Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault on Panopticon

The paper itself may be premised on a straw man.

Did Foucault ever say the panopticon provided a "metaphor of modern
society"? It is my understanding that the panopticon is just one example of
*an ideal* that was current at a time when great faith was placed in
disciplinary forms of power. And it is also one of the examples Foucualt
gives to illustrate how disciplinary power works.

But, for Foucault, modern society ≠ disciplinary power

Disciplinary power is one form of power that operates in modern society. By
the time of his lectures published under the title "Security, Territory,
Population" Foucault was already moving away from the idea that a
"disciplinary" age had replaced a previous age based on "sovereignty"; the
disciplines, legal power (or sovereignty) work together in the same age.
These combine with a new form he initially called "security," and which he
later came to call "governmentality."

Nate





On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 4:41 AM, Ali Rizvi <ali_m_rizvi@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>
> Hi everyone,
> Someone has asked me to post the following query to the group. Thanks for
> any
> help. Ali
>
> "I am currently doing an long project (10,000 words) on Focault and
> analyzing the claim that the panopticon is a successful metaphor for
> contemporary society. I am looking for strong criticisms to such a
> claim and was wondering if you knew of any that I could read into."
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list
>



--
Nathaniel Roberts
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity
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Folow-ups
  • Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault on Panopticon
    • From: Chetan Vemuri
  • Replies
    [Foucault-L] Foucault on Panopticon, Ali Rizvi
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