"Cam Era"? CCTV's and the Panopticon in Today's Society

     CCTV’s (Closed Circuit Television) are video cameras which are used for surveillance and crime prevention. These cameras act as an extension of the human eye in the way that whatever activity they see is also seen by the individuals who are behind the camera, such as security workers. In today’s society, Closed Circuit Televisions are for the most part on every street corner and are located in public areas such as businesses, malls, hospitals and schools. The implementation of CCTV’s took off in the 1980s as it was seen as a cheaper way to deter crime compared to increasing the size of the police departments (Yesil, 2006).

     The use of CCTV’s is an example of exercising power through technology. Having these cameras visible to us makes us aware of an authoritative figure and not knowing whether someone is behind the camera at any given moment in turn keeps us disciplined as to not act out in any unconventional manner. The idea of video surveillance is a technological solution designed to solve the problems of surveillance in urban space. People under surveillance are, as in the Panopticon, to be seen but to never know when or by whom; under control but without physical intervention (Koskela, 2003).  This type of surveillance in urban spaces can be seen as a “Superpanopticon”, in the way that as soon as we step outside our homes, we are almost immediately under surveillance and continue to be under until we reach home again. The reason for this being the amount of CCTV’s in urban spaces today, for instance in Britain, the density of CCTV’s is among the highest with an estimated 4.2 million CCTV’s , which is one per every fourteen people (Kelly, 2009). 

     The use of CCTV’s and the fact that we are almost always under constant surveillance makes every city with this technology a “laboratory of power” (Foucault, 1975, p.204). This is evident in way that individuals are normalized and disciplined through the awareness of this body of power through surveillance. Some argue that the use of CCTV’s is an invasion of their privacy while others think the technology drives responsibility away from witnesses of a crime. If the pervasiveness of CCTV’s is so great, then why stick around to keep an eye on someone you know is committing a crime? The general thought for some people is that the camera will catch it and the person and justice will be served. Regardless of the “superpanopticon” we live in, I believe we all have a duty as citizens to report any crime we see and to not rely on technology to do it for us.

References

Foucault , M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison

Kelly, T. (2009, August 11). Revealed: Big brother britain has more cctv cameras than china read. Mail Online

Koskela, H. (2003). ‘Cam Era’ – The Contemporary Urban Panopticon.

Yesil, Bilge. (2006) “Watching Ourselves” Cultural Studies. Vol 20(4-5) pg. 400-416

New Momism

     The phenomenon New Momism is referred to infiltration of expectations by which women parent (Henderson et al,2010). In today’s society, the media sets the standards of "perfect" and is quick to scrutinize mothers of their parenting towards their new child. Having said that, New Momism is also perpetuated amongst modern mothers in the way they surveil and infiltrate pressure of perfection on new mothers around them who then internalize this on an individual level. At the same time that mothers surveil other mothers, they also use these interactions to surveil themselves and their own decisions about parenting.

     In his book, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Foucault stated that punishment has become post-structuralist in the 20^th century, meaning individuals no longer needed certain social institutions to implement social control over our behavior but instead we surveil ourselves and each other. In relation to New Momism, an example of this post-structuralist view is the way that mothers monitor or “surveil” other mothers around them through observation and interactions. Examples of both are observing a mother’s way of disciplining her child as well as conversations with another mother about what she gives her child to eat and so on. Mothers are constantly under a watchful eye as they are monitored at daycares, parks, malls, restaurants and other public places where other mothers and their children are present. 

     Foucault wrote about retributive punishment in 18^th and 19^th century France where people who were committed of a crime and found guilty received punishment in front of crowd of witnesses, in some cases this punishment included execution. Another type of punishment which has been the main theme in my blog is Foucault’s panoptic view of punishment based off of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon prison. This type of disciplinary punishment was made attainable by the supervisors central tower in which prisoners could see but were never able to verify wether they were being surveilled at all times, however they must always think so in order to discipline themselves to not deviate. 

Any individual, taken almost at random, can operate the machine: in the absence of the director, his family, his friends, his visitors, even his servants” (Foucault 1975,p. 202).

 As in Foucault’s discussion of prisoners, where they were to internalize the gaze of the supervisor (Foucault, 1975, p.203), so too do mothers.

     Within the phenomenon New Momism, mothers surveil themselves as well as other mothers around them without the presence of a social institution enforcing social control over their behaviors toward parenting which in kind is an example of Foucault’s view of punishment within post-structuralism. 

References

Foucault , M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison

Henderson, Houser, Harmon. (2010). A New State of Surveillance? Applying Michel Foucault to Modern Mothers

The Onion on Surveillance of Facebook Users

Satirical news source The Onion reporting on the CIA spying on Facebook users. Fiction based on fact? 

China's Student Informant System

     When I first came across this article I felt certain that it was fake and as I came across more articles on the matter I just felt such disbelief. After the Tienanmen Square protests in 1989, the Chinese Communist Party officials recruited a group of student informants to surveil fellow students and professors who show any deviating behavior, including expressions that go against political stability. Any student or professor who is caught showing signs of rebellion toward the current political structure could be subject to harsh repercussions. According to the CIA report on the Student Informant System,

Students have had their scholarships revoked and their academic records penalized because of information provided by student informants that is sometimes highly subjective, such as facial expressions (CIA, 2010).

