life of society?

4. How do norms and values relate to each other?

5. What are the main functions of social norms?

6. What is the essence of the integrating function of social norms?

7. What social circles are included in the system of social control designed by P. Berger?

8. What are the main types of external control?

9. What is the essence of supervision as a kind of external control?

10. How do control and management relate to each other?

1. Abercrombie N., Hill S., Turner S. Sociological Dictionary / Per. from English. - Kazan: Kazan University Press, 1997.

2. Berger P. L. An invitation to sociology: A humanistic perspective. - M., 1996.

3. Parsons T. About social systems. - Ch. 7. Deviant (deviant) behavior and mechanisms of social control. - M., 2002.

4. Smelzer N. J. Sociology. - M., 1994.

5. Modern Western Sociology: Dictionary. - M., 1990.

6. Sociology and problems of social development. - M., 1978.

social control

social control- a system of methods and strategies by which society directs the behavior of individuals. In the ordinary sense, social control is reduced to a system of laws and sanctions, with the help of which an individual coordinates his behavior with the expectations of others and his own expectations from the surrounding social world.

Sociology and psychology have always sought to uncover the mechanism of internal social control.

Types of social control

There are two types of social control processes:

processes that encourage individuals to internalize existing social norms, processes of socialization of family and school education, during which the internal requirements of society - social prescriptions - take place;
the processes that organize the social experience of individuals, the lack of publicity in society, publicity is a form of social control over the behavior of the ruling strata and groups;

deviance

Social behavior that does not correspond to the norm, considered by the majority of members of society as reprehensible and unacceptable, is called deviant, or deviant. Deviance should not be understood as a quality of specific behavior.

Deviant behavior in the narrow sense refers to such behavioral deviations that do not entail criminal punishment.

Social interaction and social control

The starting point for the emergence of a social connection is the interaction of individuals or groups of individuals to meet certain needs.

Interaction- this is any behavior of an individual or a group of individuals that is significant for other individuals and groups of individuals or society as a whole at the moment and in the future. The category "interaction" expresses the nature of the content of relations between people. As well as social groups as constant carriers of qualitatively different types of activities, differing in social positions (statuses) and roles (functions). No matter in what sphere of the life of society interaction takes place, it is always social in nature, as it expresses the ties between individuals and groups of individuals; connections mediated by the goals that each of the interacting parties pursues.

Social interaction has an objective and subjective side.
The objective side of interaction- these are connections independent of individuals, but mediating and controlling the content and nature of their interaction.
Subjective side of interaction- this is a conscious attitude of individuals to each other, based on mutual expectations of appropriate behavior. These are interpersonal relationships, which are direct connections and relationships between individuals that develop in specific conditions of place and time.

The mechanism of social interaction includes:

individuals (performing actions);
changes in the outside world caused by these actions;
the impact of these changes on other individuals;
feedback from affected individuals.

Under the influence of P. A. Sorokin and G. Simmel, interaction in its subjective interpretation was accepted as the initial concept of group theory, and then became the initial concept of American sociology. “The main thing in social interaction is the content side. Everything depends on the individual and social properties and qualities of the interacting parties.

Everyday experience, the symbols and meanings by which interacting individuals are guided, give their interaction a certain quality. But in this case, the main qualitative side of the interaction is left aside - real social processes and phenomena that appear for people in the form of symbols, meanings, everyday experience.

The way an individual interacts with other individuals and the social environment as a whole determines the “refraction” of social norms and values through the consciousness of the individual and his real actions based on the comprehension of these norms, as well as values.

The way of interaction includes six aspects:

Transfer of information;
Receiving the information;
Reaction to the information received;
processed information;
Receiving processed information;
response to this information.

social control- a system of processes and mechanisms that ensure the maintenance of socially acceptable patterns of behavior and functioning of the social system as a whole. Social control:

carried out through the normative regulation of human behavior; And
ensures adherence to social norms.

