Panopticism in Modern Society

Panopticism exists within the modern world through a variety of surveillance processes such as CCTV, body scanners and numerous other identifying cards etc.

"Through a variety of measures such as closed circuit television, body scanners and numerous methods of identification we could be easily located and detected if the need was there. The government promotes theses processes as to be of benefit to us and for the sole purpose of maintaining our personal security, which could well be truthful, but at what stage will there be a cut-off point? When do these panoptic ways start to become an invasion of our privacy?"

I found this quote on a website and saved it in a blog post but without a link, so I don't know where it came from, however, it is relevant to my subject.  Highlighting how strong the public view on how we currently deal with such aspects of society and the community at hand.

Identification cards for everywhere, we even use an identity card which we can to enter/leave the premises, which inevitably logs our comings and goings. Arguably for safety reasons, but it still is a bit invasive, let alone other means that exist out of the establishment as part of everyday society.

Panopticism In Modern Society

Whilst researching panopticism, I found this article on CCTV within towns and cities, originally published in 1995 by Stephen Graham, John Brooks and Dan Heery, Centre for Urban Technology.
The article was written around the time that CCTV was becoming a must have for authorities across the world. According to the article, CCTV was praised and welcomed by the masses and notably one case in particular which sparked off the sensation, the murder of James Bulger.

James Bulger was abducted and murdered in Bootle, Liverpool, in 1993. CCTV caught the pair of 10 year olds abducting Bulger, aged 2, before he was beaten and murdered.

This was key publicity for CCTV, showing clear benefits to it's installation which had also previously been viewed as beneficial.

The article goes on to mention how the public views CCTV,

"But these aggregated statistics need to be treated with caution. They are likely to mask a complex picture of public reaction. For example, young men are much more suspicious of the systems because they feel more at risk from the potential negative effects of CCTV (Honess and Charman, 1992; Centre for Research on Crime, Policing and the Community, 1993). Karen Evans found recently that many black males already feel excluded from shopping malls where they experience intense scrutiny from security guards (Evans, 1995). In many shopping malls and other 'private public spaces' there is already "a heavy concentration on the exclusion of 'undesirable' young people" (Sparks, quoted in Mi hill, 1993). Women have also been found to be more concerned than men about the civil liberty implications of CCTV. Moreover, whilst they may support CCTV in reducing petty crime, young women have also been shown to doubt the effectiveness of CCTV in actually preventing physical and sexual assault compared to other measures such as improved street lighting or increased police patrols (Honess and Charman, 1992; 11)."

Although I have not read the referenced articles I find the quotes used to be very interesting. From this paragraph I see CCTV makes certain people who would be classed as a 'nuisance' or a 'trouble-maker' and feel although they are, to at least some extent, the ones being 'watched' as such. Especially with the reference to black males feeling already excluded from shopping centres due to their skin colour providing adequate information on them as a person upon which they are judged and surveyed.

Personally, I'd say that crime is feasible in all cultures and generations, with no focus at all on ethnicity and a obvious bias towards the youth.

CCTV's main involvement in society is as a deterrent, which is a form of panopticism in modern society, even if no one is watching the other side the presence is very prominent.

Lecture: Panopticism

Richard Miles.
Panopticism

Institutions and institutional power.

The panopticon.

Social control.

Michael Foucault - 1926/1984.
Madness, not a recognisable condition

The great confinement, late 1600s.
No strict conception of madness.
Madmen lived a happy go lucky life, tolerated and accepted in society.
Thought of endearingly, the village idiot
No defined sane or insane, until the 1600s.
New sensibility and a new attitude to work. Social usefulness of work.
Anxiety started to emerge, with the separation of unproductive people. Anyone that couldn't work and benefit society was outside the pool of productive workers and a social outcast.

Houses of correction.
Mix of everyone, criminals, diseased, single mothers, madmen etc.
Made to work in the houses of correction, the workers would be hit if they didn't work.
Labour is used as an exercise of moral reform with the honesty of work

The birth of the asylum.
Houses of correction viewed as a mistake. The various deviants would corrupt each other, a melting pot of the unproductive.
Like a modern form of the hospital, housing and correcting the insane.
Specialist institutions set up for the people.
Worked on correcting the inmates in a very different way to the houses of correction.
Instead of physical violence, more subtle techniques were used.
Insane people were tactically reduced to minors. Rewarded for being good, celebrated behaviour. If they were bad they were told off as opposed to beaten. Subtly training people to behave, not punishing, but correcting.

Michel sees this as a modern institution with the emergence of specialists.
Institution experts, legitimise the actions of the institutions.

Emergence of forms of knowledge.

Foucault, notes that the institutions control our behaviour, internalise out responsibility. Inmate in the asylum will start to think they'll behave so they're not shouted at and given treats. Conforming to the rules.

The aim of punishment was to be a visible reminder of the ultimate power of the state over the people. Pillory etc.
sign of the power of the state and not to test that. A physical punishment, but working alongside fear.

Guy Fawkes.

Modern form of discipline and the disciplinary society. Surveillance controlling conduct and behaviour.

Panopticon, designed as a multifunctional building. Most were asylums or prisons. Cuba panopticon

Cells around the edges of the building.

Institutional 'gaze'

Cells are open at the front and lit from the back window.

Designed as the perfect building.

Constantly staring at the central observation tower.

No lateral visibility of other inmates. Can only see the supervisors or authority in the central tower.

The dungeon is where you lock away criminal classes. Huge contrast to the panopticon.

View behind a person to the central tower in the panopticon.
Constantly reminded you're being watched by someone who expects you to act in a certain way. If you were to rebel you'd be caught out. May aswell conform. No one to share thoughts or feelings, all by yourself.

The fear and anxiety that you're forever watched and scrutinised.

Automatically produces power.

Panopticon not just about control and discipline, used for scrutiny and surveillance.

Functions as kind of a lab.

Discipline for Foucault is about making people productive, making them useful in society.

Not being forced to act in any certain way but led to act how the institution wants.

Panopticism, a model of how we're trained, organised and under control. A new form of mental control, perminently visible.

System of modern discipline.

The open plan office, is a panopticon.
Workers can be constantly seen by the boss, awkward feel, not messing around. Changes to behaviour of the workers by changing the layout of the office. Making everyone visible.

The office, tv series. Shows a change of behaviour in response to the presence of the cameras.

Open plan bar, making everything visible to the bouncers and bar staff. Always on display, forcing you to change your behaviour and conform.

Google maps. Surveillance at the highest point. Recorded everywhere by CCTV. Every single action in our lives is being watched to an extent.

Pentonville prison, in a version of a panopticon. Lecture theatre. Can only see the central teacher.

Lecture theatres are formed in a well considered manner.

Registers are another form of panoptic surveillance. Attend classes because your actions are monitored and its to be able to avoid punishment.

Training people to behave as opposed to scaring people to behave.

Self regulation, controlling yourself although it's not a personal power.