CONTROL +

AGENCY IN THE
DIGITAL AGE
MODULE 8

BIG QUESTIONS

What is the relationship between communication technology and control? How does
communication technology shape contemporary modes of surveillance and control?

How does contemporary control limit or enhance agency?

What are the implications of control for communication technology pedagogy and education in
general?

CONTROL + TECHNOLOGY?

CONTROL

The Panopticon
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
A circular building with an observation tower in the centre
of an open space surrounded by an outer wall.
This wall would contain cells for occupants.
This design would increase security by facilitating more
effective surveillance.
Usually associated with prisons, but also used in other
institutions with surveillance needs, such as schools,
factories, or hospitals.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/14/01/1e/14011ed5458dd78f9be0650a311f9364.jpg

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/e7c645_6f4f589ee4f244d3a9e962dd8330cf66.png

NOT JUST ARCHITECTURE

Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish (1995)

Panopticon as a model of apparatus of power.
The ever-visible inmate, Foucault suggests,is always "the object of information, nevera subject in
communication".

"He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he
makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously
plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection" (202-203).

EXAMPLES OF PANOPTIC POWER?

Theft prevention in stores

Red light, speeding, driving cameras
Surveillance at events
Surveillance at public institutions

Surveillance plays an important role to

enable the social control and ways of power
inscription into both social body and
individual.
http://www.hdelectricandsurveillance.com/images/Surveillance-Solution.jpg

SOCIAL MEDIA
Just as actors on stage know that they are being watched by the audience and tailor their behaviour to find the best
effect, effective use of social media implies selecting and framing content with a view to pleasing and/or impressing a
certain crowd.
Foucault claims, the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent
visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power (Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 201).
There are no guards and no prisoners in Facebooks virtual Panopticon. We are both guards and prisoners, watching
and implicitly judging one another as we share content.

FROM DISCIPLINE TO CONTROL

DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY

Technology
Advanced Capitalism
Dispersive Social Networks
SOCIETY OF CONTROL

An important aspect of the society of control is that we are allowed to

do whatever we want. It presents itself as a kind of freedom. No
longer restrained by enclosure structures, like those of the school or
the factory, we can pursue an online education in our time, or work
from home. This seems like freedom, but we should notice how it
diffusesresponsibility throughout life. Perhaps it is nice to work
from home, but now we are expected to be responsive to the demands
of work even away from the office; to respond to emails in a timely
manner. While freed from the enclosed workspace, the demands of
work come to pervade all of our time.

FROM DISCIPLINE TO CONTROL

DISCIPLINARY SOCIETY

Technology
Advanced Capitalism
Dispersive Social Networks
SOCIETY OF CONTROL

Feeling of being watched at any

time(even when not).

We know that we are being tracked, but

are encouraged not to worry about it!
Normalization of surveillance

WHATS SO BAD ABOUT CONTROL ANYWAY?

SUBJECTIVITY
+
AGENCY

Transforming our desires, fears, anxieties and deepest

subjective enunciations to that which can be
recuperated by the system (the status quo, thenorm,
what is in onesbest interest).
It is important for the society of control to maintain
the illusion of freedom but this is an illusion.

HOW DOES THIS PLAY OUT IN SCHOOLS?

WE ARE AT AN IMPASSE
In the name of past habits and future
hopes, we have learned to hold the line,
keeping ordinary routines locked in place.
Put otherwise, within this space-time, we
have learned to adapt as opposed to
create.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Impasse_des_Anglais,_Paris.jpg

HABIT
HABIT: The synthesis of bodily, desiring,and
unconscious connections with the world, which
works to unify and make meaning of experiences.

The world as it is
The world as it should be
The world as it might be?

WHAT MIGHT OUR SCHOOLS AND COM. TECH.

PROGRAMS LOOK LIKE?
In what ways can we challenge the assumptions of:
Good students? Good teachers?
Quiet learning environments?
Organized students, or teachers?
Linear ways of thinking and doing?
In what other ways can we challenge how control impacts education?