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See what "Social Control" is in other dictionaries:

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Books

Criminology. Theory, history, empirical base, social control. Author's course, Gilinsky Yakov Ilyich. The proposed book is the fourth, revised, significantly supplemented and corrected monographic edition of the famous scientist, which can serve as a criminology textbook for ...

In sociological science, 4 fundamental forms of social control are known:

external control;

internal control;

control through identification with the reference group;

control through the creation of opportunities to achieve socially significant goals by means that are most suitable for a given person and approved by society (the so-called "multiple possibilities").

1) The first form of control - external social control- a set of social mechanisms that regulate the activities of the individual. External control can be formal and informal. Formal control is based on instructions, prescriptions, norms and regulations, while informal control is based on the reactions of the environment.

This form is the most well-known and understandable, but in modern conditions it seems to be ineffective, since it involves constant monitoring of the actions of an individual or a social community, therefore, a whole army of controllers is required, which someone must also follow.

2) The second form of control - internal social control- this is a self-control exercised by a person, aimed at coordinating one's own behavior with the norms. Regulation in this case is carried out not within the framework of interaction, but as a result of feelings of guilt or shame that arise when the learned norms are violated. For the successful functioning of this form of control in society, there must be an established system of norms and values.

3) The third form - control through identification with a reference group- allows you to show the actor possible and desirable for society models of behavior, outwardly seemingly without limiting the freedom of choice of the actor;

4) The fourth form - the so-called "multitude of possibilities" - suggests that by showing the actor a variety of possible options for achieving the goal, society will thereby protect itself from the actor choosing those forms that are undesirable for society.

Kasyanov V.V. considers a slightly different classification. He has social control in the following forms:

· Compulsion, the so-called elementary form. Many primitive or traditional societies successfully control the behavior of individuals through moral standards.

· Influence of public opinion. People in society are also controlled with the help of public opinion or with the help of socialization in such a way that they perform their roles unconsciously, naturally, due to the customs, habits and preferences accepted in this society.

· Regulation in social institutions and organizations. Social control is provided by various institutions and organizations. Among them are organizations specially created to perform a controlling function, and those for which social control is not the main function (for example, school, family, mass media, administration of institutions).

· group pressure. A person cannot participate in public life based only on internal control. His behavior is also imprinted by his involvement in social life, which is expressed in the fact that the individual is a member of many primary groups (family, production team, class, student group, etc.). Each of the primary groups has a well-established system of customs, mores and institutional norms that are specific both for this group and for society as a whole.

37. Deviant behavior, its causes.

The process of socialization (the process of assimilation by an individual of patterns of behavior, social norms and values necessary for his successful functioning in a given society) reaches a certain degree of completeness when a person reaches social maturity, which is characterized by the acquisition of an integral social status by a person (a status that determines a person's position in society). However, failures and failures are possible in the process of socialization. A manifestation of the shortcomings of socialization is deviant (deviant) behavior - these are various forms of negative behavior of individuals, the sphere of moral vices, deviation from principles, norms of morality and law. The main forms of deviant behavior include delinquency, including crime, drunkenness, drug addiction, prostitution, and suicide. Numerous forms of deviant behavior indicate a state of conflict between personal and public interests. However, deviant behavior is not always negative. It may be associated with the desire of the individual for something new, an attempt to overcome the conservative, which hinders moving forward.

Consider different types of social deviations.

1. Cultural and mental deviations. Sociologists are primarily interested in cultural deviations, that is, deviations of a given social community from the norms of culture. Psychologists are interested in mental deviations from the norms of personal organization: psychoses, neuroses, and so on. People often try to associate cultural deviations with mental ones. For example, sexual deviations, alcoholism, drug addiction and many other deviations in social behavior are associated with personal disorganization, in other words, with mental deviations. However, personal disorganization is far from the only cause of deviant behavior. Usually, mentally abnormal individuals fully comply with all the rules and norms adopted in society, and, conversely, for individuals who are mentally quite normal, very serious deviations are characteristic. The question of why this happens is of interest to both sociologists and psychologists.

