10.3.1

Surveillance

Test yourself

Surveillance 

Foucault examines how surveillance has become a tool of social control and is now used to monitor our behaviour.

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Foucault

  • Foucault discusses the dominance of ‘sovereign power’; when the monarchy had overall control over punishment.
  • Sentences would usually involve bodily harm that would be conducted publicly to send a message to other citizens.
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Disciplinary power

  • However, in today's society ‘disciplinary power’ is now used; in which the criminal justice system tries to rehabilitate offenders through punishment of the mind.
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Panopticon

  • Foucault illustrates this through his theory of ‘panopticon’ where inmates within a prison are led to believe they are constantly under the threat of surveillance in order to promote self-regulation of their own behaviour.
  • Therefore surveillance becomes a tool of social control and is now used to monitor our behaviour.

Jump to other topics

1Theory & Methods

2Education with Methods in Context

3Option 1: Culture & Identity

4Option 1: Families & Households

5Option 1: Health

6Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

7Option 2: Beliefs in Society

8Option 2: Global Development

9Option 2: The Media

10Crime & Deviance

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