1 Panopticism & subjection/subjectivation Lecture 13 December 2004 New Media New Citizenship Marianne van den Boomen Rights (civil, political & social rights) Public sphere (vs private sphere, counterpublics) Subjection/subjectivation/subject positions

2 Michel Foucault ( ) Power & panopticism – Power & knowledge & subject formation

3 Structuralism Academic school: theorizing society & relations between people (anthropology, sociology, philosophy, political sciences) Political world view: connected to social movements of students, women, gays, communist parties, prisoners, patients etc. Basic concepts: The formation of societies, cultures, individuals and groups are based on structures and structural relations

4 Structuralists  Ferdinand de Saussure linguistics, semiotics Language & ideology Claude Levi-Strauss  anthropology, cultures, myths Jacques Lacan: psychoanalysis, symbolic order, split subject Louis Althusser: marxism, ideological state apparatusses Michel Foucault: institutions, archeology of power, micropolitics

5 Structuralist characteristics Structural relations language & ideology Structures are historical and changeable History: not lineair but full of ruptures and contradictions The subject is not univocal autonomous and selfdetermining

6 Human subject: myth or truth? Critique on the notion of the free autonomous subject (reason, transcendental mind, no material constraints) Cf. Barlow, Habermas The paradox of the subject: ● This subject is true - subjects are (re)produced by structures ● This subject is a myth - subjects are subjected to structures

7 Double structure of the subject Freedom/unfreedom, myth/truth, individual/social: split subject, decentered subject Not a unity, not a center as in humanist world view: theoretical anti-humanism The word ‘subject’: Subject  object Area of study: ‘the subject of this course’ = ‘the object of this course’ Citizenship: ‘we are subjects of our government’ = subjected to & in charge The subject = the ruler & the ruled

8 Foucault on modern power Power is not a possession – power is exercised and distributed in a grid (dispositive) of institutions, instruments and classifications Power is not repression & prohibition – power is productive ● Power is not violence – power works by discipline & surveillance Power is knowledge, knowledge is power When there is power, there is also resistance, counterpower Power, knowledge and resistance produces the double edged subject

9 Panopticism & the Panopticon Bentham’s design: dicipline, surveillance, internalisation subject positions of guard+prisoner

10 The Panopticon as metaphor Prisons, hospitals, schools, workplaces, laboratories: soft optic 'mind' power (instead of fysical power) discipline and surveillance (instead of violence and repression) individual compartimentalisation (instead of managing unordered masses) classification, normalisation and correction (instead of punishment and prohibition social inclusion and exclusion (instead of authoritive seclusion and exile or even extermination) internalisation of subject positions (instead of visible external authority)

11 Internalisation of subjection The historical birth of the modern subject: - individuals with an inner life and conscience - able to give an account of one’s actions Panopticon? Prisoners! Powerless poor people! Privacy invasion! Bentham: discourse of humanization, liberation and civilization Total? Only when embodiment is ignored

12 Digital subjection 1 Negative: the total digital Panopticon with total surveillance Every citizen becomes a suspect subject: Spy satellites Global Positioning Systems GSM: mobile phone location State databases (birth, marriage, tax, insurence etc.) International surveillance (Echelon) Non-state databases (data mining and profiles, Internet cookies, spyware) IP-numbers, Internet Service Providers WebCT: tracking students

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14 Counterpower: rights Global/universal rights: Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948 UN) International Convenant on Civil and Political Rights National Constitutions Right on privacy, protection of the private sphere, regulation of recording personal data Digital civil rights organizations: Electronic Frontier Foundation ( Bits of Freedom (

15 Problems with digital civil rights Rights adresses states - but the Internet surpasses state bounderies - global Internet regulation – but by whom? Privacy invasion also comes from the market - Fraser: economic private sphere is liberalized and deregelulated - subjection by free choice Based on a clear distiction between public and private - but on the Internet the distinction is blurred or useless

16 Digital subjects 2 Positive: digital Panopticon = Panopticon deconstructed The counterpower of communication - no isolating walls between individual subjects - talking as comfort and tactical insubordination The counterpower of knowledge - digital technology can be hacked - easy distribution of individual knowledge The power of counterpublics - digital communities of fans, consumers, women, cultural groups - diversity, fragments, collectives

17 Digital (in)visibility tactics Making the subjects/suspects invisable or untracable: Peer-to-peer networks (Kazaa) Free PGP encryption software Anonimizing software Making the power & knowledge visible: Art/activism projects on tracking surveillance camera’s Reproducing and distributing secret government reports Witness projects of human rights violations Daily updates of local speed control and flash camera’s Sites with maps of public buildings and institutions Manuals of how to make fireworks or bombs

18 Poststructuralist, postmodern subjects? not based on unitary subjects, but on relations, exchanges and communication not private and autonomous, not collective and transcendental flexible mix of collective and fragmented elements public-private co-construction