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Resocialisation can be described as the change of existing social roles with new ones (Ferrante, 2010, p. 139). People are made to adapt to the new roles because of the situations they get themselves in. Socialisation involves making people more aware of their roles in the society. The process of resocialisation occurs in many areas and has both positive and negative outcomes. This paper discusses the process of resocialisation and the ways in which it affects an individual and the society.
Resocialisation in Organisations
Different organisations have different ways in which they conduct their affairs; most of them have a set of codes and rules, which all those who want to be part of them have to respect. These codes and rules are meant to give an identity to all those who are either active in the organisation or who identify with its ideals.
New people who join such organisations are made to observe these rules to enable them to be identified with it (Ferrante, 2010, p. 143). Resocialisation involves making people, who are part of an organisation either willingly or unwillingly, transform their behaviour and personalities to suit their new environment.
Organisations work hard to adopt resocialisation to control the level of engagement of the people who are active in them. Pante (2006) reveals that business organisations have codes of conduct, which their employees need to abide by (p. 84). These rules are meant to organise the way work is done with clearly defined roles and responsibilities for each individual.
Some students have to balance between working and doing part time jobs while in college. They become resocialised by working so that they can reduce their overdependence on parents. The students are forced to accept their new roles by their parents lack of money for their college fees.
New members of an organisation are made aware of the new roles they are supposed to assume. They are made to undergo certain procedures, which prepare them for the new roles that they are expected to assume. The resocialisation process helps them to change their behaviour, attitudes and perceptions towards the organisation and the business activities it undertakes (Goffman, 1968, p. 25).
This approach makes recruits expectations and attitudes suit the environment in which they become part of both in the present and in the future. Organisations have their own internal power and influence, which makes them carry out a set of resocialisation procedures that their members need to conform to.
Organisations have different reasons for resocialising their employees. Some organisations are more interested in resocialising their members more than others.
These organisations are motivated by the need to be seen as strong, attractive and invincible in the societies in which they transact. For instance, legal systems are known for their aggressive approach towards resocialising people who are active in them.
Police officers who have just been enrolled must measure up to the highest moral and legal standards to discharge their duties effectively. Law enforcement systems expect their staff to be selfless and diligent to maintain law and order in the society. Students who have to work part time do so willingly.
Their resocialisation occurs because they need to earn a living; they are more self driven and is not similar to that the new police recruits undergo.
Employees who join an organisation are made aware of the work procedures they are supposed to follow; their resocialisation is more formal and is done to help them settle in their new jobs as quickly as possible. Both employees and organisations depend on each other mutually for their objectives to succeed.
Features of Resocialisation
Resocialisation takes place in many forms, which have a big impact on the perceptions, attitudes and behaviour of the people who undergo the process. Some procedures are carried out to shift the loyalties of the person being resocialised to the organisation or group which he or she is about to become part of.
Resocialisation is done to make a person have a sense of belonging in the new environment that he lives in. There are various types of procedures that are also carried out during resocialisation; this is done to highlight the significance of the occasion being celebrated (Andersen & Taylor, 2006, p. 77). These procedures fascinate the emotional, psychological or religious attitudes of the members of the community or organisation in which the practice is conducted.
Rituals have a big significance in resocialisation. Some communities carry out rituals because they are able to appease themselves through their religious practices and beliefs. For example, Native Americans use psychoactive substances to help them reconnect with their ancestors after several centuries of the Whites dominating them.
These rituals are a form of resocialisation because through them the Native Americans identify their shared ancestry, traditions and kinship in the community where they live (Zimmerman, 2003, p. 87). Native Americans had been banned from carrying out these rituals when the US society was still dominated by white supremacy ideologies. The rituals serve as a bridge between them and their past, which they still cherish and want to keep alive.
Ceremonies in different communities and organisations also play a crucial role in resocialisation. These ceremonies serve as procedures through which new participants are made to understand the new roles they are supposed to perform in their new environments.
For instance, weddings are public resocialisation ceremonies, which prepare the bride and the groom for the new responsibilities taken up by the husband and his wife (Newman & Grauerholz, 2002, p. 234). The internship processes in organisations resocialise new employees to be conversant with the work procedures they are supposed to perform at their work stations. Internships help the new graduates to acquire important skills, which they need to perform their duties.
Initiations in some communities and organisations are carried out as rites of passage or as tests. For instance, many communities in Africa use circumcision and other forms of initiation as a rite of passage for their young people into adulthood. These young people are resocialised to perform the new roles that adults perform within a particular community.
