Disciplinary Society Research Articles

Research on the Theory of Power in Foucaults Mid-term Thoughts

Abstract: The concept of power is deeply rooted in everyday life, making it difficult to escape the dominant status assigned by the world. The issue of power is central to Foucaults field of study, where he innovatively proposed a productive view of power and explored its internal relationship with knowledge and subjectivity from a micro-power perspective. On one hand, Foucault posits that the subject is a product of power and primarily analyzes three ways in which power produces subjects, introducing the theory of the death of the subject in modernity. On the other hand, Foucault elucidates the relationship between power and knowledge, asserting that power produces knowledge, but it must also rely on the creation of discourse for its implementation and circulation. This paper then focuses on Foucaults theory of disciplinary power, analyzing how the technologies of discipline in the operation of modern micro-power tame the bodies of modern subjects, thereby forming a disciplinary society. The model of power over the body shifts from the harsh penal practices of the classical period to modern disciplinary training. Foucaults theory of power marks an important turning point in the history of Western philosophy, and his theory of biopolitics provides an innovative understanding of the concept of power from macro to micro levels.

Flying Free? Risk and Regulation in Recreational Flying Trapeze

ABSTRACT Legal and regulatory theory has been fascinated by the relationship between law and other forms of regulation in a differentiated society. While some scholars have pointed out the benefits of local regulation, especially when managing the risks of modern society, others have seen regulation in Foucauldian terms as discipline, the dark underside of liberal society. Law, in a Foucauldian approach, is usually understood as another form of constraint. There have, however, been recent suggestions that an enabling law could contain possibilities for openness and agency – much like Foucault’s concept of ‘technologies of the self’. At the same time, sociologists have used the technologies of the self to describe voluntary risk-taking, or ‘edgework’, as a form of escape from the disciplinary society. In this article, I examine these possibilities by investigating the operation of law and regulatory techniques in flying trapeze. Recreational flying trapeze is the kind of risky activity that was facilitated by the enabling law of the 2002 tort reforms. Recreational flyers, who are usually women, appear to experience a moment of freedom. Yet flyers are subject to local regulations and their own practice of self-regulation. As such, this activity provides a practical opportunity for examining the intersection of law, regulation, and the technologies of the self, and considering what they mean for the possibilities and limitations of freedom.

Disciplinary society as a prerequisite for the formation of organizational culture

Aim. To identify the correlation of the narratives “organizational culture” and “organizational behavior” with the metanarratives “economism” and “disciplinary society” as belonging to a single civilizational space.Objectives. To trace the historical conditionality of the emergence of the concepts of “organizational culture” and “organizational behavior” as concepts and norms of disciplinary society; on the basis of these concepts to convey the desire to develop optimal technologies of social engineering to rationalize work.Methods. The author applied general scientific methods of textual and comparative analysis, synthesis, as well as basic principles of historical and philosophical method of research.Results. The unity of value and semantic assumptions between the concepts of “organizational behavior” and “disciplinary society” is shown. The most important tools of influence and control of disciplinary society, in particular panopticism, are also used to form organizational culture. Individual self-control — “technique-self” — is generated by people due to their realization of total control over themselves. A person controls himself if he wants to be a unit of society or labor collective. This is the basis for such forms of social engineering as “organizational culture” and “organizational behavior”.Conclusions. The idea of a disciplinary society is that the outcome of human socialization would be the controllability of man over the socio-political institutions of domination. Man's controllability of power becomes a condition of his usefulness, including economic. However, the task of organizational culture is to find ways in which a person, being disciplined within the framework acceptable to society, retains the desire for creativity, which is necessary for society and its institutions as a condition for development.

