Critical Reflection #2: The Panopticon

Perception of what is power will be viewed differently through one’s eyes.  Not everyone in today’s society will always agree on the same things.  Foucault uses the Panopticon as a way to explain power, surveillance and discipline in today’s society in his book “Discipline and Punish”.
Foucault uses the Panopticon as a way to explain power, surveillance and discipline in modern society.  The model of the Panopticon is used to monitor and moderate people.
For example, in today’s society the model of the Panopticon is now used in schools for surveillance.  Every school – especially elementary, secondary school are monitor under surveillance because if you walk into a an elementary school you will notice that the classroom has window so when the principle walks around he/she will be able to see what is going on inside the classroom. “…an educational institution: the disposal of its space, the meticulous regulations which govern its internal life, the different activities that are organized there…all these things constitute a block of capacity-communication-power.” (Foucault 1982, 218)  

             By being a student at Carleton University who lives on residence for the past three years I believe that all the features that were mentioned by Foucault are in place about surveillance and power. These features are there so that it allows residence fellows and housing department employees to track and control the behaviour of students within the residence area. With this being monitored I feel that every move I make is being watched by an employee of the Housing Department.

            “The Panopticon functions as a kind of laboratory of power.” (Foucault 1977, 204)  This means power is there to mobilize our society and modern prisons are part of a power network of institutions that look to discipline and control society.  Foucault discusses power and discipline with institutions and how it resembles prisons.  If you take a look at factories it does resemble a prison like because if you look at it, you will see that the workers are always watched by their supervisors or their boss.  With the workers knowing that their superior one is watching over them they are more likely to work and have no time to slack because if they do, there will be consequences.  

            Foucault also believes that society utilizes surveillance and power-knowledge to control society.  One would agree with Foucault because if you think about it, police and government use the internet as a type of surveillance and power because the internet and software we use on our computer can always be tracked.  For example, msn can be tracked and monitor if it was in need. MSN Messenger, emails and Facebook are useful for our police department because if there is a pedophile for example they would use it to track down what is being said on the program. Also, our personal emails can be tracked and read by someone else other than us. It’s easy for someone to track you because every computer is given and IP address and if you are suspected of doing something illegal or wrong the IP address will provide the legal force all personal information and it can be discovered.  With this surveillance that exists in our society it moderate our behaviours.

            Power, and surveillance all works together because if you have power you’ll be able to watch and monitor everyone and with that it comes discipline because individuals will know the consequences if they are in the wrong.