Przemiany kontroli społecznej a kwestia umiejętności
Changes in Social Control and the Issue of Skills

Summary/Abstract: The paper attempts at answering the question of the influence that modern changes in social control may have on shaping the process of individual socialization. We focus mainly on the techniques of supervision, i.e. forms of control which is held with the use of advanced technologies. Its logic, instead of building some kind of normative order or instilling moral convictions, limits itself to the management of human behaviors. In consequence, best adapted individuals are those skillful in technologies, able to use them in a competent and effective way; the distinction between “normals” and deviants is driven not by acts but by skills necessary to avoid supervision. We try to promote more skeptical approach towards these changes. New forms of control are legitimized in a specific way; they are to bring liberation from traditional ties (seen today as too strong and oppressive) and to free from the necessity of holding control over others. Considering this assumption, such legitimization reproduces the meaning of freedom as an important social value. Skillful users may then try, in various ways, to by-pass supervision technologies and, in this way, protect their freedom.

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