2. Individual and group deviations.

o individual, when an individual rejects the norms of his subculture;

o group, considered as conformal behavior of a member of a deviant group in relation to its subculture (for example, teenagers from difficult families who spend most of their lives in basements. "Basement life" seems normal to them, they have their own "basement" moral code, their own laws and cultural complexes.In this case, there is a group deviation from the dominant culture, as adolescents live in accordance with the norms of their own subculture).

3. Primary and secondary deviations. Primary deviance refers to the deviant behavior of the individual, which generally corresponds to the cultural norms accepted in society. In this case, the deviations committed by the individual are so insignificant and tolerable that he is not socially qualified as a deviant and does not consider himself as such. For him and for those around him, deviation looks like just a little prank, eccentricity, or, at worst, a mistake. Secondary deviation is a deviation from the norms existing in the group, which is socially defined as deviant.

4. Culturally acceptable deviations. Deviant behavior is always evaluated in terms of the culture accepted in a given society. It is necessary to highlight the necessary qualities and behaviors that can lead to socially approved deviations:

o super-intellectual. Increased intelligence can be considered as a way of behavior that leads to socially approved deviations only when a limited number of social statuses are achieved .;

o special inclinations. They allow to show unique qualities in very narrow, specific areas of activity.

o overmotivation. Many sociologists believe that intense motivation often serves as a compensation for hardships or experiences suffered in childhood or adolescence. For example, there is an opinion that Napoleon had a high motivation to achieve success and power as a result of the loneliness he experienced in childhood, or Niccolò Paganini constantly strived for fame and honor as a result of the need and ridicule of his peers suffered in childhood;

There are three types of theories in the study of the causes of deviant behavior: physical type theories, psychoanalytic theories, and sociological or cultural theories. Let's dwell on each of them.

1. The basic premise of all theories of physical types is that certain physical traits of a person predetermine the various deviations from the norms committed by him. Among the followers of the theories of physical types are C. Lombroso, E. Kretshmer, W. Sheldon. There is one main idea in the works of these authors: people with a certain physical constitution tend to commit social deviations that are condemned by society. However, practice has shown the inconsistency of theories of physical types. Everyone knows cases when individuals with the face of cherubs committed the gravest crimes, and an individual with coarse, "criminal" facial features could not offend even a fly.

2. At the heart of psychoanalytic theories of deviant behavior is the study of conflicts occurring in the mind of the individual. According to the theory of Z. Freud, each person has an area of the unconscious under the layer of active consciousness - this is our mental energy, in which everything natural, primitive is concentrated. A person is able to protect himself from his own natural "lawless" state by forming his own I, as well as the so-called super-I, determined solely by the culture of society. However, a state may arise when internal conflicts between the Self and the unconscious, as well as between the super-I and the unconscious, destroy the protection and our inner content, which does not know culture, breaks out. In this case, there may be a deviation from the cultural norms developed by the social environment of the individual.

3. In accordance with sociological, or cultural, theories, individuals become deviants, since the processes of socialization they go through in a group are unsuccessful in relation to certain well-defined norms, and these failures affect the internal structure of the personality. When the processes of socialization are successful, the individual first adapts to the cultural norms surrounding him, then perceives them in such a way that the approved norms and values of the society or group become his emotional need, and the prohibitions of culture become part of his consciousness. He perceives the norms of the culture in such a way that he automatically acts in the expected manner of behavior most of the time. The presence in everyday practice of a large number of conflicting norms, the uncertainty in connection with this possible choice of a line of behavior can lead to a phenomenon called anomie by E. Durkheim (a state of absence of norms). According to Durkheim, anomie is a condition in which a person does not have a strong sense of belonging, no reliability and stability in choosing a line of normative behavior. Robert K. Merton made some changes to Durkheim's concept of anomie. He believes that the cause of deviation is the gap between the cultural goals of society and socially approved (legal or institutional) means to achieve them. For example, while society supports the efforts of its members in the pursuit of wealth and high social position, the legal means of members of society to achieve such a state is very limited: when a person cannot achieve wealth through talent and ability (legal means), he can resort to deceit, forgery or theft, not approved by society.

