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Preferred term

total institutions  

Definition

  • In 1961, the sociologist Erving Goffman (1922–1982) published Asylums, a book of essays that examined total institutions in general and one type of institution, mental hospitals, in particular. Goffman used the term total institution to refer to “a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life” (Goffman 1961, p. [Source: Encyclopedia of Community: From the Village to the Virtual World; Total Institutions]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/total_institutions

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