Michael Foucault Disciplined

Introduction

French born, Michael Foucault, has been the key to a variety of theoretical inspirations, to the extent that the word ‘Foucauldian’ is used in various analyses that use his approaches. He has made tremendous achievements in academia, more specifically in humanities. His writings serve as perfect teachings for any individual seeking to appreciate and understand the precise ways that power operates in different walks of society (Sara, 2005). Foucault has written about many concepts, including discourses, power and knowledge, discipline, biopower and governmentality. If you are delving into the area of humanities and struggling with the complexities of Foucault's ideas, then you might find yourself in need of philosophy dissertation help in place to navigate through all these intricate concepts so that you can articulate your thoughts properly. This essay seeks to draw on Foucault’s concept of discipline to discuss the way contemporary culture invites people to become ‘disciplined’ subjects. This will be done using examples from the media.

Discipline

In Foucault’s belief, discipline is a power mechanism which is used to regulate the behaviour and thoughts of social actors using precise measures. Unlike the sovereign forces, or brutality that is exercised by lords and monarchs, discipline works in the manner of organizing space, for example, the way classrooms and prisons are structured, time, for example, time between the opening and closing hours of work, and daily activities. Foucault noted that the gloominess of punishment festivals started dying out as theatrical means of public torture by the beginning of the 19th century, thus paving way for a new kind of power, known as discipline. Discipline is justified because it appears to be more humane. A convict’s body needed not to be regarded as a show for public torture. Instead, it was considered necessary by the law to approach and manipulate the convict’s body (Foucault, 2008). This means that, before depriving a person of their liberty, which is considered as both a property and a right, their body needed to be entangled in a system of privations and constraints, prohibitions and obligations. This sounds completely legalistic and becomes the primary reason as to why and how bodies become entangled in such as disciplinarian system.

Discipline in Contemporary Culture

In today’s society, there are many ways in which culture shapes people with a goal of moulding them into disciplined subjects. It is particularly effective because it is a softer form of punishment, which is focused on correcting the soul. Discipline regulates the body in a highly structured manner which results in docility. Practically, through the techniques which will be discussed below, it becomes emergent that discipline, as a modern form of power, and as a replacement of torture, does not have the goal of punishing less, but to punish in a better way with a reduced level of force and severity, increased degree of necessity and universality (Foucault, 1980). Power is used through discipline to punish the social body in a deeper way.

Mass Surveillance

One way in which discipline is practiced in the modern day is through the use of mass electronic surveillance. Without a doubt, there exist many writings concerning mass surveillance, since the beginning of digital connectivity, even though little effort has been made in connection with Foucault’s principles. Writers such as Beatrice Larsen have examined the ethical implications of the widespread utilization of CCTV cameras. Larsen agrees that there are social benefits associated with mass surveillance, such as the deterrence and prevention of crime. However, these social benefits are outweighed by the bypassing of individual privacies and rights. Larsen’s writing brings to attention the way CCTV compromises people’s right to anonymity by highlighting an aspect of disciplinarian power, where governments have close ties with digital surveillance corporations (Sheridan, 2016). These close ties can open up opportunities for unconstitutional and unprecedented access to information which expands to people’s daily activities.

Source: Medium

From the ethical standpoint, and with a blend of Foucault’s discipline concept, potential criminals can be deterred through mass surveillance and this can serve as a counterbalance for sacrificing people’s rights to and freedoms of privacy. The disciplinarian form of control can easily bypass the ethical precincts that exist in every ruling system. This easy bypass can be seen through the increasingly blurring lines between corporate tracking and government surveillance, such that systemic corruption between the former and the latter promotes data harvesting and data trawling, which has the potential of resulting in economic collapse.