38. Socialization. The main agents and stages of socialization.

Socialization- the formation of a personality - the process of assimilation by an individual of patterns of behavior, psychological attitudes, social norms and values, knowledge, skills that allow him to successfully function in society. Human socialization begins at birth and continues throughout life. In its process, he assimilates the social experience accumulated by mankind in various spheres of life, which allows him to perform certain, vital social roles.

Socialization agents

The most important role in how a person grows up, how his formation will go, is played by people in direct interaction with whom his life flows. They are usually called agents of socialization. At different age stages, the composition of agents is specific. So, in relation to children and adolescents, such are parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, peers, neighbors, teachers. In adolescence or youth, the number of agents also includes a spouse, work colleagues, etc. In terms of their role in socialization, agents differ depending on how significant they are for a person, how interaction with them is built, in what direction and by what means. they exert their influence.

Levels of socialization

In sociology, two levels of socialization are distinguished: the level of primary socialization and the level of secondary socialization. Primary socialization occurs in the sphere of interpersonal relations in small groups. The immediate environment of the individual acts as the primary agents of socialization: parents, close and distant relatives, family friends, peers, teachers, doctors, etc. Secondary socialization occurs at the level of large social groups and institutions. Secondary agents are formal organizations, official institutions: representatives of the administration and schools, the army, the state, etc.

39. Public opinion: ways of studying, functions, problems of truth.

Public opinion- the point of view of various social groups on a problem, averaged and supported by the majority, taking into account the development of mass consciousness and the role representations of the social group about behavior and thinking within society.

public relations In most cases, they can use public opinion polls, constantly published in the media, and, if necessary, obtain such information from commercial organizations conducting sociological research. In Russia, for example, this is professionally done by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), the Russian Internet resource "Public Library",

The main method on which the study of society is based is observation. There are three most common types of PR research:

Sociological research. Their task is to find out the attitudes and opinions of people, that is, their considerations about certain subjects.

A communication audit conducted to analyze inconsistencies that arise in communication between the management of organizations and target groups of the public.

informal research. These include the accumulation of facts, the analysis of various information materials, etc., that is, methods that do not require direct intervention in the work of the objects of study.

Consider sociological research. There are two general types of sociological research:

1. Descriptive research. They provide an opportunity to take a snapshot of a certain specific situation or existing conditions. Opinion polls are a typical example.

2. Problem research. Their purpose is to explain how this or that situation has developed, why certain opinions and attitudes prevail.

Sociological research consists of four elements: sampling, questionnaire (questionnaire), interview, analysis of results.

Sampling - the selection of a group of survey units, which should represent the totality of people (the object of study), whose opinion the researcher seeks to know. There are two factors to consider when selecting a sample:

Determination of the method of probabilistic sampling;

Compliance with the principle of objectivity.

Given these factors, two main methods of selecting respondents can be used: random and non-random. The first method is more scientific, the second is less formal. Random selection gives each member of the population the opportunity to be included in the sample. There are four types of random samples.

1. Simple random sample. A general list of the population is compiled, and then the required number of units for the survey is selected from it by the principle of chance. The size of a random sample depends on the size of the population and its homogeneity.

2. Systematized random sampling. It is similar to a simple random sample. But here there is a random starting point in the general list of the population and a certain reference step. The reliability of this type of sample is somewhat lower.

3. Stratified random sample. It is used to study different segments of groups (strata) of the population.

4. Sample formed by cluster selection. Cluster sampling involves first dividing the population into small homogeneous subgroups (clusters), and then a corresponding representative selection of potential respondents from each of them.

Non-random selection. Such samples are divided into two types - fit and quota.

1. Suitable samples are formed on the principle of "seize the opportunity." These are predominantly unstructured, unsystematized samples designed to clarify an opinion or point of view (as an example, journalistic interviews on the street).

2. Quota (target) samples provide a public opinion researcher with the opportunity to select respondents according to certain characteristics (women, men, representatives of certain races, national minorities, property status, etc.). The quota is set in proportion to the share of each of the groups in the total population. The advantage is the homogeneity of the studied sample, the reliability of the study.

