Page 168 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

160 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

This tends to happen in many areas of life; what is considered effica-
cious or a good idea in one area of practice tends to find application in
other areas previously unconnected with the original field. But this can
also lead to unchecked expansion of an idea or policy, which then be-
comes a runaway norm that is subject to implementation unthinkingly or
unreflectively. Such norms have the potential to become unchallenged
dogma, visiting new forms of oppression upon those identified as in “need”
of preventive measures, presumably for their own good.
To guard against this, critical and ongoing analysis needs to be con-
ducted in many areas of life, especially those that are widely accepted as
providing some universal benefit to humanity. Ferreting out the tacit or
hidden assumptions of any plan of action is admittedly difficult work, and
those who do such work open themselves up to easy criticism of reading
too much into whatever issue on which they are taking a critical stance.
Alvin Gouldner (1980) was the sociologist who took this project of exam-
ining the silent subtext or infrastructure of any theory, ideology, or public
project further than anybody, and this chapter will be following some of
his recommendations for examining the tacit assumptions in the particular
case of social marketing.
Gouldner (1976) argued that both social theory and ideology are public
projects to the extent that both seek to mobilize adherents to some cause
articulated by theory or ideology. In other words, ideology as a public
project carves out some part of the world that is under siege, in disarray,
or dysfunctional and propounds steps or approaches to rescue or restore
those areas. Both public health and social marketing do this; they identify
areas of human existence that are marked by untoward or unwanted out-
comes—usually with regard to adverse health issues in individuals or
groups—and fashion interventions to promote health improvements. As
Gouldner (1976) describes it:

Ideology is thus a call to action—a “command” grounded in a social the-
ory—in a world-referencing discourse that presumably justifies this call.
Granted that it does not pursue “knowledge for its own sake”; nonetheless,
ideology offers reports or imputes knowledge of the social world; its claims
and its calls-to-action are grounded in that imputed knowledge. (p. 30)

These reports and calls for action have a lot on the line, because in order
to carry out the conceptualized interventions, there is a need to gain access
to the segments of the human population that are said to be at risk. This
means that public health must always utilize mass surveillance of targeted
populations to gather data about the nature of those risks and to ascertain