A Theory About Control

by Jack P. Gibbs

Overview

Moving beyond his 1989 book, Control: Sociology's Central Notion, Jack Gibbs develops in this new book a comprehensive theory of control in all its biological, technological, and human dimensions. His treatment goes beyond conventional ideas about social control to show why self-control and proximate control are essential to understanding human interaction. He also argues that thinking of control in terms of the counteraction of deviance is insufficient. Tests of Gibbs's control theory, based on data from sixty-six countries, add credence to his claim that control could be the central notion for sociology and perhaps for other social sciences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367010324
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/07/2019
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword — Preface — Preliminary Considerations — Claims and Disclaimers — Control, Types of Control, and Power — The Intrinsic Part of the Theory — Control, Supernaturalism, Science, and Education — Interrelations Among the Three Basic Types of Control — The Remaining Premises — Recapitulation and Derivation of Theorems — The Theory's Extrinsic Part and One Series of Tests — The Theory's Extrinsic Part — A Series of Tests — Final Considerations — Future Work on the Theory — The Notion of Control Reconsidered — Appendix: A Formal Mode of Theory Construction for Sociology

Editorial Reviews

In his new book, Gibbs (sociology, Vanderbilt U.) further develops a theory of control in all its biological, technological and human dimensions, arguing that self-control and proximate control are essential to understanding human interaction and that thinking of control in terms of the counteraction of deviance is insufficient; he believes that control could be the central notion for sociology and perhaps for other social sciences. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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