Funding: Ministry of Education and Research
Project period: 2018–2019
Researchers: Ingrid Smette (project leader), Anja Bredal, Monika Rosten, Mette Løvgren
Social control exist in all social groups and communities as members share certain values and norms and judge their own and others’ behaviour according to these. Social control can be positive because it can encourage people to act in ways that is beneficial both for the community and for themselves. However, the starting point for this project is “negative social control”. This policy concept has come high on the political agenda as evident in the recent “Action plan against negative social control, forced marriage and genital mutilation (2017-2020)”.
Here, the concept is defined as “different forms of surveillance, pressure, threats and coercion exercised to ensure that individuals live according to family or group norms. Such control is systematic and can constitute violations to individual rights as stated in the Convention of the Rights of the Child and Norwegian law.” Thus, “negative social control” refers to control that is too severe and aimed at controlling others, as well as attempts to control behaviour and acts that are regarded as acceptable and normal in society at large. Finally, the concept refers to control that is exercised by individuals but on behalf of a collective.
The aim of this project is to develop our understanding of the phenomena to which the the policy concept “negative social control” refers. Key questions are:
- How do young people experience control in different settings?
- What distinguishes acceptable control from control that is too severe, seen from different actors’ perspectives?
- How do people’s views on what needs to be controlled vary between different family and youth contexts?
- What characterises young people who are exposed to different levels of control and to what extent is there concurrence between exposure to control and violence – in family and other contexts?
These questions will be addressed in two sub-projects, one qualitative and one quantitative:
1) Chastity and social control. Perspectives from young people and parents
The purpose of the qualitative sub-project is to explore how social control unfolds and how it is experienced. We will explore young people’s experiences with negative social control in two different contexts: Among young people in multicultural settings and among young people in Christian communities.
We will recruit boys and girls from upper secondary schools for interviews in groups and individually, collaborating with social workers and teachers in schools. To explore young people’s experiences from Christian communities, we will seek to recruit both youth who are members of communities and youth who have left.
Interviews with parents will make up a minor part of this project, but will be an important contribution to understanding parents’ rationale for exercising different levels of control. We will recruit parents through different networks, organizations, religious communities etc.
2) Patterns in young people’s experiences with social control. Quantitative analyses
The aim of the quantitative sub-project is to develop knowledge about the extent to which young people experience severe control, e.g. in the form of constraints on participation on different social arenas, and to what extent young people are exposed to different forms of sanctions, including violence, from family members and others.
The quantitative analyses will be based on data from the Young in Oslo survey distributed to all lower and upper secondary schools in Oslo in spring 2018. The survey was administered by UngData at NOVA, OsloMet (http://www.ungdata.no/English).
Contact
For more information contact Ingrid Smette, e-mail: ingrid.smette@oslomet.no or Anja Bredal, e-mail: anja.bredal@oslomet.no