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Foucault 2008 – Panopticism

Excerpt, OCR

This is a reprint of an excerpt from Discipline and Punish (French original 1975, English translation 1977) in the journal Race/Ethnicity (2008) (p. 1). The excerpt stops partway through the original chapter. The text file has OCR errors, with letters missing at the line ends on several pages.

In brief

Foucault contrasts two models of power: the exclusion of the leper and the disciplinary partitioning of the plague-stricken town (pp. 1–4) [U]. Bentham's Panopticon is presented as the architectural figure that combines them (p. 5) [U]. Its major effect is to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility, so that power functions automatically (p. 6) [U]. The Panopticon is a generalizable model, ‘a figure of political technology’, that can be applied in prisons, hospitals, schools and workshops, and that spreads through the whole social body (pp. 9–12) [U].

Research question and main claim

  • The excerpt describes how the disciplinary mechanism works and how it became generalised from enclosed institutions to society as a whole (pp. 9–12) [T – summary].
  • The plague-stricken town is a ‘compact model of the disciplinary mechanism’ (p. 3) [U].
  • The Panopticon is ‘the diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form’ (p. 9) [U].
  • Panopticism is ‘the general principle of a new 'political anatomy'’ whose object is the relations of discipline, not of sovereignty (p. 12) [U].

Theoretical perspective

  • The text is Foucault's own analysis of disciplinary power. It draws on Bentham's writings on the Panopticon and on seventeenth-century plague regulations (pp. 1, 5–6, 9–11) [U].
  • Other theoretical traditions are not discussed in the excerpt: Not found in the text.

Empirical material and context

  • A plague regulation from the end of the seventeenth century, from the military archives at Vincennes (pp. 1, 12) [U].
  • Bentham's Panopticon (Works, 1843) and Le Vaux's menagerie at Versailles (pp. 6–7, 12) [U].
  • Institutions from the nineteenth century: the psychiatric asylum, the penitentiary, the reformatory and, to some extent, the hospital (p. 4) [U].

Method

  • Historical analysis of texts and architectural plans, read as expressions of a form of power [T – characterisation; the method is not explained in the excerpt].

Key concepts

Concept How the source defines or uses it Page U/T
discipline / disciplinary mechanism Enclosed, segmented space where every movement is supervised and recorded, and power is exercised by continuous hierarchy 3 U
exclusion vs. discipline The leper is marked and excluded; the plague victim is analysed and distributed 3–4 U
Panopticon Bentham's annular building with a central tower, where inmates are constantly visible 5 U
visible and unverifiable Power should be visible (the tower) but the inmate must never know whether he is watched 6 U
permanent registration Surveillance based on continuous written reports from the bottom up 2 U
normal / abnormal The constant division to which every individual is subjected 5 U
political technology The Panopticon as a model detached from any specific use 9 U

How privacy and private data are understood

Privacy and data are not discussed as such [T]. But the excerpt describes surveillance based on ‘permanent registration’ of each inhabitant's name, age and sex, and the centralised recording of illnesses and deaths (p. 2) [U]. The inmate of the Panopticon is ‘the object of information, never a subject in communication’ (p. 5) [U].

Arguments and findings

  • During the plague, the relation of each individual to his disease and death passes through the representatives of power and their registrations (p. 2) [U].
  • From the nineteenth century, the techniques of individualising discipline were applied to the excluded (beggars, madmen, vagabonds) (p. 4) [U].
  • In the Panopticon, the crowd is replaced by a collection of separated individualities that can be numbered and supervised (p. 6) [U].
  • The Panopticon automates and disindividualises power: it does not matter who exercises it, or why (pp. 6–7) [U].
  • The person subjected to visibility, who knows it, takes on the constraints of power and becomes the principle of his own subjection (p. 7) [U].
  • The Panopticon is also a laboratory for experiments on people (p. 8) [U].
  • It can be democratically controlled because anyone can come and observe the observers (pp. 10–11) [U].
  • The panoptic schema was destined to spread through the social body as a generalised function (p. 11) [U].

Limitations the source itself mentions

Not found in the text.

What the source does not cover

  • Digital technology or modern data collection; the excerpt is about the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries [T].
  • The rest of Discipline and Punish [T].

Possible relevance for the thesis

  • Classic reference for surveillance theory, which other sources in the list (Bauman et al., Gros et al.) may discuss [T].
  • The plague regulation's ‘permanent registration’ (p. 2) is an early example of state registration of individuals, which may be a historical backdrop for the state's use of personal data [T].
  • The idea that visibility leads to self-discipline (p. 7) may be relevant if Norwegian documents discuss chilling effects or self-censorship [T].
  • Whether the Panopticon fits digital data practices must be argued; the text itself does not address this [T].

Connections to other sources

Key quotes

“Visibility is a trap.” (p. 5)

“He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject in communication.” (p. 5)

“He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power” (p. 7)

“The Panopticon, on the other hand, must be understood as a generalizable model of functioning; a way of defining power relations in terms of the everyday life of men.” (p. 9)

Open questions for Rebekka

  • Do you use Foucault mainly as surveillance theory, or as background for Asdal's governmentality perspective?
  • Is the excerpt enough, or do you also need the full chapter in Discipline and Punish?
  • Is the state in your documents more like the plague town (registration and control) or the Panopticon (visibility and self-discipline), or neither?
  • How do you want to handle the gap between the Panopticon and digital data practices?