Resocialization: 

Terminology coined by Erving Goffiman

“The learning process by which old behaviors are replaced by new ones.”
This refers to the process whereby an individual or a group, are brought in contact with a new
culture, which requires them to leave behind their old identity and take up a new one. During this
process, they are required to learn the norms, values, and ways of life into the new environment
or the setting which they are brought in contact with. This requires, as the first step, for the
individual to give up or forget their previous values and at times even their identity and adopt the
one specific to their environment. This process is often deliberate and intense.
Erving Goffman had defined the term resocialization as a process of tearing down and building
up individuals’ role and socially constructed sense of self.

 Types of resocialization

Voluntary and involuntary

Voluntary resocialization occurs when someone enter a new status of his own free will (e.g
medical or psychological treatment or religious conversion).
Involuntary resocialization occurs against a person’s wishes and generally takes place within a
total institution. A place where people are isolated from the rest of society for a set period of
time and come under the control of the officials who run the institution (e.g military boot camps,
prisons, mental hospital and residential schools)
Resocialization may be mild and take place in simpler ways, such as when a United states may
move to a country like Japan and interact with their culture and find that they are disciplined and
their rules of eating, working and doing other such things are more stringent than those of United
states. This will require the immigrant to then unlearn the behavior and habits of the previous
country, in this case, United states and adopt that of Japan. (voluntary resocialization)
Although resocialization is not always a mild process, it is more common to total institutions and
religious cults, the former are institutions which are cut off from the rest of the society and
function on the strict laws and regulations of their own. These play the role of isolating people
from the larger society and thus require those participating in them to often give up everything
that they have been taught when they were a part of the larger society. Some examples of total
institutions are prisons, military, old age homes, even at times mental institutions as studied by
Erving Goffman. This type of resocialization is called Involuntary.
These total institutions start by taking away the previous identities of people, this is often done
by taking away their personal possessions, e.g. those who are becoming a part of the old age
homes are required to give up their normal interaction with their families and often their very
own houses and shift into rooms, that may or may not be shared with others in the home. They
have to adjust to now being taken care of by those other than their own family members.

One of the harshest forms of resocialization is seen in the case of the military training, during
this those who wish to be a part of the military are expected to often give up their lifestyle of
luxury and adapt to the lifestyle of discipline and uniformity. Here often they are required to cut
their hair short and wear uniforms and go through rigorous physical training as a part of their
daily routine.

One thing that is to be kept in mind, however, is that people do not respond to their
resocialization in the same way, while one may adopt without much problem, the others,
however, may become hostile to the situation. Thus, one can see that the process of
resocialization can be intense.