What Is Foucault's Panoptic Paradigm?
Bentham’s panoptic paradigm is mostly overlooked in the field of surveillance since this idea is principally understood through the lenses of Michel Foucault’s “Panopticism”. In the 1970s, the latter wrote a book titled “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison”. Built on Bentham’s Prison Panopticon, he reconstructed the architecture of a Panopticon into a social theory that depicts an all-seeing party/organization that has the capacity to observe anyone, anytime (Foucault, 1977). He then extended this theory into parts of Western societies to scrutinize the models of governance as well as its relation to power. In his book, he showcases the power of the panoptic system in governments that seemed to have permeated every fiber of daily
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Throughout history, we observe a change in the way governance worked to maintain or even attain greater power over the nation (Foucault, 1977). He explained how the mode of administration had shifted from sovereign practices that mainly sought to control territory and its collective population into disciplining individuals. Firstly, the sovereign state empowers itself by the organization of its population and land to confer continuity – prosperity of the state is the ultimate goal (Foucault, 2007). The power lies in one ruler who decides the fate of the entire state while everyone else are subjects expected to do his/her bidding. In a disciplinary society, multiple institutions or Panopticons become key holders of power and these organizations must work together with the government to instill discipline in subjects. As a result, a phenomenon called “normation” occurs. Normation is the process of habituation that people follow and thereby normalize behaviors (Foucault, 1977). This is a very crucial process to creating a disciplined society. It grounds the behavior of all subjects and gives them a set of rules to act within or strive for. This embodies the benchmark and the goal simultaneously. In return, it creates “docile bodies” - people who behave as told expediently, while deviation from it makes one inferior to the rest (Dalibert,
Throughout history, we observe a change in the way governance worked to maintain or even attain greater power over the nation (Foucault, 1977). He explained how the mode of administration had shifted from sovereign practices that mainly sought to control territory and its collective population into disciplining individuals. Firstly, the sovereign state empowers itself by the organization of its population and land to confer continuity – prosperity of the state is the ultimate goal (Foucault, 2007). The power lies in one ruler who decides the fate of the entire state while everyone else are subjects expected to do his/her bidding. In a disciplinary society, multiple institutions or Panopticons become key holders of power and these organizations must work together with the government to instill discipline in subjects. As a result, a phenomenon called “normation” occurs. Normation is the process of habituation that people follow and thereby normalize behaviors (Foucault, 1977). This is a very crucial process to creating a disciplined society. It grounds the behavior of all subjects and gives them a set of rules to act within or strive for. This embodies the benchmark and the goal simultaneously. In return, it creates “docile bodies” - people who behave as told expediently, while deviation from it makes one inferior to the rest (Dalibert,