Normalization (sociology)

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Traffic signs set guidelines for normative behavior

In parts of the social sciences, normalization refers to the alignment of human life with normality . Coercion and influencing are here part of the creation of expectations through normalization.

Essentially, a distinction can be made between a more normative and a more descriptively oriented normalization. Normality can be determined by norms (e.g. legal norms ). It is possible that this normative normality can differ greatly from the actual (descriptive) normality. However, normality can also be established on the basis of empirical evidence.

Various phases can be identified in the theoretical (and actual) development of normalization. Foucault describes in his book " Surveillance and Punishment " a normalization that is based on discipline and punishment. By means of ubiquitous (ubiquitous) surveillance, discipline is internalized , so that the punishment is ultimately replaced by the mere threat of punishment and surveillance by the mere possibility of surveillance. (see also bio-power )

Deleuze (1993), on the other hand, suggests the concept of the control society, in which normalization is achieved through access controls. The access controls restrict access to resources, so that the compulsion to normalize in the control societies is replaced by a desire for normalization. The late Foucault emphasizes the importance of self-management techniques. No longer express normative claims from the outside guide the adaptation of behavior to normality, but the own determination of what is descriptively normal in society.

Link (1997) differentiates here between protonormalism, which is strongly oriented towards normativity, sets narrow limits for behavior and reacts to deviations with penalties or exclusion, and flexible normalism, which works more with statistical means, understands deviations as part of normality and want to manage instead of suppressing.

literature

• Gilles Deleuze : Postscript on the control societies , in: Deleuze, Gilles: Negotiations. 1972-1990. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp 1993. pp. 254-262.
• Krasmann, Susanne (2000): Governmentality of the Surface. For example, training aggressiveness. In: Bröckling, Krasmann & Lemke 2000, 194–226.
• Link, Jürgen: Attempt on normalism. How normality is produced. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag 1997
• Link, Jürgen: Normal crises? Normalism and the crisis of the present. Constance: University Press 2013
• Herbert Mehrtens : Control technology normalization. Introductory considerations , in: Werner Sohn / Herbert Mehrtens (Ed.): Normality and deviation. Studies on the theory and history of the normalization society, Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag 1999. pp. 45–64.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bröckling 2000, Foucault 2004, Krasmann 2000, Mehrtens 1999, Singelnstein / Stolle 2006 and others