International conference. The changing way of social institutions
12-13 May 2005 - Milan - Italy

Catholic University of Sacro Cuore of Milan, Department of Sociology

Method and Methods

Coherency analysis. Per un’attualizzazione del pensiero sociologico

Da inserire

Sixth International Conference on Logic and Methodology - Recent Developments and Application in Social Research Methodology
17-20 August 2004 - Amsterdam - Holland

ISA Research Committee on Logic and Methodology

Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods - Empirical Designs and their Theoretical Implications

Coherency’s Analysis for an Updating of Sociological Thought

Da inserire

Midterm Conference Europe - Critical Education & Utopia. Emergent Perspectives for the 21st Century
18-20 September 2003 - Lisbon - Portugal

ISA Research Committee on Sociology of Education

From the crisis of schooling to the discovery of treasure. Could schooling be another thing?

The Education Without Future: Updating the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Some vital elements have burst into the Western scene rendering every civil triumph confused. The media’s capacity for penetration, illegal and legal immigration, the speed of the means of transportation, linguistic colonialism of the English language, make the concept of globalization appear to be concrete in our eyes. These elements react together, without a particular hierarchical order, without decisive strategies, if not that of today is better. This new strategy, which began in the nineties, does not permit a sufficiently long future vision to create substantial changes in society. It is the era of “fairly well”, and “not too bad”, “we can’t complain”, “let it go”, to cite only a few of the very popular expressions used in Italy today. In fact, the bus drives off without waiting for anyone, sort of trampling randomly what it finds in its path.
As with all forms of control, even social control is not impartial. Its force, its ability to penetrate, its supporting values are activated in a different manner depending on the institutions that exercise it: family, school, church, mass media. Every ethnic group, religion, age group and social class is affected in a different manner and with differing intensity. For centuries women have been subjected to a different form of social control than men. The physical violence they have withstood has been the backdrop to every type of “education” they have received. Understanding this divergence can be useful in a society that is in a state of continuous cultural change, where the process of globalization could bring renewed forms of exploitation and oppression.
Through sociological literature it is possible to verify whether social control represents an informal value system and moral code, or whether it takes form through codes and written laws. Already, in the XVIII century, the age of Enlightenment, of equality and fraternity, writers identify difference in gender in their works for organizing educational, economic, military and social polices, which although they were proposed as useful for a better society, did not represent a valid alternative to achieve formal and substantial equality between the genders.
One of the forms of transversal social control throughout history, within the social classes, ethnic groups, and religions is that exercised through the perpetuation of the stereotype of femininity. Despite the centuries old battle for emancipation, it has reproduced itself in various forms but always with the same negative consequences. Reading the Rousseau’s works and using the stereotype as a critical instrument, it is possible to identify the French author’s incongruence with respect to the issue of education, and we can demonstrate how even presumed progressive thinking can bring to conservative conclusions.

2nd International Congress of Sociology - Sociology: A Lesson on Freedom
8-10 November 2002 - Thessaloniki - Greece

ISA Research Committee on Sociothechnics - Sociological Practice

Public Security and Social Control

Social Control and the Negation of the Freedom: Updating the Thought of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

As with all forms of control, even social control is not impartial. Its force, its ability to penetrate, its supporting values are activated in a different manner depending on the institutions that exercise it: family, school, church, mass media. Every ethnic group, religion, age group and social class is affected in a different manner and with differing intensity.
For centuries women have been subjected to a different form of social control than men. The physical violence they have withstood has been the backdrop to every type of “education” they have received. Understanding this divergence can be useful in a society that is in a state of continuous cultural change, where the process of globalization could bring renewed forms of exploitation and oppression.
Through sociological literature it is possible to verify whether social control represents an informal value system and moral code, or whether it takes form through codes and written laws.
Already, in the XVIII century, the age of Enlightenment, of equality and fraternity, writers identify difference in gender in their works for organizing educational, economic, military and social polices, which although they were proposed as useful for a better society, did not represent a valid alternative to achieve formal and substantial equality between the genders. By means of updating Rousseau’s thought these incongruences can be identified.