Theory of Social Control of Society

A meta-concept examining how society as a whole engages in the process of controlling itself. It looks at the decentralized, self-reinforcing network where institutions (media, schools), groups (peers, families), and individuals all participate in enforcing norms, often without central coordination, creating a stable but often coercive equilibrium.

Theory of Social Control of Society Example: The viral "cancel culture" mob. No government directs it. Instead, society itself acts as a control mechanism: through social media, peers enforce norms by collectively shaming, shunning, and applying economic pressure (getting someone fired) for perceived transgressions. It’s a decentralized but powerful form of societal self-policing that reinforces current moral boundaries.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 7, 2026

Theory of Scientific Social Control

Analyzes how the authority of "Science" (as a cultural institution, not just the method) is invoked to legitimize and operationalize control. It involves using scientific language, research, and experts to justify social policies, pathologize dissent, and define what is "normal" or "optimal" human behavior, often obscuring ethical or political choices.

Theory of Scientific Social Control Example: Corporations using "productivity science" and "optimization studies" to justify constant employee monitoring software. They don't say "we don't trust you"; they say "data shows this maximizes efficiency." The authority of science legitimizes invasive control, framing it as a neutral, objective necessity rather than a power move to manage worker behavior.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 7, 2026

Theory of Technological Social Control

Examines how the very design and infrastructure of technology inherently regulate human action. It’s not just about using tech to surveil; it’s about how platforms, algorithms, and physical devices create environments that make some behaviors easier and others impossible, automating control into the system's architecture.

Theory of Technological Social Control Examines how the very design and infrastructure of technology inherently regulate human action. It’s not just about using tech to surveil; it’s about how platforms, algorithms, and physical devices create environments that make some behaviors easier and others impossible, automating control into the system's architecture.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 7, 2026

Social Marginalism

An academic theory that tries to explain society not by its core values, but by the perceived value of the last, most optional bit of social interaction (the marginal social unit). It asks: does adding one more rule, expectation, or person to a group increase cohesion or just become coercive? The theory suggests that social pressure, like a product, has diminishing returns. The first few norms that keep us from chaos are high-value, but the 100th nitpicky rule about how you must behave is often low-value and purely coercive, creating resentment instead of unity.

Social Marginalism Example: In a tight-knit neighborhood, the first few social expectations (e.g., bring in a neighbor's trash can, wave hello) have high marginal utility—they build trust. But when the neighborhood association starts mandating the exact shade of beige for your curtains and fining you for not attending every block party, that last social unit has low utility. It crosses from cohesion into coercion, making people want to move away. Social marginalism analyzes that breaking point.

by Abzugal Nammugal Enkigal February 7, 2026

Mechanical Social Sciences

A reductionist approach to studying society that models human behavior using principles derived from classical physics: equilibrium, linear causality, and predictable, law-like regularities. It treats individuals as interchangeable particles, societies as closed systems, and social change as a series of push-pull forces. This was the dominant ambition of 19th-century sociology (Comte's "social physics"), and it persists in certain economic models and policy frameworks that assume predictable responses to incentives.

Mechanical Social Sciences Example: Rational Choice Theory in economics is Mechanical Social Science. It assumes humans are utility-maximizing particles, markets are frictionless planes, and prices are forces that drive systems to equilibrium. This model is mathematically elegant and occasionally predictive—but it systematically fails when humans behave emotionally, culturally, or altruistically. It is physics envy applied to the messy, meaningful business of social life.

by Dumu The Void February 11, 2026

Complex Social Sciences

The application of complexity theory to social phenomena, treating societies as non-linear, emergent, and often unpredictable systems. It acknowledges that social outcomes—revolutions, economic crashes, fads—cannot be predicted from the properties of individuals alone. The whole is not just different from the sum of its parts; the whole determines the behavior of the parts in ways that defy simple causality. Complex Social Sciences embrace uncertainty, tipping points, and the limits of prediction.

Complex Social Sciences Example: Why did the Arab Spring erupt when and where it did? Complex Social Science doesn't look for a single cause (a spark, a dictator). It models the entire regional system: decades of simmering grievances, the sudden amplification of social media networks, the cascading effect of one regime's fall on neighboring populations. The revolution was not an event; it was an emergent property of an unstable system reaching a critical threshold.

by Dumu The Void February 11, 2026

Dynamic Social Sciences

An approach to studying society that emphasizes change, feedback loops, adaptation, and non-equilibrium states rather than static structures or stable equilibria. It treats societies as complex, evolving systems where phenomena like opinion polarization, social movements, economic bubbles, and cultural shifts emerge from the continuous interaction of countless agents. Dynamic Social Sciences use computational modeling, network analysis, and time-series data to capture society not as a photograph, but as a film.

Dynamic Social Sciences Example: A Dynamic Social Science study of a protest movement doesn't just survey participants about their demographics. It scrapes Twitter data day-by-day to map how hashtags spread, how network structures shift from decentralized to hub-and-spoke, and how sentiment oscillates in response to police actions. It sees the movement not as an event, but as a wave—formed by millions of interacting particles, cresting, breaking, and dissolving.

by Dumu The Void February 11, 2026