I think that most other commentators have provided good and helpful feedback to the question. I am only stating the obvious, and trying to provide some elementary explanations that could be helpful--for pedagogical reasons.
if you were to consider the entirety of Foucault's work, the "panopticon" depending how it is approached could either:
1) stand as a particular example of a dominant discourse related to episteme and practices of 19th century forms of disciplinarity OR
2) it could be pushed to stand as an example of a dispositif, but that would require a broader application.
Various forms of power/governance (sovereignty, disciplinary power, societies of security and societies of control) associated with dispositifs, regimes, and/or assemblages employ different discourses*, practices*, and forms of subjectivization to regulate the conduct of individuals and to shape their subjectivity, including meanings, values, affects, needs, and desires.
Discourses: saying and seeing, or what is said and what is seen; knowledge and linguistic, symbolic, spatial/architectural expressions; ways of expressing and communicating; and ways of organizing knowledge (episteme/disciplines, norms and customs, laws, etc.).
Practices: what is done, implemented, repeated, until it becomes common sense or an internalized imaginary signification; ways of acting/reacting and behaving that could be institutionally regimented and regulated as in disciplinary regimes of training or instilled through norms and customs, including belief systems as under sovereignty; affects, emotions, needs, desires, etc.
Dispositif: typically translated into English as “apparatus” (was also translated as “deployment” in History of Sexuality) but it designates what Foucault defines as follows: “Un ensemble résolument hétérogène, comportant des discours, des institutions, des aménagements architecturaux, des énoncés scientifiques, des propositions philosophiques, morales, philanthropiques, bref: du dit aussi bien que du non-dit […] le dispositif lui-même, c’est le réseau qu’on peut établir entre ces éléments.” (“Le Jeu de Michel Foucault, Ornicar No 10, juillet 1977, DE, vol 3, #206)
I hope that this helps,
Fouad Kalouche
> Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 10:38:36 +0200
> From: mkarskens@xxxxxxxxxx
> To: foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: Re: [Foucault-L] Foucault on Panopticon
>
> It was Foucault himself, who created that straw man at the end of Discipline and Punish, esp in part IV, chapter III: The Carceral, points 3, 4 and 5.
>
> But he himself also developed - later on, after being criticized - the counter-point, which is the idea of resistance and of critique. It was announced in the very last section of that chapter as 'le grondement de la bataille'.
>
> So, yes Panopticum is a methaphor, but the picture in Discipline and Punish of modern society as a completely disciplined society is not a methapor and even not a (negative) ideal type, it is a generalizing diagnosis of what's going on in society.
>
> yours
> machiel karskens
>
>
> ----- "Nathaniel Roberts" <npr4@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> > From: "Nathaniel Roberts" <npr4@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: "Mailing-list" <foucault-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 9:48:05 AM
> > Subject: 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
> > Herman-Föge-Weg 11
> > 37073 Göttingen
> > Germany
> > +49 (0) 551-4956-0
> > _______________________________________________
> > Foucault-L mailing list
>
> _______________________________________________
> Foucault-L mailing list