"'Discipline may be identified neither with an institution nor with an apparatus; it is a type of power, a modality for its exercise, comprising a whole set of instruments, techniques, procedures, levels of application, targets; it is 'physics' or an 'anatomy' of power, a technology." (C 100)
From what I can decipher of Michel Foucault, he discusses the penalty system in our culture through his work "Discipline and Punish." He speaks as if discipline is institutionalized as a technology. Because we have large prisons and justice systems, we have evolved to more humanitarian ways of discipline (such as how torture used to be the main way in which the people--probably, mostly the bourgeoise--were punished for their crimes).
He speaks of how prisons and penalty are dealt with through a system. Schools, medical facilities, and prisons are all of the same types of institutions. Under the guise of medicine and science, we have created reformative sites that provide careers for criminals and those who have 'strayed.' These people are a part of a certain social class that is lower than the working class--they are delinquents. Ideology tells us that these people are bad and lower than those of us who are not committers of crimes that land us in this network of penalty and behavior correction.
Foucault speaks about the punishment associated with prisons as a type of technology that has been institutionalized into society. It is an art that we abide by and that is such a large part of our culture that it influences our ideology continuously. I'm not sure if this is wholly correct, but I look forward to learning more about Foucault's view on prison and punishment in class on Monday.
He speaks of how prisons and penalty are dealt with through a system. Schools, medical facilities, and prisons are all of the same types of institutions. Under the guise of medicine and science, we have created reformative sites that provide careers for criminals and those who have 'strayed.' These people are a part of a certain social class that is lower than the working class--they are delinquents. Ideology tells us that these people are bad and lower than those of us who are not committers of crimes that land us in this network of penalty and behavior correction.
Foucault speaks about the punishment associated with prisons as a type of technology that has been institutionalized into society. It is an art that we abide by and that is such a large part of our culture that it influences our ideology continuously. I'm not sure if this is wholly correct, but I look forward to learning more about Foucault's view on prison and punishment in class on Monday.
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