FOUCAULT PANOPTICISM

Foucault Panopticism

Foucault Panopticism

Foucault's insights into the ways in which institutional structures maintain and perpetuate their power can be extended quite easily beyond the prison setting.

To appreciate the contemporary applicability of Foucault's analysis, one can reflect upon the feeling of surveillance generated by one-way glass windows in civilian settings -feelings generated quite independently of whether anyone happens to be behind the window - and the increasing technological advances that allow those with institutional authority to monitor telephone conversations and other kinds of electronic communications without detection.

The principle is exactly the same: social institutions with power exert their power by instilling the ...