Notes from: Elmer, G. (2003). A diagram of panoptic surveillance. New media and society, 5(2), 231-247. Retrieved June 7, 2008, from SAGE Publications database. Not proof-read, read generously. The development of a theory of panoptic surveillance is often hampered by an overly literal interpretation of the panopticon. Criticisms of panopticism are made in three broad [...]
Further to my earlier, and very brief post about Green’s A plague on the panopticon I’ll add a few more detailed notes here. Green argues that Foucault’s concept of Panopticism is a defective metaphor that promotes misunderstandings about the way surveillance works in the real world. Green attests: “Despite Foucault’s claims to the contrary, surveillance [...]
In applying Foucault’s concept of Panopticism to the surveillance of personal blogs I will use Deleuze’s critique found in Postscripts. I should also use Foucault’s own critique based on his development of the concept of pastoral power as set out in Subjectivity and Power. Pastoral power is much more modular and smooth then the exercise [...]
Foucault believed that power was productive. In this matter he stood opposed to the Marxist view that power was something against which the proletariat must resist. Class struggle was not viewed by Foucault as fundamental. But I wonder what he means by productive. Perhaps it was linked to his observation that power, in addition to [...]
Foucault defines government thus: “‘the conduct of conduct’” (p. 2); in Gordon’s words “a form of activity aiming to shape, guide or affect the conduct of some person or persons.” Sounds suspiciously like Foucault’s definition of power – actions taken on actions of others – I wonder if he saw any difference. In all likelihood [...]
Michel Foucault traces a genealogy of governmentality from feudal systems, the sovereign ruler, to the development of the art of government through the agency of the economy. Foucault is interested in the state and how the state might, through multivalent means, put effect to government. He traces the way the feudal system gave way to [...]
Came across a couple of neat definitions today in McNaly (1994). Autonomy: “a process in which the interrogation of the established limits identity leads to an increased capacity for independent thought and behaviour (p. 145).” This constant interrogation fights off the individualizing and normalizing effects of power. Foucault retained an Enlightenment notion of which McNaly [...]
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