The Handout
Panopticism: Institutions & Institutional Power Richard Miles 2012
The lecture introduces the work of Michel Foucault and particularly his theoretical application of panopticism, techniques of the body and „disciplinary society‟. Funnily enough ‘institution’ is not defined in the lecture, but take it that institutions can exist on two levels, first, organised bodies which have some kind of collective material physical entity, [e.g., hospitals, government, the police] and secondly, organised practices which are more solidly defined around customs and practices, such as the institution of ‘marriage’, the ‘family’ and so on.
„Literature, art and their respective producers do not exist independently of a complex institutional framework which authorises, enables, empowers and legitimises them. This framework must be incorporated into any analysis that pretends to provide a thorough understanding of cultural goods and practices.’
Randal Johnson in Walker & Chaplin (1999)
Learning Aims:- • UNDERSTAND THE DESIGN MODEL OF THE PANOPTICON • UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF ‘DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY’. • UNDERSTAND THE FUNCTION OF DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY AS A MEANS OF
RENDERING INDIVIDUALS PRODUCTIVE AND USEFUL • UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF TECHNIQUES OF THE BODY AND
‘DOCILE’ BODIES
PANOPTICISM
‘Hence 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.’ (Foucault, 1975)
• What Foucault is describing is a transformation in Western societies from a form of power imposed by a ruler / sovereign to A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED PANOPTICISM
• The emergence of forms of knowledge – biology, psychiatry, medicine, etc., legitimise the practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists.
• Foucault aims to show how these forms of knowledge and rationalising institutions like the prison, the asylum, the hospital, the school, now work on human beings in such a way that they alter our consciousness and that they internalise our responsibility.
• The panopticon is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and its ‘training’ of bodies
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND THE BODY.
• Disciplinary Society produces what Foucault calls „docile bodies‟.
• ‘power relations have an immediate hold upon it [the body]; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs’ (Foucault 1975)
Disciplinary Techniques
“That the techniques of discipline and „gentle punishment‟ have crossed the threshold from work to play shows how pervasive they have become within modern western societies” (Danaher, Schirato & Webb 2000)
Foucault’s definition of power is not a top – down model, as in Marxist theory, but is more subtle. Thus, power is not a thing or a 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.
For Foucault, ‘Where there is power there is resistance’.
Bibliography
Please see yr 2 bib, But also, Foucault, M. (1975) ‘Panopticism’ from Hall, S. & Evans (1998) Visual Culture a Reader Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison London, Penguin See also web sites on Foucault of which there are plenty
The lecture introduces the work of Michel Foucault and particularly his theoretical application of panopticism, techniques of the body and „disciplinary society‟. Funnily enough ‘institution’ is not defined in the lecture, but take it that institutions can exist on two levels, first, organised bodies which have some kind of collective material physical entity, [e.g., hospitals, government, the police] and secondly, organised practices which are more solidly defined around customs and practices, such as the institution of ‘marriage’, the ‘family’ and so on.
„Literature, art and their respective producers do not exist independently of a complex institutional framework which authorises, enables, empowers and legitimises them. This framework must be incorporated into any analysis that pretends to provide a thorough understanding of cultural goods and practices.’
Randal Johnson in Walker & Chaplin (1999)
Learning Aims:- • UNDERSTAND THE DESIGN MODEL OF THE PANOPTICON • UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF ‘DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY’. • UNDERSTAND THE FUNCTION OF DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY AS A MEANS OF
RENDERING INDIVIDUALS PRODUCTIVE AND USEFUL • UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF TECHNIQUES OF THE BODY AND
‘DOCILE’ BODIES
PANOPTICISM
‘Hence 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.’ (Foucault, 1975)
• What Foucault is describing is a transformation in Western societies from a form of power imposed by a ruler / sovereign to A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED PANOPTICISM
• The emergence of forms of knowledge – biology, psychiatry, medicine, etc., legitimise the practices of hospitals, doctors, psychiatrists.
• Foucault aims to show how these forms of knowledge and rationalising institutions like the prison, the asylum, the hospital, the school, now work on human beings in such a way that they alter our consciousness and that they internalise our responsibility.
• The panopticon is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and its ‘training’ of bodies
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POWER, KNOWLEDGE AND THE BODY.
• Disciplinary Society produces what Foucault calls „docile bodies‟.
• ‘power relations have an immediate hold upon it [the body]; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs’ (Foucault 1975)
Disciplinary Techniques
“That the techniques of discipline and „gentle punishment‟ have crossed the threshold from work to play shows how pervasive they have become within modern western societies” (Danaher, Schirato & Webb 2000)
Foucault’s definition of power is not a top – down model, as in Marxist theory, but is more subtle. Thus, power is not a thing or a 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.
For Foucault, ‘Where there is power there is resistance’.
Bibliography
Please see yr 2 bib, But also, Foucault, M. (1975) ‘Panopticism’ from Hall, S. & Evans (1998) Visual Culture a Reader Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison London, Penguin See also web sites on Foucault of which there are plenty
- UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE PANOPTICON
- UNDERSTAND MICHEL FOUCAULT’S CONCEPT OF
- ‘DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY’
- CONSIDER THE IDEA THAT DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY IS A WAY OF MAKING INDIVIDUALS ‘PRODUCTIVE’ AND ‘USEFUL’
- UNDERSTAND FOUCAULT’S IDEA OF TECHNIQUES OF THE BODY AND ‘DOCILE’ BODIES
- THE GREAT CONFINEMENT (late 1600s)
- ‘Houses of correction’ to curb unemployment and idleness
This has a strange effect on the inmates of constantly being watched. Opposite to being locked in a dungeon for example. On display constantly.
the Panopticon internalises in the individual the conscious state that he is always being watched. What happens ultimately is you never behave in an unacceptable manor being you are going to be spotted. A form of mental torture. After a while you don't even need to people to man the tower because the idea is already planted in the inmates mind. They cant see into the Panopticon so they don't actually know if they are being watched.
PANOPTICISM
‘Hence 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.’ (Foucault, 1975)
•Allows supervisor to experiment on subjects
•Aims to make them productive
•Reforms prisoners
•Helps treat patients
•Helps instruct schoolchildren
•Helps confine, but also study the insane
•Helps supervise workers
•Helps put beggars and idlers to work.
What Foucault is describing is a transformation in Western societies from a form of power imposed by a ‘ruler’ or ‘sovereign’ to……….. A NEW MODE OF POWER CALLED “PANOPTICISM”
The ‘panopticon’ is a model of how modern society organises its knowledge, its power, its surveillance of bodies and its ‘training’ of bodies.
Examples of modern day Panopticons:
In an office your always being watched. This open planned layout allows the boss to constantly watch you and for the purpose of making you more productive and to make you as an individual conform.
Even in modern day bars you feel you have to conform and behave because you can be seen by bouncers and bar staff.
You are always being watched!
Key things to go away with:
•Panopticism as a form of discipline
•Techniques of the body
•Docile Bodies
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