Questionnaire. Rules for constructing a questionnaire:

1. The questionnaire should include only those questions that will help in achieving the goal.

2. When starting to develop a questionnaire, first of all, you should write an introduction, which indicates who and for what purpose is applying to him, emphasize the confidentiality of information.

3. In the questionnaire, use structured, closed questions. Such questions provide for the similarity of answers such as “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “not satisfied”, “not at all satisfied”.

4. Questions should be designed in such a way that they are accessible and specific.

5. Do not formulate preconceived questions.

6. Do not combine two different questions into one.

7. Questions should be asked that cover the whole problem.

8. The questionnaire must always be tested. You need to show the developed questionnaire to your colleagues and listen carefully to their comments and suggestions.

Interview. There are several types of interviews: personal, telephone, group (focus groups).

Group interviews are the most common form of research work in PR practice.

Functions of public opinion:

The functions of public opinion differ depending on the nature of the interaction of the opinions of certain social institutions or individuals, primarily on the nature of the influence, the impact of the first on the second, on the content of the expressed opinion, on its form. Public opinion is characterized by the following functions: expressive (in a narrower sense, control); advisory; directive.

The expressive function is the broadest in its meaning. Public opinion always takes a certain position in relation to any facts and events in the life of society, the actions of various institutions, leaders of the state. This feature gives this phenomenon the character of a force that stands above the institutions of power, evaluates and controls the activities of institutions and leaders of parties, the state.

The second function is advisory. Public opinion gives advice on how to resolve certain social, economic, political, ideological, interstate problems. This opinion will be fair if, of course, the institutions of power are interested in such answers. Listening to these advices, "leading leaders", groups, clans are forced to correct decisions and methods of management.

And, finally, the directive function of public opinion is manifested in the fact that the public makes decisions on certain problems of social life that are imperative in nature, for example, the will of the people during elections, referendums. In these cases, the people not only give a mandate of trust to this or that leader, but also express their opinion. Imperative statements occupy a very significant place in politics.

Depending on the content of judgments formed by the public, the opinion can be evaluative, analytical, constructive and regulatory. An evaluative opinion expresses an attitude towards certain problems or facts. It contains more emotions than analytical conclusions, conclusions. Analytical and constructive public opinion are closely related: the adoption of any decision requires a deep and comprehensive analysis, which requires elements of theoretical thinking, and sometimes hard work of thought. But in terms of content, analytical and instructive opinions do not coincide. The meaning of regulatory public opinion is that it develops and implements certain norms of social relations and operates with a whole set of norms, principles, traditions, customs, mores, etc. that are not written by law. Usually it implements the code of rules that is enshrined in the moral consciousness people, groups, collectives. Public opinion can also act in the form of positive or negative judgments.

truth and falsity of statements public depend primarily on the reasoning subject himself, as well as the sources from which he draws knowledge.

degree of truth of an opinion based on personal experience(passed through the prism of personal experience), depends on the speaker's judgment. In life, quite often there are extremely mature reasoning "youths" and completely "green" elders, just like those far from direct practice, but nevertheless possessing the truth "theoreticians" and fallen into the most gross mistakes figures "from the plow". ". The nature of this phenomenon is simple: people, regardless of direct experience, are more or less literate, educated, more or less competent, capable of analysis.

40. The essence and concept of culture. Common and difference in cultures.

Culture is understood as...

· a set of material and spiritual values created and being created by mankind and constituting its spiritual and social existence.

· a historically determined level of development of society and man, expressed in the types and forms of organization of life and activities of people, as well as in the material and spiritual values they create. (TSB)

The total volume of human creativity (Daniil Andreev)

· a complex, multi-level sign system that models a picture of the world in every society and determines the place of a person in it.

Culture forms the personalities of the members of society, thereby it largely regulates their behavior.

According to anthropologists, culture consists of four elements.

1. Concepts (concepts). They are found mainly in the language. Thanks to them, it becomes possible to streamline the experience of people.

