Deviance and Interaction Order

1
Deviance and Interaction Order

• Is deviance
• a) Breaking the rules?
• or
• b) Adherence to other rules?
• Note conceptions of normality and deviance are
  relative to social context and highly variable
  between (and within?) different societies (Jary
  Jary Dictionary of Sociology)

2
Deviance and Rule-Following

• Normal Behaviour is unexceptional. It is guided
  by rules
• Deviant behaviour is also both normal-in-context
  and rule-governed
• The difference between them is not whether rules
  exist, but whether the rules are supported by
  powerful institutions
• re R.Giulianotti Football a Sociology of the
  global game p.51ff

3
Culture and Sub-Culture

• Culture The values, beliefs, behaviour, practices
  and material objects that constitute a peoples
  way of life. A way-of-life
• Subculture A way-of-life that departs in some
  significant manner from the culture that is
  supported by dominant social institutions e.g.
  media, law schools
• Subcultures may deviate from the dominant culture
  through appearance (Goths), belief (religious
  fundamentalists), behaviour (law-breakers), work
  norms (dockers) etc.
• The reference to dominance i.e. power, is
  significant because subcultures are typically
  subordinate and vulnerable to the dominant culture

4
Deviance and Social Solidarity

• Adherence to a sub-culture tends to reinforce
  social solidarity - the sense of mutual
  obligation that follows from the integration of
  persons into groups
• Social solidarity typically involves reciprocal
  relationships - mutual action, giving and taking
• Within a workplace where theft is normal the
  honest worker is the deviant

5
Incorporation of deviant sub-cultures into
dominant systems

• Common-sense assumption that dominant culture and
  subcultures are always in conflict.
• However, Indulgency Patterns (Gouldner). The
  deliberate refusal by power holders to enforce
  official rules, and their toleration of
  rule-breaking in order to win the compliance of
  subordinates
• The principle of reciprocity leads to
  subordinates going beyond their official duties
  in order to assist the power holder
• This tends to legitimate the power of the senior
  person. That is, it justifies their exercise of
  control over subordinates.

6
The World Turned Upside-Down(and yet
right-way-up)

• Thus, an inversion, turning upside down of the
  normal order
• Yet the power structure is maintained.
• Images and representations of deviant subcultures
  can be incorporated into the dominant culture,
  especially through consumerism
• re yesterday The functions of deviance how
  deviance supports the social system

7
Social Order as Negotiated Order

• We tend to take social reality for granted as
  something given out there
• This order is rather the outcome of ordinary,
  everyday processes of negotiation (e.g.
  conferring, bargaining, making arrangements,
  compromising, reaching agreements) between
  persons and groups.
• Social order is not fixed and outside our control
  but is open to revision and reorganization
  through these processes
• The significance of trivialities

8
Deviance and Identity

• This does not mean that deviance has no
  consequence for self-identity
• Outside the protection of the subculture the
  deviants identity is likely to be seen as
  damaged/flawed
• Next week Identity, Interaction and Stigma