Undermine familiars free#

Poor families are much more likely to be seen as ‘problem families’ and as the causes of crime and anti-social behaviour. Surveillance is not targeted equally at all social classes.

Donzelot calls this ‘the policing of families’. He argues that social workers, health visitors and doctors use their knowledge to control and change families. He is interested in how professionals carry out surveillance of families. In particular, Foucault sees professionals such as doctors and social workers as exercising power over their clients by using their expert knowledge to turn them into ‘cases’ to be dealt with.ĭonzelot applies these ideas to the family.

Foucault sees power not just as something held by the government or the state, but as diffused (spread) throughout society and found within all relationships. Jacques Donzelot (1977) has a conflict view of society and sees policy as a form of state power and control over families.ĭonzelot uses Michel Foucault’s (1976) concept of surveillance (observing and monitoring).

It assumes that there is a ‘march of progress’ with social policies, gradually making life better, which is a view criticise by Donzelot in the following section.Īdapted from Robb Webb et al A Conflict Perspective – Donzelot: Policing the Family.

It assumes that all members of the family benefit equally from social policies, whereas Feminists argue that policies often benefit men more than women.

However, the functionalist view has been criticised on two main counts: Functionalists see policies as helping families to perform their functions more effectively and making life better for their members.įor example, Ronald Fletcher (1966) argues that the introduction of health, education and housing policies in the years since the industrial revolution has gradually led to the development of a welfare state that supports the family in performing its functions more effectively.įor instance, the existence of the National Health Service means that with the help of doctors, nurses, hospitals and medicines, the family today is better able to take care of its members when they are sick. They see the state as acting in the interests of society as a whole and its social policies as being for the good of all.

Undermine familiars free#

How do Functionalists, the New Right and Conflict theorists view social policies on the family? The Functionalist View of Social Policy and The Familyįunctionalists see society as built on harmony and consensus (shared values), and free from conflicts.