Task One: An Example Of Contemporary Culture Being Panoptic.

DRAFT

The modern workplace is panoptic in many ways, When Michel Foucault talked about a "segmented space, observed at every point, in which the individuals are inserted in a fixed place, in which the slightest movement are supervised, in which all events are recorded" he was referring to the disciplinary mechanism for confining the plague, however this could equally be applied to my experience working in a large dispatch warehouse. In this job, every action is constantly monitored electronically, the speed you are working is logged and hourly targets are set. This can be accessed by a co-ordinator at any time to see how fast you have been working, this leads to constant self monitoring as Foucault explains, "the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power" He goes on to say "that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary" In my workplace this translated that the boss didn't have to walk around to bollock shirkers because it was known that you had to keep working all the time because the speed you were working could at any time be checked. "in short that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers". This went further, to keep workers in their place working and not drinking cups of tea in the canteen there was a strict time clocking procedure. You have to clock in and out (fingerprint scanner watched by CCTV) not only at the beginning and end of your shift, but also anytime you go for a break, this is linked directly to payroll and used to calculate wages. This constant electrical observation again meant workers would self monitor, and self regulate their own working patterns without the need for constant supervision. The low number of co-ordinators needed in this workplace proved that a panoptic system "makes it possible to perfect the exercise of power". "it can reduce the number of those who exercise it, while increasing the numbers of those on whom it is exercised".