2. Relationships. Cultures not only single out certain parts of the world with the help of concepts, but also reveal how these constituent parts are interconnected - in space and time, by meaning (for example, black is the opposite of white), on the basis of causation (“spare the rod - spoil child”). Our language has words for earth and sun, and we are sure that the earth revolves around the sun. But before Copernicus, people believed the opposite was true. Cultures often interpret relationships differently.

Each culture forms certain ideas about the relationship between concepts related to the sphere of the real world and to the sphere of the supernatural.

3. Values. Values are generally accepted beliefs about the goals that a person should strive for. They form the basis of moral principles.

Different cultures may prioritize different values (heroism on the battlefield, artistic creativity, asceticism), and each social order determines what is a value and what is not.

4. Rules. These elements (including norms) regulate people's behavior in accordance with the values of a particular culture. For example, our legal system includes many laws against killing, injuring or threatening other people. These laws reflect how much we value the life and well-being of the individual. In the same way, we have dozens of laws prohibiting burglary, embezzlement, property damage, etc. They reflect our desire to protect personal property.

How important culture is for the functioning of the individual and society can be judged by the behavior of people who are not covered by socialization. The uncontrolled or infantile behavior of the so-called children of the jungle, who were completely deprived of human contact, indicates that without socialization, people are not able to adopt an orderly way of life, master the language and learn how to earn a livelihood.

Each society has carried out its own selection of cultural forms. Each society, from the point of view of the other, neglects the main thing and is engaged in unimportant affairs. In one culture, material values are hardly recognized, in another they have a decisive influence on people's behavior. In one society, technology is treated with incredible disdain, even in areas essential to human survival; in another similar society, constantly improving technology meets the requirements of the time. But each society creates a huge cultural superstructure that covers the whole life of a person - both youth, and death, and the memory of him after death.

As a result of this selection, past and present cultures are completely different. Some societies considered war to be the noblest human activity. In others, she was hated, and the representatives of the third had no idea about her. According to the norms of one culture, a woman had the right to marry her relative. Norms of other culture strongly forbid it.

Even a cursory contact with two or more cultures convinces us that the differences between them are innumerable. We and They travel in different directions, They speak a different language. We have different opinions about what behavior is crazy and what is normal, we have different concepts of a virtuous life. It is much more difficult to determine the common features common to all cultures - cultural universals.

Sociologists distinguish more than 60 cultural universals. These include sports, body decoration, community work, dancing, education, funeral rites, gift giving, hospitality, incest prohibitions, jokes, language, religious practices, tool making, and attempts to influence the weather.

However, different cultures may have different sports, decorations, etc. The environment is one of the factors causing these differences. In addition, all cultural characteristics are conditioned by the history of a certain society and are formed as a result of a unique development of events. On the basis of different types of cultures, different kinds of sports, bans on consanguineous marriages and languages arose, but the main thing is that in one form or another they are present in every culture.

There is a tendency in society to judge other cultures in terms of the superiority of one's own. This tendency is called enthocentrism. The principles of ethnocentrism find clear expression in the activities of missionaries who seek to convert "barbarians" to their faith. Ethnocentrism is associated with xenophobia - fear and hostility to other people's views and customs.

41. Interaction of culture and economy.

Traditionally, culture has been the subject of study in philosophy, sociology, art history, history, literary criticism, and other disciplines, while the economic sphere of culture has practically not been studied.

At the initial stages of the development of human society, the term "culture" was identified with the main type of economic activity of that time - agriculture.

At the initial stages of the study of economic culture, it can be defined through the most general economic category "mode of production",

Economic culture should include not only relations of production, but also the totality of social relations that have an impact on the technological mode of production, material production, and on a person as its main agent. Thus, in a broad sense, economic culture is a set of material and spiritual socially developed means of activity, with the help of which the material and production life of people is carried out.

In the structure of economic culture, it is necessary to single out the main structure-forming factor. One such factor is human activity.

any labor activity is associated with the disclosure of the creative abilities of the producer, but the degree of development of creative moments in the labor process is different. The more creative labor is, the richer the cultural activity of a person, the higher the level of labor culture.

