Panopticon, society and power

Michel Foucault sees Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon as a metaphor for how disciplinary power is exercised in modern society; the panopticon is a shift from the earlier model of disciplinary power that housed prisoners in a dungeon and exacted out physical punishment via torture or execution on the physical body of the prisoner; Power was viewed as being solely in the hands of the monarch. (Foucault, 1975/1977)The Panoptic model was that prisoners would be housed in individual cells cut off from contact with the outside and other prisoners and under constant surveillance, or perceived surveillance, by a central tower within which would be stationed a guard. The prisoner could see the tower but not the guard, the uncertainty of the exercising of power made the power constant (pg. 200, 201). The power then shifts from the observer to the observed who thinks they are being constantly watched (Foucault, 1975/1977). In this way the observed will exercise power upon themselves to keep their actions in line with what is perceived as normal behaviour for fear of being of punished. This is a decentralisation of power; the power to discipline is now in the hands of the disciplined. This economy of discipline allows for less authority to govern more people (Foucault, 1975/1977).

Is panopticism visible in society today? I will show how the make-up of the modern call centre is an example of the panoptic model of how power is exercised. I will do this by explaining how power in the call centre is exercised and show how that is like a panopticon, I will then show how Knowledge equals power in the call centre and how that knowledge leads to the exercise of power upon the employees.

                The structure of an office or call centre is an example of a modern Panopticon, in that each person is individualized with an employee number and placed into a cubical where they can be monitored either by cameras placed around the office or by other electronic means, like monitoring and logging of web activity or having employees time in and out for shifts as well as all their breaks, and of courses the dreaded quality assurance monitoring, which is random but you were assured that at least once a week they would be listening to at least one call possibly more. This is like the individual cells of the panopticon. Also like the Panopticon, employees are constantly under the perceived gaze of authority and act accordingly, the key here is that the power is exercised constantly. The power to discipline has transferred from the authority structure to the object of observation, hence like the Panopticon  the workers are self-disciplining according to a set of rules they have been taught to see as normal behaviour for the situation they are placed.

                The panopticon has been described as a laboratory, a place where a person can gather knowledge (Foucault, 1975/1977 pg. 203); the observation of subjects produces knowledge that can in turn be used to exercise further power on them. The structure of an office or call centre facilitates that kind of power, where the boss can check to see how much time has been logged on what websites, or how long an employee has been on the phone, or when they time in and out, and use that power to exercise further power, either in a disciplinary fashion like blocking websites that employees might frequent, or blocking of internet access entirely, or maybe to reward those that meet goals or are on time for all their shifts.

                As Foucault stats power is neither positive nor negative, power produces through its action other forms of power (1982).  I will show by an example from my experience working at a call centre handling inbound calls; I was on a particularly difficult call with a customer that had gotten very much out of hand, but since I knew that there was the possibility of the call being monitored by a quality assurance staff member I had to maintain a level of professionalism. By the time the call had ended I was approached by my supervisor and told that the call had been monitored and that I had done a fantastic job and that I had received a score or 100% for quality and that if I needed to take time away from the phones I was able. What I hoped to show with this example is that the disciplinary power exercised on me by the authority, by my being told that sometimes calls would be monitored, then exercised by me on myself in the fear of losing my job over a poor rating, had produced a positive outcome by making me a productive worker and garnering me positive feedback. Power is exercised in a continuous fashion, exercised and re-exercised by those who have had power exercised upon them. 

References

Foucault, M. (1975). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York: Vintage Books (Original work published in 1975). 

Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry.  8(4) pp. 777-795