Aadil Gulam Dar
Social constraints means restrictions or compulsions imposed by society, these constraints are backed by organised social authoirty. They restrict our freedom in ways that are difficult to fight against.
In psychology, social constraints can be defined as “any social condition that causes a trauma survivor to feel unsupported, misunderstood, or otherwise alienated from their social network when they are seeking social support or attempting to express trauma-related thoughts, feelings, or concerns.” Social constraints are most commonly defined as negative social interactions which make it difficult for an individual to speak about their traumatic experiences. The term is associated with the social-cognitive processing model, which is a psychological model describing ways in which individuals cope and come to terms with trauma they have experienced. Social constraints have been studied in populations of bereaved mothers, individuals diagnosed with cancer, and suicide-bereaved individuals. There is evidence of social constraints having negative effects on mental health. They have been linked to increased depressive symptoms as well as post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms in individuals who have experienced traumatic events. There seems to be a positive association between social constraints and negative cognitions related to traumatic events. Social constraints have also been linked to difficulties in coping with illness in people who have been diagnosed with terminal illness such as cancer.
Social constraints are the external controls on individual freedom maintained by the society. The government, as a part of the society, controls individual freedom through laws that embodies the power of the government and are legitimatised. Constraints on freedom are also a result of social inequality. Limitations or restrictions on an individual’s or group’s opportunities for action that are linked to social variables, including social norms, social roles, and socioeconomic status.
I’m a big fan of freedom. But I think the most common analyses of ‘freedom’ are rather poor, in that they point to something much less important than what I have in mind. The most common conception is probably ‘negative freedom’ (or “freedom from”), the laissez faire approach, that sees freedom simply as the absense of externally imposed constraints. On this view, you would be perfectly free if everyone else would just leave you alone.
This impoverished view fails to recognise that the whole point of being free from some constraint is to enable us to achieve some goal. What matters is that options be open to us; if removing constraints will enable more options, then we can indeed be made more free by their removal. But it is the ‘enabling’ that matters, not the ‘removing’. If I am stuck in the desert with no water in sight, then I am not free to drink, even if no-one else is around to obstruct me. Natural conditions can obstruct the fulfillment of my desires just as badly as humanly-imposed constraints.
Joel Feinburg (‘The Concept of Freedom’, chp 1 of Social Philosophy) identifies two distinctions between types of constraints – positive vs. negative, and internal vs. external. Positive constraints are impositions of the usual sort. Negative constraints could be characterized as a lack of something needed. Our goals might be thwarted due to a lack of money, ability, or knowledge, for instance. The other dimension assesses the source of the constraint, as either within ourselves (e.g. mental illness) or out in the external world.
Combining these two dimensions, we find a total of four classes of constraint. The problem with the traditional conception of ‘negative liberty’ is that it concerns itself only with external positive constraints (such as being bound up in chains), ignoring the other three-quarters of the problem. What we need is a more expansive understanding of freedom, which recognizes all of these constraints. Only then can “freedom from” constraint guarantee us “freedom to” realize our goals. (As Feinburg notes, these are not two distinct concepts, but simply two elliptical forms of a single underlying concept: ‘Freedom, from X, to do Y’.) Social constraints means restrictions or compulsions imposed by society, these constraints are backed by organised social authoirty. They restrict our freedom in ways that are difficult to fight against.
The role of government in society is multifaceted. Governments have the responsibility to facilitate and regulate business conduct, contribute to societal issues, and intervene to affect corporate social performance . They play a crucial role in economic competitiveness, survival of households, and redistribution of resources . Governments also act as strategic agents for societal development, coordinating relations between the state, market, and civil society . Additionally, governments provide the institutional framework for all human activity, constituting effective polities, making political choices, and delivering services . They create value through the provision of place, complex functional systems, and goods and services . It is argued that more value is created in the design of institutions, policies, and programs than in their management . Overall, governments have a significant role in shaping and governing society, ensuring the coexistence of different interests and rationalities in a development project.
Aadil Gulam Dar is a Teacher at APS Aligarh.