Panopticon and Social Control

English philosopher, jurist and social reformer, Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) devised the original Panopticon in 1785 as a utopian model for prisons. Part of the humanitarian, administrative and legislative tendencies of the late 18th century, Bentham and others sought to bring moral reform and the education of prisoners to the penitential system. Central to the structure’s conceptualization was the idea than inspectors could observe all (Greek: pan- all + optikon- observe) the prisoners without the latter’s knowledge. The effect was one of “invisible omniscience." According to Bentham, the Panopticon would be a “new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."

In the 20th century, the concept of panopticon has become a paradigm of “disciplinary societies.” Based on an Bentham's architectural model, the notion of panopticism became inexorably bound to notions of criminal psychiatry and psychology. Its paradigmatic usefulness was most succinctly analyzed by Michel Foucault. Characterizing the emergence of disciplinary techniques from a traditional punitive society in which offenders physically punished to one where they were controlled and normalized, panopiticism relied on a principle of constant inspection rather than ex post facto inquiry.

Our society testifies to the wholesale acceptance of panopticism. According to Nate Kavanagh, Britain has an estimated 25 million surveillance cameras (one for every two citizens). While North Americans don’t endorse the use of closed-circuit cameras to this extent, surveillance is routine on a more grass-roots level: vigilante groups are publicly encouraged to uncover and shame deviance on national television (cf. To Catch a Predator on NBC). Whether it’s regulated by (“objective”) government or fired by (“subjective”) public prejudice, the effect is the same: while some genuine criminals are brought to justice (and others are not or are wrongly accused), general social behaviours are modified and controlled.

References:

Albrechtslund, Anders. Online Social Networking as Participatory Surveillance. First Monday, 13:3 (3 March 2008). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2142/1949

Bentham, Jeremy. Panopticon (Preface). In Miran Bozovic (ed.), The Panopticon Writings, London: Verso, 1995, 29-95. http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison. Second edition. Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Kavanagh, Nate. 2006, But Has 1984 Finally Arrived? IndyMedia UK. September 19, 2006. http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/09/351051.html

Marwick, Alice E. To catch a predator? The MySpace moral panic. First Monday, 13: 6 (2 June 2008). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2152/1966

Panopticon. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Piñero, Verónica B. On panopticism, criminal records and sex offender registries. First Monday, 11:12 (4 December 2006). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1420

Rajagopal, Indhu. Cons in the panopticon: Anti–globalization and cyber–piracy. First Monday, 9:9 (6 September 2004). http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/1174/1094

Robins, Kevin and Webster, frank. "Cybernetic capitalism: Information, technology, everyday life," The political economy of information. Vincent Mosco and Janet Wasko, editors. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998: pp. 44–75.