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Words: | Submitted: Wed Mar 12 2003
... this area will be discussed, followed by evidence portraying Britain as a surveillance society e.g. criminal, workplace, September 11th., and finally my answer to the question. M. Foucault (1991) in Macionis & Plummer (1997:227) identified the relationship between power, knowledge and surveillance. He believed modern developments in comparison to the past are evidence of power and surveillance extensions e.g. the emerging modern prison, psychiatric discourses defining madness, etc. The power and surveillance ideology is fused through discourses (bodies of ideas and knowledge), shaping societal beliefs about correct social norms e.g. what is defined as criminal; socially controlling public behaviour. He contrasted old, cruel punishment methods e.g. public execution; to contemporary surveillance/imprisonment systems e.g. task timetables, observing that these modern forms are intensely rule-governed. Consequently, different control structures can be seen historically here. Foucault examined Bentham's Panopticon prison design and argued its features, (central tower, continuous observation, few supervisory resources and self-discipline ...
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