The culture of work includes the skills of owning tools of labor, conscious management of the process of creating material and spiritual wealth, the free use of one's abilities, the use of the achievements of science and technology in labor activity.

There is a general tendency to increase the economic cultural level. This finds expression in the use of the latest technology and technological processes, advanced methods and forms of labor organization, the introduction of progressive forms of management and planning, development, science, and knowledge in improving the education of the working people.

For a long time, the state of economic culture was "described" within the strict framework of glorifying socialism. However, as the main downward trend in all economic indicators (growth rates of production and investment, labor productivity, budget deficit, etc.) became apparent, the inoperability of the economic system of socialism became obvious. This made us rethink our reality in a new way and start looking for answers to many questions. Practical steps are being taken towards the market, the democratization of property relations, the development of entrepreneurship, which, undoubtedly, is evidence of the emergence of qualitatively new features of the economic culture of modern society.

42. Forms of culture. Problems of mass culture.

Culture - a set of material and spiritual values created and being created by mankind and constituting its spiritual and social existence.

In most modern societies, culture exists in
the following main forms:

1) high, or elite culture - fine art,
classical music and literature produced and consumed by the elite;

2) folk culture - fairy tales, songs, folklore, myths, traditions,
customs;

3) mass culture - a culture that has developed with the development of means
mass information created for the masses and consumed by the masses.

There is a point of view that mass culture is a product of the mass itself. Media owners only study the needs of the masses and give what the masses want.

Another point of view is that popular culture
the product of the intelligentsia hired by the media owners
information. This is a means of manipulating the masses, imposing them
their values and standards of life.

World culture is a synthesis of the best achievements of all the national cultures of the peoples inhabiting our planet.
national culture - the highest form of development of ethnic culture, which is characterized not only by the presence of a peculiar cultural system based on social solidarity and the experience of living together in a certain territory, but also by the presence of a high professional level of culture and world significance

Mass culture can be international and national. As a rule, it has less artistic value than the elite or folk. But unlike elite culture, mass culture has a larger audience, and in comparison with popular culture, it is always authorial.

43. Types of sociological research. Stages of sociological research.

sociological research can be defined as a system of logically consistent methodological, methodological and organizational-technical procedures, interconnected by a single goal: to obtain reliable data about the phenomenon or process being studied, about the trends and contradictions of their development, so that these data can be used in the practice of managing social life .

Sociological research includes four successive stages: research preparation; collection of primary sociological information; preparation of the collected information for processing and its processing; analysis of the information received, summing up the results of the study, formulation of conclusions and recommendations.

A specific type of sociological research is determined by the nature of the goals and objectives set in it. It is in accordance with them that three main types of sociological research are distinguished: exploratory, descriptive and analytical.

Intelligence research solves tasks that are very limited in their content. It covers, as a rule, small surveyed populations and is based on a simplified program and a compressed toolkit.

Exploratory research is used for a preliminary examination of a certain process or phenomenon. The need for such a preliminary stage, as a rule, arises when the problem is either little or not studied at all.

Descriptive research is a more complex type of sociological analysis, which allows one to form a relatively holistic view of the phenomenon under study, its structural elements. Comprehending, taking into account such comprehensive information helps to better understand the situation, more deeply substantiate the choice of means, forms and methods of managing social processes.

A descriptive study is carried out according to a complete, sufficiently detailed program and on the basis of methodically tested tools. Its methodological and methodical equipment makes it possible to group and classify elements according to those characteristics that are identified as significant in connection with the problem under study.

Descriptive research is usually used when the object is a relatively large community of people with different characteristics. This can be a team of a large enterprise, where people of different professions and age categories work, with different work experience, education level, marital status, etc., or the population of a city, district, region, region. In such situations, the allocation of relatively homogeneous groups in the structure of the object makes it possible to alternately evaluate, compare and contrast the characteristics of interest to the researcher, and in addition, to identify the presence or absence of links between them.