Message-Id: <v01530504affe9ff15f90@[192.129.1.235]>
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Date: Fri, 25 Jul 1997 20:57:19 +0200
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
From: czerlinski@mpipf-muenchen.mpg.de (Jean Czerlinski)
Subject: teaching social control
> Since many of my
>students are from backgrounds they feel do not have many social problems, I
>can play with the idea of exploring why some areas of the country may have
>more socail problems. But again, I'm left with how to implement such ideas
>so that students who really haven't been out in the world can feel as if
>they have been out in the world.

What about expanding the definition of a "social problem" and including
social control that does *not* come from the state?

For example, Durkheim argued that although suicide seems very personal
and psychological, the *suicide rate* for a particular region is
a social fact.  If the suicide rate is particularly high, then this
could be considered a social problem.  Then you could try to investigate
the social control mechanisms that relate to it.  Following Durkheim,
too much or too little social control could lead to suicide, and in
the U.S. we would expect most suicides would be due to *too little
social control*.  In this case, of course, I don't mean social control
by the state but by family, religion, peer groups, clubs, and other
insititutions.  Of course, there is a *lot* more to suicide than
the "social control" element, and you're liable to make students
furious if you aren't careful in dealing with this issue.  (Of
course, I also might have made a few of the people on this list
furious, too.  Remember, I mean social control is only *one aspect*
of what leads to an individual person's decision to [try to]
commit suicide.  Durkheim himself mentioned other factors, like
being involved in a group and having meaningful activities.)

If you feel suicide is too big a topic, look at other seemingly-
individual social facts.  How many of your students got teased
by their peers for doing something socially unacceptable?  That
is surely a form of social control.  How do your students feel
about the teasing of nerds and fat children?  How much of this
do they feel extends into adult life in more subtle ways?  What
are these more subtle ways?  What about how parents control
kids?  If the parents follow the group's child-rearing norms,
then it is a form of social (rather than individual) control.
What do your students feel about popular child-rearing practices?
Or about sub-group child-rearing practices, as when certain
religious groups keep their children out of school.


It seems
to me that it is not necessary to talk about drugs and crime
as examples of social problems and things society tries
to control.  If your students think drugs & crime are far
away from their own experiences, then why not begin a
discussion about one of these other, more subtle problems?


Happy teaching,

Jean