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Back to Subjects - Sociology

Foucault

Foucault Michael Foucault distinguishes between two different and distinct forms of power, disciplinary and sovereign. Fouccault describes disciplinary power as the new type of power in the modern civilization. The use of disciplinary power transpired in the 17th and 18th century, and it used specific procedures such as distributing individuals into space, controls of activity, observation, judging, and examination, to regulate the people. The first way to create discipline is to distribute individuals in space. This space is usually analytical and physical. Discipline demands enclose, so that you see everything that is going on. Inside of this enclosure there is a partitioning where each individual has his or her own place inside the space. Once the individuals are in the divided up space the spaces are made to be functional. Each separate space has some thing different to do that completes the whole. Each unit is divided up into rank, and this is where the analytical and the physical space mix. An example of this structure is in a hospital. In a hospital you part ion the units by floors, each nurse has a station on a separate floor. Then the different floors in the hospital are functional, there are some that deal specifically with cardiac units and there are some that only deal with pediatric units. Inside of the specialized units there are there are different needs for the patients, some need more care than the others and this is were they are ranked- from most life threatening to least. The next part of discipline is being able to control activity. To do this you need to establish a pattern and have cycles of repetition. In order to have the desired repetition you need t completely breakdown the gestures and the manipulation of the tasks at hand. You need to define every detail of the task. We have something similar to this in gymnastics. We do and exhibition where everything need to be perfectly times and everyone’s movements in their tumbling needs to be the exact same. We break down the movements of the back handsprings and backs flips and learn how to do the special movements exactly the same as everyone else, so we look together. To be able to have our exhibitions be successful we need constant monitoring to see if we are with the music and with each other. The next step to achieving discipline is through observation. This gives you power by simply observing visually seeing what is going on. In this you are under constant surveillance. By being put under this constant examination you are always being put to the test to see if you measure up to set standards. An example of this is the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. You are always under constant surveillance, even when you are not in uniform or performing. Even if you are not wearing anything associated with the organization, and are out going to the local 7-11 and you look bad, you can get in a lot of trouble. You are always held to a standard with how you look at how much you weigh. In the DCC you are weighed every week and you re not allowed to gain more than five pounds or you will be dropped off the squad if you do not lose the extra weight. This brings us to the next part of discipline, normalizing judgment. This is where you have a rule or task and have everyone do the same task. From here you can classify everyone in according to the norm of everyone involved in the testing process. From there you can break people up into percentages above and below the norm. When we do this we can normalize, by where they fall in the study. This gives each individual a position exact position in the ranking system. An example of this is taking the SAT’s which all high school students take the exact same test as everyone else to determine the scholastic aptitude. This test determines what kind of college you can get into and it normalizes you. After you take this exam you are told what percentage in the nation you scored compared to peers. This allows you to be specified as either above average, average, or below average. When you apply to college the see these percentiles and they classify you, and determine if they want you to go to their school based on your score. Finally there is examination, and this requires constant updates. People become more individualized in this process. An example of this is in my one of my mothers classes back in high school, her teacher would arrange the class after every test according to what they made on the test, the people that got the highest score were put in the front of the class and in the back row were the one who did the most poorly. In seating according to grades, this gave the teacher more power in the class, and the students were subjecting to testing to see how fit they were. The implications of living in a disciplinary society are that you constantly being put on under observations and surveillance. You are singled out and you know exactly your place in society, and you could feel that you could never change your status. An extreme case is in the book 1984, where Big Brother controls everyone and everything you do. You are always under constant surveillance: at work, home, Big Brother is everywhere. The disciplinary society run very differently than sovereign society, which is was in place before the 16th century. In the old society the common man was not important at all. The people that you saw leading up society were the nobles and aristocrats. They were the only ones with identity. Everyone else that was a peasant or common was forgotten. The only way these commoners got any attention was if they became unruly and got out of hand. They gained their identity by there punishment. Theses rebels gained their identity because usually crimes against the state and the regime and they later became executed for the crimes. Therefore if you were outside the scope of the wealthy you wee anonymous and unknown. What Foucault meant by humans becoming “objects of knowledge” implies on how we now live in our modern societies. This disciplinary power shows that humans are “programmed” to do what the controlling party wants them to do. The use of disciplinary power techniques makes humans ear to manipulate and makes us useful. Its main function is to order human multiplicities in a way of the excising of power at the highest intensity, lowest price, and is able to make the subjects abide by the rules. Since the power holders have a high dependency on the common man in modern times, the commoner is considered to be an individual and in reality has power. On the other hand, while still using the sovereign power focus much more on the upper class, which made the common individual anonymous. In the modern times I do think that we have increased to subjection to power. We all have set schedules that rule our life. I f we don’t go to school or work for a few days without an excuse we will be in trouble. We are subjected to our people that are above us’s power in all aspects of our lives, organizations, school, jobs, and religions. There is always someone above us that we need to get approval from. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1251