Control and Communication Through Socialisation

Abstract

Control and communication are intimately linked to society. The task of socialisation is the introduction of an individual into a society. As we sustain our society largely through paid work, socialisation is foremost linked to the world of work. Socialisation mechanisms in such societies contain elements of control. This links control, communication, and socialisation to society and the world of work. As capitalism and modern production systems have moved from early craft workshops towards Fordist mass production and the Taylorist division of labour developed into horizontal tasks and vertical structures, forms of control have also changed.⁴⁵² While early forms of control could be communicated directly — worker and boss — or occurred through a technical apparatus — the assembly line — modern industry, especially since the move to post-industrial work regimes, executes control increasingly through the link between primary and secondary socialisation. Control mechanisms such as direct supervision or peer pressure under panoptical arrangements are no longer required. Modern work regimes have managed to largely free themselves from the direct, technical, bureaucratic, and group based peer-pressure systems of control of the past. This move has been supported by an increasing level of system integration of workers via socialisation and mass media.