19 Apr 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Lecture 10 - March 22
March-22-12
15:07 PM
Foucault Review
Transformation of punishment from 18th to 19th century
-from public executions to prisons
-the gentle way - from body to soul
-role of professionals
-the Philadelphia Model; consolidation of prison; labour, regimentation, seclusion
Why is there this transformation?
-moving away from punishments representative of monarchical sovereignty, arbitrary royal power
-cultural and intellectual shift as well; government as controller over territory to idea of biopolitics;
regulate subjects through political power
-biopolitics and enlightenment; Foucault thinks enlightenment as critique of institution or attempt to
create neutral position of rationality in which everything can be evaluated, this is oppressive; have to
consider processes of power creation
Foucault and Hierarchical Observation
-correction, not expiation
-p.178-9; modern era, punishment is not specifically only expiation of wrongdoing, but is correction
-punishment is a debt to society; require repayment of debt; Durkheimian; assessment of wrongdoing
leads to punishment; also about conforming to norms, element of revenge; Foucault; modern
punishment is about correction; not restoring moral balance, more like reform ; creating disciplined
subject who will conform to norms; changing behaviour patterns
-disciplinary punishment not just in legal system; also present in other institutions like hospitals, schools,
military
-punishment is not just about causing suffering
-not merely punishment, also reward
-discipline also involves rewards; cannot have one without the other, which push individuals in the
correct direction
-criminal code expresses these as prohibitions p.180 instead of the simple division ...
-science of law vs. science of punishment
-binary classification vs. spectrum; points used to represent good/bad behaviour on a spectrum, rather
than yes or no
-regimentation as creating productive workers out of prisoners; but he abandons this idea later
-panopticon as representation of government observation of subjects (never know when being watched)
-broader cultural transformation going on about how observation takes place and what its goal is; more
of a spectrum
The Carceral, Continued
-individuality, deviance:
-normalization; rather than deviance; deviance is a relative concept to some sort of established
expected norms, which must become established; not natural p.183; the perpetual penality…
normalization as quintessentially a modern concept; people are categorized, rather than acts; medicine
as part of normalization
-individuality from power to deviance: the midterm vs. the throne speech; individuality represented as a
privilege of the ruler; the higher up you are, the more individualized you are e.g. king vs. subjects;
modern hierarchy of teacher and students
-the legible subject: student records; evaluated on some set of criteria
-metiocracy - why/how?