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Collective Behavior and Social Control

Park defined sociology as "the science of collective behavior," and this definition already suggests that while he was not unmindful of the need for analysis of social structures, he was mainly concerned with the study of more fluid social processes. In Park's view society is best conceived as the product of interactions between component individuals which are controlled by a body of traditions and norms that arise in the process of interaction. Social control is "the central fact and the central problem of society." "Society is everywhere a control organization. Its function is to organize, integrate, and direct the energies resident in the individuals which compose it." Accordingly, sociology is "a point of view and method for investigating the processes by which indi- viduals are inducted into and induced to cooperate in some sort of corporate existence we call society."

Social control refers to the variety of mechanisms by which collective be- havior is organized, contained, and channelled. The social process involves forms of antagonism, of conflict and competition, and social control serves to order these processes. Whether it be the more elementary forms of control that arise among members of a crowd, or the more elaborate forms that crystallize into public opinion and the law, social control always operates so as to regulate competition, to compromise conflict, and to harness individuals to the necessary requirements of the social order. Yet social control can never achieve a per- manent state of equilibrium in society. The fact that antagonisms are regulated by control mechanisms does not mean that they are eradicated, but only that they have become latent or have been driven into socially accepted channels "Every society represents an organization of elements more or less antagonistic to each other but united for the moment, at least by an arrangement which defines the reciprocal relations and respective sphere of action of each. This accommodation, this modus vivendi, may be relatively permanent as in a society constituted by castes, or quite transitory as in societies made up of open classes.''

For Park, a relatively stable social order is one in which mechanisms of social control have for the time being succeeded in containing antagonistic forces in such a way that an accommodation has been reached between them. But while accommodation may be reached temporarily between specific groups and individuals, there is, according to Park, every reason to believe that an overall accommodation, at least in modern society, can never be permanent be- cause new groups and individuals are likely to arise and claim their share of scarce values, thus questioning the scheme of things that has arisen from previous accommodations.

From Coser, 1977:358-359.