Foucault's Panopticism

In Panopticism, Foucault begins with describing measures taken against plague in the 17th century. He examines a text about plague measures. Because in the case of plague, the boundaries between normal and abnormal individuals become unclear , the plague acted as an image against which the mechanisms of discipline were defined. Thus, to Foucault, whole set of techniques and institutions, which are created by the fear of an evil, which is plague, aim at forming the disciplined community . The power behind these is the pastoral power of which intention is to protect, and it is enforced in the forms of record-keeping, categorizing, registering, defining, etc. Such power, therefore, is total and visible.
On the other hand, Foucault discusses Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon , architecture with a tower at the center from which it is possible to see prisoners in the cells, represents the way in which discipline and punishment work in modern society. Guard in the tower is not visible though. Visibility of people in the cells is like a trap, and it creates surveillance and ensures functioning of power . …show more content…
The transition from one to another represents a move to a society in which discipline is based on observation and examination rather than pastoral power. The disciplinary society is, therefore, not necessarily one with a Panopticon in every corner, but it is one where the state controls such methods of coercion and operates them throughout society. For example, resembles between state institutions such as schools, factories, hospitals and prisons is not just because they look similar, but because they examine students, workers, patients and prisoners, classify them as individuals and try to make them conform to the daily norms of the society . Nowadays, media and social networks work in the same logic as well by using both pastoral and panoptical