Государственный интерес как предпосылка биополитики: фрагмент концепции М. Фуко

M. Foucault’s concept of biopolitics is usually perceived through the prism of his concept of a disciplinary society and is interpreted as a special case of the influence of surveillance and punishment on the bodies of individuals. Such perception and interpretation do not exhaust the heuristic potential of the concept of biopolitics. This is evidenced by the works of the second and third stages of Foucault’s work. They served as an impetus for the development of Foucault's concept of governmentality, in which the concept of state interest (hereinafter referred to as GI) occupies a central place. One of the results of development is the idea of ​​the need to apply the concept of governmentality to the analysis of history, politics and public administration of all countries of the world, a special case of which is the USSR/Russia. This general idea inspired the particular purpose of the proposed article - to abstract the content of Foucault's lecture of January 10, 1979 in order to reconstruct the main ideas regarding the connection of the concept of GI with its interpretation of the premises of biopolitics.

A happy system crasher at home and in conventional and democratic schools

Often, “system crashers” are portrayed as disturbed children (students) who actively break the institutional system work and disturb relationships with other people. However, some system crashers are perfectly happy children who, precisely due to their happiness, liveliness, and rich imagination, do not fit into a conventional school. In this paper, I provide a detailed case of such a happy system crasher at home and in conventional and democratic schools. I found out that at home, the parents of the system crasher often reflected and rethought their parenting practices, priorities, and values to shelter their child’s happy life, often at a great expense for themselves. In contrast, the conventional school either ignored or punished the happy system crasher to preserve its institutional practices and keep them smooth. I hypothesize that conventional school is aimed at promoting a disciplinary society by making students convenient, obedient, and useful citizens at the expense of the student’s authorial agency. In contrast, parents and democratic schools address a happy system crasher’s disruption of their lives by rethinking and renegotiating their practices. Finally, I argue that happy system crashers are essential for Democratic and Dialogic Education.

Espaços de “lazer” em ambientes de trabalho na “Sociedade de desempenho”

Abstract This article proposes a reflection on the increasing trend of integrating leisure spaces into work environments. It begins with the hypothesis that such spaces constitute a form of appropriation, by employers, of their employees' non-working time. The conceptual references primarily stem from the notions of Disciplinary Society (Foucault), involving the idea of docile bodies shaped by surveillance, and Performance Society (Han), demonstrating how the experience within these spaces that exploit employees' free time can easily be mistaken for a sense of freedom. The article concludes by highlighting the worker’s active participation in their own exploitation and pointing out the need to discuss the psychosocial implications arising from this rapidly expanding practice within contemporary capitalism.

TRANSFORMATION OF THE SUBJECTIVITY OF THE MODERN INDIVIDUAL IN THE CONTEXT OF THE DIGITALIZATION OF SOCIETY

The article examines the state of formation of subjectivity in a modern individual, in particular, his or her attitude to social freedom. It has been clarified how these attitudes to freedom differ significantly from established, traditional ideas about this most important factor in the formation of a person. It is traced how ideas about freedom are connected with three types of societies, according to the conceptualization of M. Foucault – the society of the sovereign, the disciplinary society, the society of control in its current digital version – as a society of surveillance capitalism. The history of the emergence of the concepts of biopower, biopolitics and biomass in M. Foucault is analyzed, starting with the study of disciplinary society. It was revealed that in order to ensure the management of the masses of people and the control over each individual, biopower embodied a mechanism even in the times of the disciplinary society, which has gained further development in the modern society of control. Its main content involves the transformation of an individual into a social subject while preserving the totalization of the population as biomass. It is shown that the formation of modern subjectivity is simultaneously undertaken by the state in the form of performing a totalizing and individualizing function, from which the individual tries to slip away with the help of his practices and techniques of freedom that guarantee subjectivation. It is considered how the latest digital technologies adapt the socio-philosophical doctrine of neo-behaviorism, which justifies the control and formation of an individual's behavior at all levels of his life, and how this ensures the manipulation of freedom in the broadest sense and puts the population on the verge of endless survival. It can be stated that the launched worldwide technologies for managing the behavior of individuals as biomass and the process of individual digitization significantly transform the subjectivity of modern individuals. As a result of this long-term process of modern biopolitics, there is a possibility that individuals will lose the significance of freedom and the role of democratic institutions in society will decrease, and neoliberalism can become a «nurture medium» for the formation of digital totalitarian regimes.

