The concept of Goffman

1
The concept of Goffmans total institution and
characteristics of homes for older people

• Jana Mali, PhD
• Univrsity of Ljubljana, Faculty of Social Work
• Preddvor, 23rd April

2
Conceptualising the Institution

• Today's society is said to be an organisational
  society.
• An important characteristic of organisations are
  clearly defined goals.
• Therefore the members of an organisation act in
  special ways

3
Personal background of my thoughts

• Social worker in home for older people for 7
  years
• M.A. thesis The Concept of the Total Institution
  and Homes for the Older People (Mali 2003)
• I attempt to show the problematic fields of life
  of older people in such institutions and open
  ways for improving living conditions in homes for
  older people in Slovenia.

4
The aim of this lecture

• to illustrate and present institutional care in
  Slovenian homes for older people within the
  concepts of total institution.

5
Goffman's (1961) concept of the total institution

• a place for work and life
• where a large number of individuals with a
  similar status
• live together for an extended period of time,
• isolated from wider society and
• forced to live a common, formal and guided life

6
The Concept of the Total Institution in Relation
to Institutional Care for the Elderly

• total total institution this total
  capturing
• physically distanced from the rest of the world
• In the past convents or castles evoked in people
  anxiety and a fear of the last stop in life.

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The Concept of the Total Institution in Relation
to Institutional Care for the Elderly

• The concept of total institution is
  ideal-typical, abstract
• No concrete total institution has all the
  characteristics
• None of the characteristics of total institutions
  is only typical of them

8
The definition of total institution

• In the total institution all aspects of life are
  conducted in the same place under the same single
  authority,
• each phase of the members daily activity is
  carried on in the immediate company of a large
  batch of others,
• all of whom are treated alike and required to do
  the same thing together,

9
The definition of total institution

• all phases of the days activities are tightly
  scheduled,
• the whole sequence of activities being imposed
  from above by a system of explicit formal rulings
  and a body of officials,
• the various enforced activities are brought
  together into a single rational plan purportedly
  designed to fulfil the official aims of the
  institution (Goffman 1961).

10
Three characteristics of total institutions

• 1. isolation from the outside world
• 2. the rationalisation of everyday life
• 3. organisational bureaucratisation

11
Isolation from the outside world

• physically isolation from the outside world
• isolation from social contacts
• moral isolation
• The question of outside
• and the inside worlds

12
Rationalisation of everyday life

• Is the central element of total institutions
• The diference between everyday life of people and
  life of people in an institution
• The inmates life is distributed among daily
  routines
• and has to fit with the prescribed goals of
  the institution

13
Organisational bureaucratisation

• Two classes of people in t.i. the staff and the
  inmates
• Relations are strictly regulated.
• One class is in power and the other is the object
  of this power.
• The staff has the power to treat the inmates as
  objects
• Reduce of the social and personal identity of the
  inmates

14
Organisational bureaucratisation

• the culture of the staff fand the culture of the
  inmates,
• institutional ceremonies (institutional local
  news, parties and celebrations)
• preparations for official visits where they meet
  and co-operate
• the involvement cycle or emotion labour
• the process of mortification

15
The research of t.i. characteristics in Slovenian
homes for older people

• Method observations, interviews, surveys and
  analyses of valid laws which regulate the
  functioning of homes for older poeple in Slovenia
  
• The measuring instrumen characteristics of total
  (dimensions of a total institution) and variables
  (identify the presence of individual elements of
  the total institution)

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The research of t.i. characteristics in Slovenian
homes for older people

• A case study (interviews with 35 residents, a
• questionnaire for 26 relatives and a
  combination of an interview and the questionnaire
  for 31 employees)
• 2. A questionnaire for social workers
  employed in 61 Slovenian homes for older people
  (for each dimension of total institution I
  prepared a list of statements with its own
  position on a five - degree scale)

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Results

1. The users life is separated from life outside
   the institution, which is what makes homes for
   older people a special world, separated from the
   outside world.
2. The initial phase of the individual's adjustment
   to life in the institution includes the process
   of mortification.

18
Results

• 3. Admission procedures are a purpose in
  themselves.
• 4. Irruption into the user's privacy is a common
  phenomenon
• 5. Strict control of authorities over the
  individuals life is present, enabling a common
  life in a very large group of residents

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Results

• 6. Comprehensive care for all aspects of an
  individual's life is not present in terms of the
  same levels of significance and scope as seen in
  literature.
• 7. The disciplinary system in the homes includes
  house rules and punishments.

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Results

• 8. Free time in homes is not lost time.
• 9. Secondary adjustments consisting of a
  situation withdrawal, a line of incompatibility,
  colonisation and conversion are not present in
  the homes.
• Humble behaviour of the residents and uncritical
  approach

21
Results

• 10. The involvement cycle, emotion labour is
  present.
• 11. The residents of homes participate in
  decision-making processes

22
Conclusion

• not all their characteristics are present
• those characteristics which are present do not
  exist in an ideal (extreme) form

• suggestions for social workers in homes for the
  older people greater flexibility of the rules
  governing life in the institution, more attention
  to users individual experiences of life, to be
  aware of the problem of the depersonalisation of
  users