Panopticism

Prior to the discussion of panopticism, it is worthy to note that disciplinary action was developed as an alternative to the grim image of public capital punishment, which majorly involved the kind of justice that was brutal and swift. However, discipline came in as a form of power to conceal from the public the grimaces of punishment in closed doors. Therefore, panopticism comes in, as a social theory concept developed by Jeremy Bentham, through a panoptic prison institution, whereby one guard had the role of observing the actions of every prisoner, although the prisoner would have no chance of seeing the guard or a fellow prisoner (Foucault, 1980).

Originally, the panoptic structure of Bentham’s prison consisted of a sole watchtower placed in the centre of a circular atrium that has cells facing inwards along the perimeter. This structure was designed to watch the prisoners, although they would have no clue of whether there was anyone in the watchtower gazing at them. Their subjection to this kind of panoptic gaze would serve to control their actions in a manner that they would be less likely to cause trouble. Ultimately, this form of disciplinary power promoted self-disciplinary behaviours which would serve to ease the measures being implemented in prison without the need of an external force.

Normalization and Enclosure

Discipline can also be practiced through normalization and isolation. One way in which these ideas are related is through Foucault’s emphasis on transgression, which is the going against the norms which are established in a society (Sheridan, 2016). When a person goes against those norms, they are regarded as abnormal and this warrants their isolation from the rest of the community. Isolation, in such cases, would work to rehabilitate the abnormal with a goal of reinstating their productivity in the society once again, or, in cases where rehabilitation fails, they are eliminated from the social equation completely to benefit the rest of the people.

In the modern age, normalization is one of the social control tools which are highly effective, and it is not inherently thought of negatively. By definition, a norm is a form of standard which a large proportion of people ought to attain and maintain to carry out particular tasks. Normalization can be used in factories, because, at its core, it is aimed at creating a productive society. Factory environments generate profits and acquire increased efficiency through normalization. Better yet, there is a dark side to normalization, and this is when it gets used to control the way people think. From Foucault’s point of view, disciplinary power is used to compel people in society to agree with a certain disciplinary view as a norm, and the disciplinary norm should be considered as the kind of truth which is absolute.

Post Structuralism

Foucault could mistakenly get labelled as a structuralist. This mistake would arise from his work on disciplinary power falling in line with structuralism, when in real sense, it is not. Structuralism, however, can be associated with Foucault’s disciplinarian power because Foucault entered the conceptual scene at a moment when the idea of structuralism was high in discussion (Sheridan, 2016). In addition, Foucault’s work would be tied to post-structuralism because it challenged the existing structures through the introduction of power structures. The structuralists who existed at the time were concerned about human consciousness, but Foucault stands out as a post-structuralist by deciphering how governing bodies can instigate control over a growing number of people by making them their own overseers, rather than having the government do the overseeing, which was more costly and involved grimace.

In the post structuralism point of view, space is considered as a form of disciplinarian power. The panoptic structures consist space, and this space can be used as a power resource, which allows the investigation of the correlation between space and power. For example, power can be manifested in the physical spaces present in hospitals, prisons, and schools.

Conclusion

To sum up, Foucault had an ingenious perspective concerning the modern-day power. Discipline, indeed, is an invaluable form of power, as gentle as it may appear, and as intense it can get. In the contemporary world, disciplinary power is exercised through mass surveillance, panopticism, normalization and enclosure, and post-structuralism, through the use of space as a power resource. The central benefit of discipline as a power form in the modern world is that is encourages people to be responsible and to comply without the use of force. It does away with the need for grim appearances of public torture to wrongdoers, and uses tactics like mass surveillance to collect all the wrongdoings of a person and, in the end, punishing them as a whole.

References

Foucault, M., 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings. New York: Pantheon Books.

Foucault, M., 2008. "Panopticism" from "Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison". The Dynamics of Race and Incarceration: Social Integration, Social Welfare, and Social Control, 2(1), pp. 1-12.

Sara, M., 2005. Michael Foucault.

Sheridan, C., 2016. Foucault, Power and the Modern Panopticon. Trinity College Digital Repository.

Looking for further insights on Methods of Data Collection in Research? Click here.