Foucault's Panopticon Explained Simply — Transcript

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1. 0:00the french philosopher michel foucault
2. 0:01was one of the most influential thinkers
3. 0:03of the 20th century and one of the
4. 0:05things that foucault is best known for
5. 0:06is his analysis of the panopticon or
6. 0:09panopticism you've maybe heard of the
7. 0:11panopticon it's this ingeniously
8. 0:13designed circular prison where prisoners
9. 0:15in cells with transparent walls are
10. 0:17subject to constant surveillance from a
11. 0:20guard who sits at the center of the
12. 0:22prison able to see everyone while
13. 0:24remaining himself invisible foucault
14. 0:27believed that the panopticon could help
15. 0:28us understand the effects of
16. 0:30surveillance on our everyday lives
17. 0:32because let's face it in the modern
18. 0:34world we are being watched and filmed
19. 0:36and tracked more and more all the time
20. 0:40we might call this the panopticon effect
21. 0:43see what you really need to understand
22. 0:45is that for foucault the panopticon is
23. 0:48not a prison it's not a physical
24. 0:50building for foucault the panopticon is
25. 0:52a metaphor it's an image of a system of
26. 0:55surveillance that exists everywhere all
27. 0:58the time
28. 1:01now foucault can be complicated but
29. 1:03don't worry i'm gonna walk you through
30. 1:05it just stay with me first it's helpful
31. 1:07to remember that foucault is not just a
32. 1:09philosopher or a theorist he's also a
33. 1:12kind of historian what he is doing is
34. 1:14explaining how the modern world came to
35. 1:16be ancient and medieval worlds are quite
36. 1:18different from our own
37. 1:20how did that happen so let's begin at
38. 1:22the beginning in discipline and punish
39. 1:24before foucault talks about the
40. 1:25panopticon he talks about a plague at
41. 1:28the end of the 17th century and
42. 1:29specifically he talks about the measures
43. 1:31put in place by government authorities
44. 1:33to limit the spread of contagion first a
45. 1:36strict spatial partitioning the closing
46. 1:38of the town and its outlying districts a
47. 1:40prohibition to leave the town on pain of
48. 1:43death each street is placed under the
49. 1:45authority of a syndic who keeps it under
50. 1:47surveillance inspection functions
51. 1:50ceaselessly the gaze is alert everywhere
52. 1:52every day too the syndic goes into the
53. 1:54street for which he is responsible stops
54. 1:57before each house gets all the
55. 1:59inhabitants to appear at the windows
56. 2:01everyone locked up in his cage everyone
57. 2:03at his window answering to his name and
58. 2:05showing himself when asked it is the
59. 2:07great review of the living and the dead
60. 2:10foucault describes this as a system of
61. 2:12permanent registration through this
62. 2:14plague example foucault shows us how
63. 2:16power can penetrate into even the most
64. 2:18private of spaces under these conditions
65. 2:21power is able to organize and discipline
66. 2:23interactions and behaviors that would
67. 2:25typically be beyond its reach from the
68. 2:27perspective of power foucault says the
69. 2:29plague town is a utopia of the perfectly
70. 2:32governed city the point of all this is
71. 2:34that foucault wants to show us the value
72. 2:36and the utility of surveillance for
73. 2:38power but as perfect as this expression
74. 2:41of power is
75. 2:42foucault argues it's actually become
76. 2:44somewhat antiquated or outmoded this is
77. 2:47not the way that power works in the
78. 2:49modern world modern forms of power
79. 2:51foucault says more closely resemble the
80. 2:54panopticon sofuko's idea of the
81. 2:56panopticon comes from this english
82. 2:58philosopher and social reformer named
83. 3:00jeremy bentham he believed very strongly
84. 3:02in this panopticon prison and he
85. 3:03advocated he lobbied the british
86. 3:05government to build one as a prototype
87. 3:07here's a fun fact when he died jeremy
88. 3:09bentham had his body preserved in a
89. 3:11glass case and it's now on display at
90. 3:13university college london originally
91. 3:14bentham's mummified head was still
92. 3:16attached to his body but over the years
93. 3:18it apparently got kind of unpleasant to
94. 3:20look at so they eventually replaced it
95. 3:21with a wax replica bentham wanted to
96. 3:24build this panopticon prison his idea
97. 3:26was it would have windows on the outside
98. 3:28and the inside but it would have walls
99. 3:30on either side so that prisoners could
100. 3:32not see each other but they could see
101. 3:34outside and they could see this tower at
102. 3:36the center and more importantly this
103. 3:38guard at the center of the prison could
104. 3:40see in he could look in any direction
105. 3:42and view a prisoner at any given time
106. 3:44bentham believed that the efficiency of
107. 3:46this model would save the government
108. 3:48money on staffing because you would need
109. 3:50a very small number of guards in order
110. 3:52to operate this prison the disquieting
111. 3:54genius of this model is that because of
112. 3:56the placement of windows and lighting
113. 3:59the prisoners would never know at any
114. 4:02given time whether they were being
115. 4:04watched and so they would have to assume
116. 4:07that they were being watched all of the
117. 4:09time the prisoners would never know if
118. 4:11the guard was looking in their direction
119. 4:13they only know that at any given moment
120. 4:15they might be under surveillance and for
121. 4:17this reason bentham theorized the
122. 4:19prisoners will behave as if they are