After initiation, some of these young people get married, move out of their parents homes or carry out the tasks that adults are expected to perform. Mavundla (2009) reveals that they do this to conform to the roles and responsibilities the society expects them to assume (p. 396). Resocialisation gives them the courage to withstand pressures of life that they will face as adults in the future.
Besides initiation, there are also other forms of resocialisation that people have to undergo to join criminal, terrorist or secretive groups. Gangs use violence to initiate new members into their ranks. For instance, these new members are made to withstand lashings, rape or beatings to become part of these gangs.
Dahl (2004) states that some members are forced to kill or maim other people for them to be become new members of a gang (p. 8). Therapy centres use various methods to resocialise drug and alcohol addicts to reduce their dependence on the substances that bind them. The addicts are resocialised to reform their compulsive instincts and accept other rewarding and more beneficial pursuits.
Coping With Resocialisation
Various resocialisation programs have objectives that they seek to achieve. Formal resocialisation programs encourage people to change their behaviours for them to be able to cope with lifes challenges. Prison systems are tough and many people in the society find it difficult to cope in them. Some prisoners cope with the harsh environment without difficulty; consequently, other criminals commit more serious crimes after leaving prison.
Other inmates have strong networks in prisons, which protect them from other rival groups (Brym & Lie, 2009, p. 77). Some prisons are controlled by criminal gangs who operate illegal businesses within them to retain their autonomy. The members of the gangs commit serious crimes in prison such as murder, rape, assault and extortion. They violate the rules without worrying about the consequences that they are likely to face.
Jews who were confined in Nazi concentration camps faced a lot of problems. Together with Gypsies, they were abused, killed and overworked by the Nazi forces who wanted to destroy them. They were resocialised to feel that they are inferior to other races in Europe. The harsh treatment and servitude they were subjected to while in labour camps made them feel unwanted.
They understood that their fate was sealed and they had little chance of getting out of the concentration camps alive. The concentration camps strengthened their will to survive (Bartrop & Jacobs, 2010, p. 12). They held on to their traditional beliefs and religious practices, but did so in secret. As a result, they were able to retain their autonomy.
People who have experienced difficult episodes in their lives are able to cope in an environment that encourages sharing and healing. People who have been victims of violence or child abuse need to be resocialised to understand that the pain they suffer is not of their own making.
Levers (2012) argues that effective counselling programs help such victims to cope with their dark past and move on to a more promising future (p. 87). For instance, teenagers who are victims of parental abuse are easily lured to join criminal gangs. They mistake the bond they have with their fellow gang members for love.
However, after some time, some of the youth in the gang may choose an alternative lifestyle that is free from crime. The young people stop associating with gangs and choose to go back to school to get a good education. For that reason, they retain their autonomy by being brave enough to make positive choices.
Drug and substance addicts can cope with resocialisation in different ways. Their dependence on the substances drives them to seek an alternative lifestyle away from their destructive habits. For instance, they begin to get resocialised by undergoing rehabilitative programs, which help them to overcome their addictions (Levers, 2012, p. 93). They are able to regain their autonomy by reducing their dependence on the substances they consume.
Former drug addicts can have difficulties in coping; for instance, they can be drawn back to the dangerous lifestyle they have been used to as a result of their failure to handle the rehabilitation. They retain their autonomy by continuing to take drugs. This is contrary to what they have been taught in rehabilitation centres.
In conclusion, resocialisation occurs in many forms in the society. It can have positive or negative consequences for people who experience it.
References
Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2006). Sociology: Understanding a diverse society with infotrac. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Bartrop, P.R., & Jacobs, S.L. (2010). Fifty key thinkers on the holocaust and genocide. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Brym, R. J. & Lie, J. (2009). Sociology: Your compass for a new world. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Dahl, R. E. (2004). Adolescent brain development: Vulnerabilities and opportunities. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1021, 1-22.
Ferrante, J. (2010). Sociology: A global perspective, enhanced. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Goffman, E. (1968). Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Lazarus, L. (2004). Contrasting prisoners rights: A comparative examination of Germany and England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Levers, L. L. (2012). Trauma counselling: Theories and interventions. New York, NY: Springer.
Mavundla, T. R. (2009). Rationalization of indigenous male circumcision as a sacred religious custom: Health beliefs of Xhosa men in South Africa. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 20(4), 395-404.
Newman, D. M., & Grauerholz, E. (2002). Sociology of families. New York, NY: Pine Forge Press.
Pante, S. (2006). Cliffs test prep praxis II: Social studies content knowledge test (0081). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley
Zimmerman, L. J. (2003). American Indians: The first nations: Native North American life, myth and art. London: Duncan Baird.
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