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2025 - Volume 9 - Number 2

The Contribution of Bazil Berstein’s Concept of Symbolic Control to the Understanding of Social Control and the Role of Social Sciences in Contemporary Societies

Kostas Spyridakis * ORCID: 0000-0001-5222-8822
University of Crete, Department of Philosophical and Social Studies, Chania, GREECE

Open Journal for Sociological Studies, 2025, 9(2), 59-72 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojss.0902.03059s
Received: 16 May 2025 ▪ Revised: 19 August 2025 ▪ Accepted: 10 November 2025

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
Processes of social control that maintain patterns of regular thinking and behavior have long been integral to sociological explanations of the formation of social reality. However, Bernstein’s concept of symbolic control highlights a specific dimension of social control by linking sociolinguistic codes in pedagogical communication with power relations and the formation of consciousness. The roles of education and science are pivotal in the division of labor and the mechanisms of symbolic control. Social sciences contribute to the construction of social reality and simultaneously constitute themselves as part of this reality by shaping categories of people who become their subjects of study. Exploring the organic connections among sciences, education, and the social regulation of thoughts and emotions can reveal the potential usefulness of each body of knowledge beyond the conditions of domination that obscure certain aspects of human existence while emphasizing others.

KEY WORDS: symbolic control, Bernstein, education, domination.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Kostas Spyridakis, University of Crete, Department of Philosophical and Social Studies. Chania, GREECE.

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