The Panaural People’s Republic: Loudness, Loss of Self, and Sonic Social Control in Mao’s China

Perspectives on the establishment of social control have long been shaped by theories concerning visibility and observation, such as Foucault’s concept of the Panopticon. In Mao era China, however, sound and hearing had a greater impact on citizens becoming self-disciplined. Reflecting on a variety of sources, with a particular focus on memoirs, this article details how the Mao era soundscape helped to fashion a new form of disciplinary society. This disciplinary society was chaotic, however, and sites of resistance remained, in which some individuals fought to retain their sense of self, even amid all the tumult and violence.

Beyond Agamben’s ‘Homo sacer’

In the first part of this paper, the current ‘pandemic’ was approached through the lens of (mainly) the concept of Homo sacer, elaborated on by Giorgio Agamben (1998). Taking the work of Michel Foucault on the ‘disciplinary society’ and ‘bio-politics’ further, and drawing on the role played by the principle of Homo sacer in antiquity, Agamben uncovers the disconcerting extent to which this principle has become generalised in contemporary societies. In antiquity, the principle of ‘sacred man/human’ was invoked in cases where someone was exempted from ritual sacrifice, but simultaneously seen as ‘bare life’, and therefore as being fit for execution. Agamben argues that the sphere of ‘sacred life’ has grown immensely since ancient times in so far as the modern state arrogates to itself the right to wield biopolitical power over ‘bare life’ in a manner analogous to ancient practices, and finds in the concentration camp the contemporary paradigm of this phenomenon. Arguing that today we witness a further downward step in the treatment of humans as ‘bare life’, these concepts are employed as heuristic for bringing into focus current practices under the aegis of the COVID-19 ‘pandemic’. In particular, the spotlight falls on those areas where burgeoning ‘bare life’ practices can be detected, namely ‘origin of the virus’ and ‘lethal vaccines’ in Part 1, while ‘engineered economic collapse’, ‘chemtrails’, and ‘what (to expect) next’ are scrutinised in Part 2. In the light of emerging evidence, it is argued that these practices take the notion of Homo sacer, ‘bare life’, and its concomitant biopolitical and pharma-political practices to unprecedented, virtually incomprehensible levels of depravity. Before turning to these, however, at the outset of Part 2 attention is given to a ‘Platonic’ psychotherapy, complemented by its Kristevan counterpart, to demonstrate that one is not defenceless against the depredations of the cabal.

Prison As Paradox: Foucault and the Disciplinary Society

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Beyond Agamben’s ‘Homo Sacer’

The current ‘pandemic’ is approached through the lens of (mainly) the concept of Homo sacer, elaborated on by Giorgio Agamben (1998). Taking the work of Michel Foucault on the ‘disciplinary society’ and ‘bio-politics’ further, and drawing on the role played by the principle of homo sacer in antiquity, Agamben uncovers the disconcerting extent to which this principle has become generalised in contemporary societies. In antiquity, the principle of ‘sacred man/human’ was invoked in cases where someone was exempted from ritual sacrifice, but simultaneously seen as ‘bare life’, and therefore as being fit for execution. Agamben argues that the sphere of ‘sacred life’ has grown immensely since ancient times in so far as the modern state arrogates to itself the right to wield biopolitical power over ‘bare life’ in a manner analogous to ancient practices, and finds in the concentration camp the contemporary paradigm of this phenomenon. Arguing that today we witness a further downward step in the treatment of humans as ‘bare life’, these concepts are employed as a heuristic for bringing into focus current practices under the aegis of the COVID-19 ‘pandemic’. In particular, here the spotlight falls on those areas where burgeoning ‘bare life’ practices can be detected, namely ‘origin of the virus’ and ‘lethal vaccines’. In an upcoming second article, other aspects are addressed, as well as the question of commensurate psychotherapy.

