Panopticism-Seminar

- When being watched you feel as if you have to conform to what is normal in society.

- It can be used as a control method. Mental over physical control. 

- All about making you a more productive member of society-discipline to make you more productive-foucault.- correct spelling 

- The panopticon-Shape of a building- Jeremy Bentham - 1791. A building that would make people more productive. used as schools, prisons etc.- With in the panopticon as an "inmate" you are secluded or isolated, and constantly made aware that you could be being watched at all times - everyone is constantly on display. Must always be remedied that they could be watched, Power should be visible. 

- The people in the cells are constantly illuminated, this allows them to always be visible. 

- Panoptic systems can be used to classify,judge etc as well as to train. 

- For Faucult power is a relationship - A only has power over B if b succumbs to that power. using feminism as an example, historically women have allowed men to take advantage of there power. 

- Students allow the teacher to have power over them.. its not the teacher that has power over us, its the institution around us that makes the relationship between student and teacher work. 

- Examples in society today of panoticism - open plan office - everyone is always seen and as a result people are more concerned about the way they are perceived - Speed cameras are another example, they warn you they are coming up on the road, and a lot of the time they don't have cameras in. 

- This is an example of self regulation - which faucault suggested. you slow down for the speed camera- which is self regulation. 

- Everyone ones actions are regulated by the institution. Or self regulated by the institution. Social institution that you are acting up to.

- Facebook is a good example of panopticism - constant performance of identity - You show who you want to be. 

- The ultimate goal of panopticism is to make you strong a better person. A docile body is the ultimate goal... not docile as in tired.. lazy but docile in the sense of usefulness an applicable human being.



Panopticism Task 

Choose an example of one aspect of contemporary culture that is in my opinion panoptic. Write an explanation for this in 200-300 words employing key Foucaulian language such as docile body or self-regulation include no less than 5 quote.

Jeremy Bentham created the theory of Panopticism in 1791.  Bentham was an architect and based his theory around social control. He created the theory for a building called the Panopticion which worked around a central observation point that was surrounded by individual back lit cells for one person. The theory behind the general layout of the Panopticon is so the individual “is seen, but does not see” “It is this invisibility that is a guarantee or order”. If the inmates are convict, there is no danger of a plot against the hierarchy if they are school children there is no copying. “the Major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and Permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power”

It was this ideology that was at the forefront of the philosophical theory, which uses Bentham’s panopticon created by Michel Foucault. A theory that is ever present in the modern world.

Perhaps a Prime example of this in society is that of CCTV.  The UK is referred to as a big brother state with 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain alone.  CCTV relates to Panopticism perfectly, with ideology of constantly being watched, whether you are or not psychologically this leaves the population with a feeling of unease which results in “self regulation” it is this self regulation that is derived from constantly being watched that results in individuals being referred to by Foucault as “docile bodies” what this means is that we cannot “ choose to enter modern society we are indeed completely controlled by society and the modern technologies (cctv) it posses.

Although Bentham and later Foucault’s theory was created before “modern Society” it has only become more appropriate as society has developed. CCTV as an example demonstrates this perfectly.