Thursday 10 March 2011

seminar notes 5.11.10

Panopticism – idea of constantly being observed (self regulation)

Foucauldian
Shift in society from physical to mental control
Discipline aims to make us useful for society
Humiliated and punished in front of people – people were frightened, scared to misbehave
Docile body – a person who will take instruction, behave, conform to society, easily controllable, controls self
Foucault calls it - disciplinary society
Institutional power
Power is a relationship
Write a few hundred (200) words on an institution which you feel is panoptic with reference to at least 5 quotes from the sheet (use key foucaudian language)
Specialist knowledge – power to define what is normal.

Panopticism in contemporary society
CCTV
Facebook/social networking
Lecture theatre
Schools
Prison
Colleges
Workplace
Bars
Exams
Art gallery
Swimming pool

CCTV
1) Consequently, it does not matter who exercises power. Any individual, taken almost at random can operate the machine.
2) The perversity of those who take pleasure in spying
3) It is not necessary to use force to constrain the convict to good behaviour.
4) He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.
5) He is seen, but does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.

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