Abstract: The aim of this compendium is to provide a toolbox that is not predefined, but one that is flexible and adaptable to the needs of planning different actions (understanding and formulating hypotheses on the causes of the phenomenon, a review of reference theories for the definition of a research design, programming and designing a plan of action in social policies, the development of further and subsequent reflections and revisions of theories in the field of 'social control', structured knowledge in the field). On the basis of an order chosen for expository convenience, the different ways in which some sociologists (or at least scholars of social systems), among the precursors, the classics and the contemporaries, have contributed to the understanding of the structure of 'social control' are analysed (but with different depths depending on the relevance of the contribution), so that different and varied strategies (policies, programmes and projects) of achieving conformity, uniformity and obedience to rules, laws and customs can be hypothesised in order to ensure an equitable, stable, sustainable, safe, just and inclusive coexistence, with the help of (local) design activities in social work.