|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
|
The Viewer Society
Michel Foucault's `Panopticon' Revisited
THOMAS MATHIESEN
University of Oslo, Norway
The article takes its point of departure in one limited and consciously selected aspect of Michel Foucault's use of Jeremy Bentham's concept of `Panopticon': in his book Discipline and Punish, the aspect of surveillance, and the emphasis on a fundamental change and break which presumably occurred in the 1800s from social and theatrical arrangements, where the many saw the few, to modern surveillance activities where the few see the many. It is maintained that Foucault contributes in an important way to our understanding of and sensitivity regarding modern surveillance systems and practices, which are expanding at an accelerating rate, but that he overlooks an opposite process of great significance which has occurred simultaneously and at an equally accelerated rate: the mass media, and especially television, which today bring the many — literally hundreds of millions of people at the same time — with great force to see and admire the few. In contrast to Foucault's panoptical process, the latter process is referred to as synoptical. Together, the processes situate us in a viewer society in a two-way and double sense. This article explores the developmental parallels and relationships between Panopticon and Synopticon, as well as their reciprocal functions. It is maintained that the control and discipline of the `soul', that is, the creation of human beings who control themselves through self-control and who thus fit neatly into a so-called democratic capitalist society, is a task which is actually fulfilled by modern Synopticon, whereas Foucault saw it as a function of Panopticon.
Key Words: Foucault • mass media • Panopticon • surveillance • Synopticon
Theoretical Criminology, Vol. 1, No. 2,
215-234 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/1362480697001002003
 CiteULike  Complore  Connotea  Del.icio.us  Digg  Reddit  Technorati  Twitter What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
|
|
 
L. Hempel and E. Topfer
The Surveillance Consensus: Reviewing the Politics of CCTV in Three European Countries
European Journal of Criminology,
March 1, 2009;
6(2):
157 - 177.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Welch
Guantanamo Bay as a Foucauldian Phenomenon: An Analysis of Penal Discourse, Technologies, and Resistance
The Prison Journal,
March 1, 2009;
89(1):
3 - 20.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Pemberton
Demystifying Deaths in Police Custody: Challenging State Talk
Social Legal Studies,
June 1, 2008;
17(2):
237 - 262.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
W. de Lint, S. Virta, and J. E. Deukmedjian
The Simulation of Crime Control: A Shift in Policing?
American Behavioral Scientist,
August 1, 2007;
50(12):
1631 - 1647.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A. Brighenti
Visibility: A Category for the Social Sciences
Current Sociology,
May 1, 2007;
55(3):
323 - 342.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
P. Carlen
Book Review: Rethinking the political economy of punishment: Perspectives on post-Fordism and penal politics, Creating criminals: Prisoners and people in a market society
Punishment Society,
April 1, 2007;
9(2):
221 - 223.
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Levi
The Media Construction of Financial White-Collar Crimes
Br. J. Criminol.,
November 1, 2006;
46(6):
1037 - 1057.
[Abstract]
[Full Text]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. Andrejevic
Nothing Comes Between Me and My CPU: Smart Clothes and 'Ubiquitous' Computing
Theory Culture Society,
June 1, 2005;
22(3):
101 - 119.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
R. Penfold
The Star's Image, Victimization and Celebrity Culture
Punishment Society,
July 1, 2004;
6(3):
289 - 302.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Elmer
A Diagram of Panoptic Surveillance
New Media Society,
June 1, 2003;
5(2):
231 - 247.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. Cowan
`Rage at Westsinster': Sociolegal Reflections on the Power of Sale
Social Legal Studies,
June 1, 2003;
12(2):
177 - 198.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
E. Guano
Ruining the President's spectacle: theatricality and telepolitics in the Buenos Aires public sphere
Journal of Visual Culture,
December 1, 2002;
1(3):
303 - 323.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
G. Palmer
Big Brother: An Experiment in Governance
Television New Media,
August 1, 2002;
3(3):
295 - 310.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
M. G. Petrunik
Managing Unacceptable Risk: Sex Offenders, Community Response, and Social Policy in the United States and Canada
Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol,
August 1, 2002;
46(4):
483 - 511.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
T. MATHIESEN
Television, Public Space and Prison Population: A Commentary on Mauer and Simon
Punishment Society,
January 1, 2001;
3(1):
35 - 42.
[Abstract]
[PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
