Panopticism
Institutions and institutional power
Lecture aims
· Understand the principles of the panopticon
· Understand michel foucaults concept of
disciplinary society
· Consider the idea that disciplinary society is
a way of making individuals productive and useful
· Understand foucalts idea of techniques of the
body and docile bodies
The Panopticon
As a building it has
the same principles of control as society does.
Michel Foucault (1926 – 1984)
· Madness & civilisation
· Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison
Both books reference surveys
the rise of asylum and psychiatry, doctors.
Surveys the rise of
the prison.
Madness & Civilisation
1600’s
The insane were
thought of leading a relatively easy life, they were tolerated and accepted
into society. “village idiot” entertaining society.
“The houses of
correction” to curb unemployment and idleness. Anyone who didn’t operate how
society didn’t want them to were thrown in. In these houses people were put to
work and made to work. Forced them to be productive with the threat of
violence.
The houses of
correction managed to corrupt people even more and made the situation worse,
this was the birth of the asylum. This gave birth to knowledge specialists
which were qualified to then categorise people who had something wrong with
them or not.
Inside the asylum
They were treated like
minors and if they did well the were treated well. They realised that there
were a better way to control citizens other then physical violence.
This new mental form
of social control represents is a shift from someone else being in control to
you being in control of internal responsibility.
Punishment
The point of the
pillory was not to stop them doing it but more to make a public humiliation to
society to stop them doing anything.
The Guillotine –
holding up the head afterwards was a sign of “I have control over you”
They didn’t want to
correct punishment but to make a point of it.
Disciplinary society and disciplinary power
In modern society its
more about controlling your thoughts and behaviours, making us useful in
society instead of just killing people.
The Panopticon
Its uses could be a
prison, asylum, school.
It was special to
faulcult, he described it as
Each prisoner in the
cell can see the tower and they know theyre being watched but they cant see the
other prisoners. But they don’t know if theyre always being watched as the
prisoners were lit but the tower wasn’t. This had a peculiar effect as knowing
your being always being watched but not sure if your really are.
It internalises in the
individual the conscious state that he is always being watched.
Eventually people
start controlling themselves mentally. Eventaully the tower didn’t even need
gaurds as the prisoners started to build up the idea their constantly being
watched.
Perfect mechanism for
control
“Hence the major
effect of the panopticon: to induce the inmate
ADD QAUTE.
Its also is a
laboratory it allows scrutiny, supervisor experiments on subjects and its main
aims were to make them more productive.
· Reforms
· Treat
· Instruct school children
· Helps confine but also study the insane
· Helps supervise workers
· Helps put beggers and idlers work
The panopticon is a
model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its
surveillance of bodies and training of bodies.
The open plan office
It allows the boss to
constantly see what his workers are doing, this stops people being idle as they
have the constant feeling of being watched, this makes people work harder.
Panopticism in modern society
CCTV, Google Maps.
Were constantly
reminded in various ways that our lives are being recorded, this starts to
build a fear in us of being caught out, which leeds to the idea that we leed
more socially productive lives as citizens.
The register is a
panoptic sign that everyday is been monitored, you can be measured against
other people depending on attendance.
The idea is not to
catch people out but to make them aware they are being watched in order to them
to control themselves.
Relationship between power, knowledge and the
body.
“Power relations have
an immediate hold upon it, they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force
it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs”
Disciplinary society
produces what Foucault calls: Docile Bodies
· Self monitoring
· Self correcting
· Obedient bodies
Foucault and Power
· His definition is not a top down model as with
Marxism
· Power is not a thing or capacity people have it
is a relation between different individuals and groups, and only exists when it
is being exercised.
· The exercise of power relies on there being the
capacity for power to be resisted
· Where there is power there is resistance.
