11. Foucault: the Means of Correct Training
Hierarchical Observation
For Foucault discipline is a form of power which acts to differentiate the population into whatever units are required for some activity or other. It doesn’t have one centre e.g. the state but rather moves through linkages at a micro-level e.g. at the level of institutional life- schools, clinics, prisons, asylums etc. As such it works by a capillary process rather than ‘top-down’. The function of disciplinary power is to regulate the activities of subjects in requirement with institutional life. Hence in relation to the structure-agency model here the emphasis is definitely in the direction of disciplinary structures or discourses.
Power of discipline works through making it visible, by producing a hierarchy of command that can be seen e.g. observation posts or towers- the panopticon model of the prison, the teacher-centred model of the classroom, a kind of politics of space. Power works through pyramids but can be produced anywhere within the pyramid hierarchy.
Normalising Judgement
The power of the Norm is the way power operates institutionally. It is a coercive device which punishes those who do not reach the required standard, whether soldiers or pupils etc. It defines the ’frontier of the abnormal’. The norm ’compares, differentiates, hierarchises, homogenises, excludes.’ It normalises by rendering the abnormal visible e.g. the dunce stands in the corner of the classroom, hence it is not like a written text such as the law but rather something active and tangible. Norms are associated with the standardisation techniques of modernity, hence some similarity with the ideas of Weber or Simmel.
The Examination
This is a powerful technique of fixing the identities of individual subjects, of individualising people as ‘cases’ i.e. marks out what constitiutes the important criteria for distinguishing between people (grades them etc.). I.Q. might be seen as an aspect of this (I.Q. tests).
It also extracts the relevant aptitudes for positions within the discursive formation which the student enters e.g. exams based on essay-writing, objective tests, continuous assessment, the use of analtyical skills and so on. This sorts the population into the requisite types for that particular discursive regime. It ritualises the training/discipline which is relevant to the social system. Hence it is a form of surveillance through which institutions in general (armies, hospitals, schools etc.) placed individuals in certain power relations. Examination is highly visible and as such a ritualised process- parades, exam rooms, the surgery etc. It is under these circumstances that individuals are judged and punished as the truth about them is established by codified procedures which they accept. In this way individuals are both objectified and subjected to the power of discipline through its various discourses
Hierarchical Observation
For Foucault discipline is a form of power which acts to differentiate the population into whatever units are required for some activity or other. It doesn’t have one centre e.g. the state but rather moves through linkages at a micro-level e.g. at the level of institutional life- schools, clinics, prisons, asylums etc. As such it works by a capillary process rather than ‘top-down’. The function of disciplinary power is to regulate the activities of subjects in requirement with institutional life. Hence in relation to the structure-agency model here the emphasis is definitely in the direction of disciplinary structures or discourses.
Power of discipline works through making it visible, by producing a hierarchy of command that can be seen e.g. observation posts or towers- the panopticon model of the prison, the teacher-centred model of the classroom, a kind of politics of space. Power works through pyramids but can be produced anywhere within the pyramid hierarchy.
Normalising Judgement
The power of the Norm is the way power operates institutionally. It is a coercive device which punishes those who do not reach the required standard, whether soldiers or pupils etc. It defines the ’frontier of the abnormal’. The norm ’compares, differentiates, hierarchises, homogenises, excludes.’ It normalises by rendering the abnormal visible e.g. the dunce stands in the corner of the classroom, hence it is not like a written text such as the law but rather something active and tangible. Norms are associated with the standardisation techniques of modernity, hence some similarity with the ideas of Weber or Simmel.
The Examination
This is a powerful technique of fixing the identities of individual subjects, of individualising people as ‘cases’ i.e. marks out what constitiutes the important criteria for distinguishing between people (grades them etc.). I.Q. might be seen as an aspect of this (I.Q. tests).
It also extracts the relevant aptitudes for positions within the discursive formation which the student enters e.g. exams based on essay-writing, objective tests, continuous assessment, the use of analtyical skills and so on. This sorts the population into the requisite types for that particular discursive regime. It ritualises the training/discipline which is relevant to the social system. Hence it is a form of surveillance through which institutions in general (armies, hospitals, schools etc.) placed individuals in certain power relations. Examination is highly visible and as such a ritualised process- parades, exam rooms, the surgery etc. It is under these circumstances that individuals are judged and punished as the truth about them is established by codified procedures which they accept. In this way individuals are both objectified and subjected to the power of discipline through its various discourses
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