Social Theory for Social Work by Christopher Thorpe

Author:Christopher Thorpe [Thorpe, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Social Work
ISBN: 9781135985585
Google: BVRSDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-28T04:16:58+00:00

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state-led process beginning in the sixteenth century

refers to changes to state power over the population

characterised by shift in power away from the body to the mind of social subjects

seeks to reconstitute, classify and evaluate subjectivity of citizenry in line with natural and social scientific forms of discourse

gives rise to surveillance society

Governmentality in surveillance society

Foucault invokes the Panopticon as a central metaphor for grasping the nature and dynamics of power in modern society. As the ‘panoptic’ principles have spread out into wider society, the exercise of power has become increasingly organised around discourses and practices of surveillance (Haggerty, 2006). Significant events such as the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the expansion of the European Union and the global spread of transnational corporations have all led to the intensification of the processes and dynamics of surveillance. This is particularly the case of societies in Western Europe and North America (Lyon, 1994). A degree of surveillance has existed in every society, but modern society is organised around surveillance to such an extent that it has come to be referred to as ‘surveillance society’ (Lyon, 2001).

Accompanying the rise of surveillance society is what Garland (2001: 195) refers to as a ‘culture of control’. Social trust is steadily eroded under the conditions of surveillance society to the extent that surveillance is no longer something undertaken exclusively by government agencies and authorities. Ordinary people in their everyday lives are increasingly concerned with and actively involved in surveillance discourse and practice (Lyon, 1994, 2001). This is so in myriad ways: home security cameras; the use of ‘nanny-cams’; cameras on cyclists’ helmets and in cars; states encouraging people to identify those who avoid paying tax, engage in illegal activities, fraudulently claim benefit, etc. In Foucault’s original model, relations of visibility between the watcher and the watched were uneven and one-directional. In surveillance society, the relationship becomes uni-directional, as all members of society come to assume simultaneously the roles of watcher and watched.

Surveillance involves the systematic and routinized direction of attention on individuals and their personal details (Lyon, 2003, 2007). This is surveillance realized through procedures and legislation, in ways that connect directly with the aims and values of governmentality. As surveillance discourse and practice spread, they become increasingly embedded in and part of the administration of everyday life. Developments in information technologies are integral to this process, particularly in the form of electronic and digital databases. This has led to what Gordon (1990) refers to as the ‘electronic panopticon’, allied to which is the concept of ‘dataveillance’ (Clarke, 1997). Dataveillance refers to the monitoring of people’s activities and communications using personal data systems (Clarke, 1997). Dataveillance involves making subjects visible through amassing data about them, in turn creating an inequality of knowledge about subjects. Government organisations and state bureaucracies have always sought to catalogue information about subjects. Traditionally this was very costly, in terms of both time and labour power. Electronic forms of surveillance have proliferated because they provide far more cost efficient ways for states to monitor whole populations (Haggerty and Ericson, 2000).

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