Surveillance
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 10.3.1
Surveillance
Foucault examines how surveillance has become a tool of social control and is now used to monitor our behaviour.
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.
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.
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.
Test yourself on Surveillance
Who illustrates disciplinary power through his theory of ‘panopticon’?