     This is what I find extremely bothersome, how can someone so hastily penalize a student or professor for supposedly making a facial expression that shows displeasure toward a political structure? How does one even make that call to potentially ruin a students education over a facial expression? The CIA report goes on explain their techniques for monitoring students and professors; 

The SIS employs traditional political spying and denunciation techniques, seeking to create a ‘white terror’ environment on campus — in which students and teachers fear surveillance more than arrest — to achieve and maintain influence and control (CIA, 2010).

This is an extreme example of the Panopticon, in which students and professors cannot verify that they are being surveilled by student informants on campus at all times but must always think they are so they keep themselves disciplined and self-regulate as to not express any unconventional political views. Student informants report all unconventional political activity or expression to the Academic Affairs department who then denounce students and professors for deviating. 

Michel Foucault insisted that power is decentralized, meaning power does not come from one source but that it can be dispersed, fragmented, decentralized, omnipresent and therefore invisible (Foucault, 1975). The Chinese Communist Party in this case is the centralized power in which they are the institution that created the Student Informant System and the rules that apply. They also employ and disperse power to the student informants to enforce this system and to monitor the students and professors for them, which gets reported back to the Academic Affairs Department who end up deciding whether or not to penalize. The students and professors are always aware of this centralized power and will self-regulate their behaviors as to avoid getting penalized. Having the student informants visible, the students and professors must always be aware that the centralized power is watching them so they can self-regulate and maintain political stability on campus as to not get penalized. Having the power to be able to discipline and self-regulate themselves, the power is then disbursed from the student informants and decentralized to the students and professors.  

References

CIA Open Source Works, (2010). China: Student informant system to expand, limiting school autonomy, free expression

Foucault , M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison .

Facebook - The Digital Gaze

     The digital gaze that is Facebook, can be considered a modern example of the Panopticon. The panopticon was originally designed by Jeremy Bentham as a prison which had a watch tower in the middle and on the perimeter are cells with inmates who were unable to tell whether they were being watched, however the visibility of the tower at all angles made them always feel so.

     Although Bentham’s Panopticon did not come in to fruition, Michel Foucault used this design of the prison to describe societies requirement of discipline and normalization through observation. Other than the main example of the prison that Bentham used, Foucault discussed in his book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison that the idea of the Panopticon can also be implemented in hospitals, workshops, schools and prisons (Foucault, 1975). Foucault goes on to say that whenever one is dealing with a multiplicity of individuals on whom a task or a particular form of behavior must be imposed, the panoptic schema may be used (Foucault, 1975). When discussing Facebook as a modern discourse that works in the way of a Panopticon, this quote from Foucault makes the correlation evident to me; 

This disciplinary aspect of panoptic observation involves a productive soul training which encourages inmates to reflect upon the minutia of their own behaviour in subtle and ongoing efforts to transform their selves (Foucault, 1975).

     My awareness that what I post on Facebook is potentially being observed by the people who are categorized as my “friends” on Facebook always has an impact on what pictures I choose to post and what I put as a “status update”. Many a time have I logged on to Facebook hotheaded about an issue only to realize that my thoughts and opinions on said issue could result in an all out Facebook thread war or potentially rub a “friend” of mine the wrong way. This reflection of the minutia of my behavior, as Foucault wrote, transforms the impulsive act of ranting about personal,usually trivial issues over Facebook, because let’s be honest, who cares?

References

Foucault , M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison .

Santa's Panopticon

     On the list of christmas songs I listen to every year, the classic Santa Claus is Coming to Town is at the top of the playlist. Not until myself and my classmate did a project on the Panopticon for Contemporary Social Theory, did I realize that Santa, yes Santa! Fit in to Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon and the belief that power should be Visible and Unverifiable (Foucault, 1975).

To keep us in check when we were acting out, my parents used to tell my brother and I that Santa is watching us and will know whether we are being bad or good and the song “Santa Claus is coming to Town” just reinforced this notion; 

He sees you when you're sleeping He knows when you're awake He knows if you've been bad or good So be good for goodness sake!

     Now grown up and knowing the difference, these lyrics now make me think of Bentham’s Visible and Unverifiable. As Foucault wrote in his book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Jeremy Bentham believed that power should be Visible and Unverifiable;

In view of this, Bentham laid down the principle that power should be visible and unverifiable. Visible: the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the tall outline of the central tower from which he is spied upon. Unverifiable: the inmate must never know whether he is being looked at at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so (Foucault, 1975).

     Santa is visible to children as his character makes special visits to malls and parades as the tall, plump, white bearded, rosy cheeked, jolly old man that we have come to know symbolizes Christmas. As a child we are told he lives in the North Pole where he has a workshop full of Elves who make toys for children who are on the “nice” list. Children often write letters and mail them to Santa in the North Pole and include their list of toys they want for Christmas which makes this magical character seem even more realistic. Santa and his workshop resemble the central the central tower, which inside, one sees everything without ever being seen (Foucault, 1975). Children believe Santa and his workshop exist, they can see the image of him at malls and in parades and his workshop on movies and television shows, however the unverifiable is whether they are being watched by Santa, but since he is magical they believe he has the power to see them at all times. Having the image of Santa visible to them, but not knowing for sure whether he is actually watching them at all times ultimately keeps children disciplined and well-behaved so they can stay on the “nice” list. 

References

Foucault , M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison .

Jeremy Bentham's Illustration

Jeremy Bentham's illustration of the Panopticon