123. 4:22being watched all of the time here's
124. 4:24foucault's account of this so to arrange
125. 4:26things that the surveillance is
126. 4:27permanent in its effects even if it is
127. 4:30discontinuous in its action
128. 4:32that the perfection of power should tend
129. 4:34to render its actual exercise
130. 4:36unnecessary
131. 4:38that this architectural apparatus should
132. 4:40be a machine for creating and sustaining
133. 4:43a power relation independent of the
134. 4:45person who exercises theoretically
135. 4:48this could mean that the prison could
136. 4:51temporarily or periodically be unstaffed
137. 4:55with no change in prisoner behavior
138. 4:58because the prisoners always have to
139. 5:00assume that someone is watching them
140. 5:02even if there's no one there at all and
141. 5:04this this is what foucault finds
142. 5:06especially fascinating about this model
143. 5:08because of the effectiveness of the
144. 5:10surveillance the prisoners effectively
145. 5:13guard themselves he who is subjected to
146. 5:16a field of visibility and who knows it
147. 5:19assumes responsibility for the
148. 5:21constraints of power foucault i think is
149. 5:23both horrified and fascinated by this
150. 5:26idea he describes the panopticon as a
151. 5:29marvelous machine this mechanism in
152. 5:31which the prisoner is seen without
153. 5:33seeing while guards see without ever
154. 5:35being seen in foucault's estimation this
155. 5:37panopticon model could be used in a wide
156. 5:40variety of contexts it's not just for
157. 5:42prisoners it could be used in a factory
158. 5:44setting to supervise workers or in a
159. 5:47school setting to ensure that students
160. 5:49don't cheat on a test consider that this
161. 5:51was a complaint and point of frustration
162. 5:52for a lot of students when online zoom
163. 5:54classes were the norm when overzealous
164. 5:57teachers and school administrators
165. 5:59insisted that cameras be left on so that
166. 6:01school authorities could see into
167. 6:04students bedrooms and private spaces
168. 6:06this is just one example of what
169. 6:07foucault was talking about and what we
170. 6:09might call the panopticon effect so the
171. 6:11panopticon for foucault is an historical
172. 6:14idea but maybe more importantly it's an
173. 6:17image an architectural figure of a
174. 6:19certain mode of exercising power the
175. 6:22panopticon must be understood as a
176. 6:24generalizable model of functioning a way
177. 6:27of defining power relations in terms of
178. 6:30the everyday life of men it is in fact a
179. 6:32figure of political technology that may
180. 6:35and must be detached from any specific
181. 6:37use foucault then argues that this way
182. 6:39of exercising power has become the
183. 6:41dominant form of power relations in our
184. 6:44world and this has everything to do with
185. 6:47the prisoners who guard themselves
186. 6:49because foucault argues that by using
187. 6:51bentham's model the world has figured
188. 6:53out how to discipline people and more
189. 6:56importantly more efficiently it's taught
190. 6:59them to discipline themselves using mass
191. 7:02surveillance think about information how
192. 7:04often do you need to register for things
193. 7:06fill out paperwork disclose medical
194. 7:08conditions times when you have to
195. 7:09disclose your sexual history or sexual
196. 7:12orientation or or clock in and out of
197. 7:14work every day all of these day-to-day
198. 7:16disclosures of our movements and private
199. 7:18bodily conditions are what we might call
200. 7:21panoptus power has become increasingly
201. 7:23concerned with surveilling us and you
202. 7:26have become increasingly comfortable
203. 7:28disclosing private information about
204. 7:30yourself but crucially the thing about
205. 7:32panopticism is that it does not feel
206. 7:35like tyranny it often feels good to
207. 7:37discipline ourselves like winning the
208. 7:39award for perfect attendance or priding
209. 7:41ourselves on never being late for work
210. 7:43we take pleasure in our discipline in
211. 7:45fact self-discipline and productivity
212. 7:47has become a whole industry the truly
213. 7:49amazing thing is that our world in the
214. 7:5121st century has exceeded fuco's wildest
215. 7:55imaginings or fears because now not only
216. 7:58are states and institutions collecting
217. 8:01information and data more than ever
218. 8:03before but also our personal data has
219. 8:06become a kind of currency we exchange it
220. 8:08with private companies for goods and
221. 8:10services we give out our contact
222. 8:11information in order to get discounts
223. 8:13and we let apps track us in exchange for
224. 8:16entertainment your phone knows when you
225. 8:18go to bed and when you wake up your
226. 8:21watch knows how many steps you take in a
227. 8:23day we take pleasure in being subject
228. 8:26to constant surveillance what foucault
229. 8:28wants us to recognize is that the modern
230. 8:30world is not just about the emergence of
231. 8:33democracy and the invention of human
232. 8:35rights the story of the modern world is
233. 8:37just as much about the emergence of the
234. 8:39surveillance state as foucault says
235. 8:42the enlightenment which discovered the
236. 8:44liberties
237. 8:45also invented the disciplines and this
238. 8:47whole argument takes place within the
239. 8:49broader context of foucault's discipline
240. 8:51and punish and so to better understand
241. 8:53that you should watch this video over
242. 8:55here i'll see you there i'll see you
243. 8:57there
244. 8:59talk to you soon