The Postmodern «punitive city»: concerning the issue of dispersion of social control in the ХХІ century

Abstract

The article is focused on the problem of the essence, forms, methods and limits of social control in the Postmodern society. The article contains an analysis of the views of the most famous scientists who laid the foundations of modern understanding of social control, and the author’s proposals for the application of such views in the XXI century society. The main thesis of this study is that modern social control is more insightful, subtle and comprehensive (primarily due to its greater manufacturability). Therefore, there is a real danger of losing freedom in the Postmodern society. The article emphasizes the importance for the political science of the XXI century of the works of the French philosopher Michel Foucault and the American sociologist Stanley Cohen on the essence of social control on the example of the concept of punitive city, which serves as a model of modern society of technological social control. The article contains an analysis of transformation of different models of social control with the corresponding characteristics of each model. The article analyzes the application of the categories introduced by Michel Foucault in the XXI century ("rank", "exam", "discipline") and focuses on the relevance of such categories. The article provides practical examples of "encroachment on liberty" (such as mass surveillance cameras and information databases) and the dissemination of more insightful social control in the field of criminal justice. Attention is paid to examples of the application of the concept of Net Widening in national criminal justice systems. Attention is also paid to the "crisis of the rehabilitation ideal", which occurred after the publication in 1971 of the work of the American sociologist Robert Martinson. The article concludes that freedom is a kind of power. Power is seen not as a negative category associated with coercion, but as a positive category associated with the unlimited realization of the human’s will in the society, without harm to themselves and others. Therefore, from this point of view, the classical formal approach to social control as a natural consensus, which emerged from nowhere and from nowhere, should be taken critically. Modern society is a society of subtle and transparent, but at the same time rigid power, which does not tolerate the power of truly free people. The main conclusion of this study will be the aggravation of the issue of voluntary renunciation of freedom in favor of "security", or, better said, the combination of "security" with "comfort" in accordance with the requirements of a globalized consumer society.