TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2010//
TI  - Revisiting the Total Institution: Performative Regulation in the Reinventive Institution
JO  - Sociology
A1  - Scott, Susie
SP  - 213
EP  - 231
VL  - 44
IS  - 2
N2  - This article revisits the concept of the total institution (TI), critically assessing the extent to which it has changed from being repressively coercive to relatively voluntaristic. I propose two new concepts, the ‘Reinventive Institution’ (RI) and ‘performative regulation’, to take the debate forward. The model of the TI outlined in Goffman’s Asylums has been (mis-)interpreted as rendering its inmates powerless, but they also demonstrated agency through gestures of resistance. Conversely, RIs, which members elect to join for purposes of self-improvement, appear to celebrate the subject’s autonomy but suggest a unique form of social control based on mutual surveillance. This performative regulation is enacted through the interaction order, as members actively produce, negotiate and legitimate the exercise of power.<p />
LA  - 
SN  - 0038-0385
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038509357198
ID  - ref1
ER  -