Social Control: Everyday Rules, Everyday Compliance

Flashcards covering key definitions and concepts related to social control, including formal and informal mechanisms, Durkheim's solidarity, and Foucault's governmentality, based on the provided lecture notes.

Social Control

The processes that regulate behavior and encourage conformity to norms, operating constantly in daily life beyond formal laws.

Informal Social Control

Everyday, unwritten, and interpersonal expectations or mechanisms that regulate behavior, such as gossip, shaming, or peer approval/disapproval.

Formal Social Control

Codified, institutional mechanisms enforced by law or state that regulate behavior, such as legal institutions, courts, and prisons.

Émile Durkheim

A founding figure of sociology who studied how societies maintain cohesion (social solidarity) amidst significant change, observing signs of social disorder like rising suicides and crime.

Social Solidarity

Durkheim's concept referring to the 'glue' that holds society together; the mechanisms by which societies maintain cohesion.

Mechanical Solidarity

A type of social solidarity found in small, homogenous groups, characterized by sameness, shared experiences, and a strong collective conscience.

Organic Solidarity

A type of social solidarity found in modern, diverse societies, characterized by difference, specialization, and interdependence among individuals.

Internalization of Norms

The process by which individuals learn and adopt societal norms, leading to compliance through habit and peer enforcement rather than formal sanctions.

Governmentality (Foucault)

Foucault's concept describing ways of governing beyond the state by shaping thought and action, where social control produces desired behaviors and identities rather than merely repressing them.

Power and Knowledge (Foucault)

Foucault's concept that institutions define what is considered 'normal' and legitimize social control by shaping accepted knowledge and norms.

Medical Social Control

An arena of social control that involves regulating behavior by pathologizing deviance through diagnoses and treatment, defining certain behaviors as 'illnesses'.