Research Paper on:
Michel Foucault

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
as his contention that power is everywhere and that knowledge and power are linked. This essay discuses the panopticon, discourses, power, globalization, including biopolitics, governmentality, and surveillance. Panopticon  The panopticon was designed by Jeremy Bentham in 1787. Bentham was a utilitarian philosopher who was also a theorist of the legal system in Britain. Bentham described the panopticon as  a model prison design because guards could always see every prisoner but prisoners could not see the guards so they never knew when they were being observed (Foucault 1995, p.  203). It was a round-the-clock surveillance machine. Prisoners were in individual cells and were isolated, not even allowed to talk with each other. The uncertainty of never knowing when they  were being observed was the instrument of discipline (Foucault 1995, p. 203). The word itself means all-seeing. Two centuries later, Michel Foucault would refer to the panopticon as total  power. In effect, prisoners were always under surveillance in their minds even if the system had been turned off. This was perfection of power in Foucaults opinion (Foucault 1995, p.  203). It took only a very short period of time before the prisoners mentally became the individual exercising the power. This follows along with Benthams theory that power needs to  be visible but unverifiable. It was visible because the tall tower of the machine was ever-present but whether or not a prisoner is being surveilled cannot be verified by the  prisoner but he knows it is very possible that he is being observed at any moment. The design was suggested for prisons, asylums, schools, factories, hospitals and any other  facility where there were large numbers of people (Mason 2011). The outcome would be the same. People would not know when they were actually being surveilled but their minds would