Power politics in Margaret Atwood’sLady Oracle

AbstractThe issue of power politics is a crucial topic in Margaret Atwood’s works. According to Atwood, power is pervasive and diffused throughout all social relations. This essay examines how power becomes a part of human life, and how different levels of power interact in Atwood’s third novelLady Oracle(1976). I investigate Atwood’s treatment of family upbringing in reinforcing gender roles. I show how Atwood explores the protagonist’s odd behavior in relation to her family environment. I also consider Atwood’s representation of the cultural control of women with prescribed images or roles for them. The small details that form the everyday life of the protagonist are highly gendered and part of a larger picture of a patriarchal society. Based on Foucault’s notion of disciplinary society, I analyze how Atwood examines self-watching as internalized power. The protagonist and girls of her age best represent an internalization of patriarchal values of femininity. Just like the inmates of the Panopticon, they practice discipline through self-surveillance.

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

In-Between Discipline And Control: Ari Aster's Midsommar As An Allegory For Hypercapitalist Society

Horror’s disruptive quality in that it continually demonstrates how the monstrous and evil circulate, invading complacent individuals, turning them into what they think as their opposites. This means that horror films possess a potential to show people that there is a possibility that the evil of the primal and primitive resides behind the veil of moral superiority and intellectual achievement of the modern world. Ari Aster’s horror film entitled Midsommar (2019) exploits the metaphorical power of the horror in revealing how the archaic is actually in the possession of the modern/“cultured”/“civilized”. The film is a reflection of the monstrosity of the systems that govern the contemporary society—a hypercapitalist society that is in-between Disciplinary Society and the Society of Control; Society of (Semi-)Control. This study mainly draws from Deleuze, Foucault, and Neo-Marxists. Data is collected by using observation method. As for data analysis methods, this study utilizes formalist technique called close reading and then apply the theoretical frameworks in an accordance with the methodological implications found in them. It is found that the narrative and visual elements of the film allegorically depict crucial aspects of a Disciplinary Society, Society of (Semi-)Control, and hypercapitalist society. The film unveils the oppressive and repressive nature of late-stage capitalism and Society of (Semi-)Control. This is shown through the customary suicide of old people because they are assumed to have past their productive years in a ritual called ättestupa; the strict division of labor; the deliberate reproduction of disable people; and the restriction to express one’s ownership of personal pain and sadness could be interpreted as elements that construct an allegory for a hypercapitalist society. Moreover, through its heroine, Dani, Midsommar also explores the process of how Disciplinary Society transforms into Society of (Semi-)Control.

Is there any basis for talking about post-truth regime?

The paper deals with the (im)possibilities of justifying the discourse of ?post-truth?. Its first part is dedicated to detection and understanding what (at all) one talk about when they use newly coined term ?post-truth?, as well as to the efforts to locate where that talking comes from: what social state it intends to describe and what social change it diagnoses or advocates for. In the central part of the paper, with references to the works of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze and Jayson Harsin, the conception according to which we moved from the ?truth regime? to the ?post-truth regime?, and thus from the ?disciplinary society? to the ?society of control?, is presented and problematized. The final part of the paper emphasizes the dimension of the social status of truth and science. Having them in mind, the author believes that one cannot speak of an epochal novelty that allegedly occurs with their withdrawal at the expense of post-truth and alternative science, but of raising awareness of one relatively stable historical constant. On the other hand, the author points out that changes in the production and placement of information, as well as the professionalization of public communication based on service sciences, in a crucial way testify to its contemporary variant.

Perspectivas de (não) soberania em Michel Foucault: da sociedade disciplinar às técnicas de governo pastoral

The present study aims to analyze the insufficiency of a juridical-sovereign model as a way of analyzing con-temporary power relations. Oriented by the archaeo-logical method, the research presents as a hypothesis the insufficiency of the models of legal-sovereign analysis to understand the dynamics of power, con-sidering that these have their best functioning from a microphysics of power. To this end, a bibliographic re-view of Michel Foucault's vast work constitutes the base material for research. In the itinerary proposed by this study, the theme will be addressed at first with the characterization of the microphysics of power, followed by a reading of the transition from the an-cien regimento the so-called disciplinary society -as-sociated with the biopolitical device -and ending in the techniques of consciousness direction, in pastoral power, that is, in the dimension of subjectivity that becomes the focus of relations between government and governed, explaining the difference that consti-tutes the modern government / population paradigm in face of the legal analyzes organized by the idea of sovereign / people.

