CD: Surveillance Flashcards
What are the three theories regarding surveillance?
- Foucault’s panopticon
- Synoptic Surveillance
- Liquid Surveillance
Who developed the idea of the Panopticon?
Foucault
What is the panopticon?
A method of surveillance and a model of how power operates in society.
How does the panopticon apply to surveillance?
Prisons would not know they are being watched - only that they might be being watched. Behave at all times - self-surveillance. Control happens inside the prisoner. Manage themselves, just in case.
Where does Foucault argue surveillance has now expanded to?
Surveillance has now expanded throughout society. Eg. mental asylums, factories, schools. Affects all society. Reveals how power works in society. Society now manages their own behaviour.
The panopticon refers to how the few watch the many. True or False.
True. The panopticon refers to how the few watch the many.
How does Foucault use disciplinary power in his theory?
Foucault argued disciplinary power (surveillance) is now everywhere and everyone is subject to it.
Provide examples of where disciplinary power is at work.
Schools: Electronic registers, reports. Workplaces: CCTV, performance monitoring. Pregnancy and childhood: Both highly monitored by healthcare professionals and social workers. Most accept this as normal.
A03 Foucault’s Panopticon
Surveillance like CCTV are not always effective in preventing crime. NORRIS found while CCTV reduced crime in car parks, it had little to no effect on other crime, and may eve cause displacement - criminals would find somewhere without CCTV, or wouldn’t care that they were under surveillance.
Who argued came up with Synoptic Surveillance?
Mathiesen
What did Mathiesen’s Synoptic Surveillance consider?
Mathiesen’s view considered how, today, the media enable the many to see the few - different to the Panopticon’s focus on how the few monitor the many.
According to Synoptic Surveillance. There has been an increase in..
There is an increase in the top-down, centralised surveillance that Foucault discusses, but also in surveillance from below.
What was the ‘Synopticon’ that Mathiesen discussed?
Where everybody watches everybody.
How can the synopticon be seen in late modernity?
For example, the public are monitoring each other through dash cams, ring door bells, body cams to collect evidence in the event of an accident.
A03 Synoptic Surveillance
The idea of the ‘synopticon’ is limited. For example, under anti-terrorism laws, police have powers to confiscate cameras and mobile phones of ‘citizen journalists’ so there are restrictions in surveillance.
