This lecture focused on understanding the Panopticon and how Panopticism works in today's society. To gain a clear understanding of Panopticism we started at the beginning with a brief explanation of The Great Confinement which occurred in the 17th century. Confinement was a place for the unemployed, prisoners, the poor and the insane where they were made to work and would be punished if they didn't. This led to the birth of the asylum and institutions that were specific to certain deviance.
It was French philosopher Micheal Foucault (1926-1984) who explored the concept of a disciplinary society and legitimsed the practices of hospitals and doctors to show how they could affect a person's mind and ultimately cause them to self regulate. In 1971, philosopher Jeremy Bentham created a design for a building known as the Panopticon, although none were built in his time the idea was that each individual would sit in their own cubicle that was situated on the outer wall. They wouldn't be able to see or communicate with any other individuals, but would only be able to see the 'face of the institution' that was in the centre of building. This design took what the asylum was doing and reversed it, taking deviance and putting it on display to permanently scrutinize it by allowing the individual's behaviour to be constantly monitored by the observation tower in the centre of the building. This was meant to ultimately lead to the individuals changing their behaviour to what they believed the authority figure wanted of them, as they were on display so any deviance would be spotted and punished.This created the 'docile body', which Foucault used to describe the automatic functioning of power, the individual would begin to internalise his behaviour and discipline himself. This also seemed to be the case when the individual's weren't sure whether the observation tower was occupied or not, the fear of possibly being caught was enough to make the individual alter their own behaviour.
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| Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon |
Foucault believed that this was a metaphor for society and reflected that we are always being watched by those with power and authority, stating that the Panopticon is a model for how modern society organises its knowledge, its power and its training of bodies, resulting in a new form of power known as Panopticism. Although Foucault was referring to a society that existed around 70 years ago, Panopticism still plays a large role in today's society. I found it really interesting to learn that Panopticism is all around us, in the classroom, the office, the high street, the open plan bar, but we don't really take notice and don't necessarily know it is occurring. However, it is everywhere. Open plan offices are becoming more common, as they strip away the privacy of cubicles and have all the workers on display for the boss to observe from his/ her office that is placed so that they can survey the whole room at all times. This makes workers more productive. It is also a similar environment in the classroom, with the students at desk that are all in front of the teacher who can observe each child individually and as a group.
Not only are we monitored at work, but we are also monitored in public all the time with the use of CCTV, which reinforces Foucault's point that we don't need to be able to see an authoritative figure to be afraid of punishment, it is simply enough to make us believe that we are being monitored to make us self monitoring, self correcting, obedient, 'docile' bodies.
With everything that I learned from this lecture, I have realised that Panopticism occurs in my practice and studies as a student. The layout of the lecture hall reflects that of a classroom with the lecturer standing at the front, whilst we sit and listen contently even if we find the subject boring and irrelevant, we listen because we are conforming to a sense of power that we convince ourselves exists.