WORK (CYBER) BULLYİNG, POWER IMBALANCES AND VİCTİMİZATİON: A REVİEW ON PANOPTİC METAPHOR AND EMPLOYEE SURVEİLLANCE İN INDİAN WORKPLACES

The dominant interpretation of electronic surveillance in the workplace focusing mainly on the invasion of privacy does not give sufficient explanation of its various and nuanced underpinnings and other adverse effects. Likewise, harassment or bullying in the workplace has been at the forefront of major concerns of organizations and employees for several decades and is currently more prevalent and opaque. Combining these two factors and through a methodical revisit of the metaphor of the Panopticon, this paper aims to examine its relevance for the analysis of modern electronic surveillance used in the workplace, and sparks discussion around the issue of workplace bullying and the consequent control mechanism, power imbalances and victimization, with a special focus and application on Indian scenario. This research exposes the unfair and unjustifiable victimization of workplace bullying by going beyond Foucault’s concept of “disciplinary society,” according to which persons are “normalized” by their categorical locations, as well as beyond Deleuze’s argument of “society of control,” where people are forced to live in circumscribed parameters. It is an exploratory research that follows an analytic research methodology of theoretical analysis (literature reviews) and critical discourse analysis. Persistent victimization is relayed as a co-existent phenomenon of workplace bullying.

Conceptualizing China’s spatial lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic: a neo-liberal society or a pre-liberal one?

Purpose The draconian measures to lock down communities and cities in China during the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in human history. First the mega-city of Wuhan, then the province of Hubei, and eventually the whole nation of China, were shut down, surveilled and governed in a way that was identical to the 17th century plague-stricken European town re-portrayed and analyzed by Foucault. Instead of categorizing China’s COVID-19-triggered spatial and social governance as an ad hoc and hence abnormal disciplinary mechanism, this essay argues that the spatial lockdown and social control in China during the COVID-19 pandemic express the long existing and well-established governance model of China: that of a pre-liberal disciplinary society. Design/methodology/approach A disciplinary society using “the meticulous exercise of the right of the sword” with neither liberal values nor liberal practices, China’s swift re-configuration into a pre-liberal disciplined society during the COVID-19 pandemic invalidates a neo-liberal reading of the Chinese governance. Furthermore, the radical spatial and social control measures not only expose the fundamentally illiberal nature of the Chinese governance but also suggest its institutional dependence on its Leninist nomenklatura system. Findings With this institutional dependence, draconian spatial and social control measures are likely to be continuously carried on in China after the COVID-19 crisis, albeit in a less brutal manner. Originality/value It offers a conceptual and theoretical framework to understand China's socio-spatial governance.

Disciplinary societies and community colleges: Partners in progress

AbstractThis chapter summarizes the varied disciplinary society structures and synthesizes the ways to enhance the relationship between the disciplinary societies and their community college partners.

Childhood: a device of governmentality of the child body

This work aimed to problematize the production of the object childhood as a governmentality device, gradually reconfigured in disciplinary society, biopolitics, as Foucault (1979) says, and in the society of control, as explained by Deleuze (1990) and Lazzari (2008). To do so, we used the cartographic method, which points out that, following legal procedures, we research and intervene, intending to produce other realities, seeking to break with the logic of capture established, we will follow the practices of a psychologist in a Specialized Reference Center of Social Assistance (CREAS), which works with children and adolescents victims of rights violations. Pointing out how the production of a literature of Education, at the same time as its production as a field of knowledge, it produced a certain mode of action and a certain subjective profile of childhood, affecting another relationship between families and the Modern State through public policies.