Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY Argumentative Essay: Foucault’s Disciplinary Society Name of the Author [Institutional Affiliation(s)] Author Note 1 ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 2 Argumentative Essay: Foucault’s Disciplinary Society There are different ideas about disciplinary society because every theologian and philopher have different set of ideals that described the meaning of discipline. For some philosophers discipline is about compromising on liberty to speech while for others it is to show a liberated behavior under the ethical jurisdictions of a society. In this regard, many people have shared their concepts and theories of disciplinary society, and one of the notable philosophers and social activists is Michel Foucault. He is a French philosopher of the 20th century and is more than just an activist as he had profound knowledge and an immense power to critically analyze his thoughts (Cusset, 2008). According to Michel Foucault, the definition of disciplinary society is associated with creating a monitoring-based environment in terms of schools, hospitals, prisons, and factories to keep the social conduct optimized. He proposed a theory of power and knowledge which was implemented practically in his ideas as he provided a concept of disciplinary society. According to his theory and concept, a disciplinary society has the ability to regulate and control the individuals living in the same social setting by the use of surveillance and discipline i.e., the people should be given the liberty to act according to their will, but their actions should always be monitored. Though in the past there were many theorists and philosophers who proposed such ideas and theories, due to the pervasiveness of ideas presented by Foucault, this disciplinary society was implemented in most of the modern societies where changes were noticed in all sectors of life. It was noticed that the discipline within the educational sector, workplaces, healthcare, and even in enjoying leisure time was affected as people knew that their actions are monitored, and they cared about their social impression. He also added to his idea of a disciplinary society that there is a need to maintain power and knowledge in society to ensure that the decisions made by people are accurate and according to social norms. Hence, it is argued that by making use of theory of power and knowledge of ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 3 Michel Foucault, a disciplinary society can be achieved as the people will be surveilled and a social order will be prevailed due to the use of contemporary gadgets to monitor people. It is argued that the idea of a disciplinary society should not be associated with being imprisoned or caged in a particular environment, but with having liberty in modern society while being surveilled. In the past, the idea of a disciplinary society was mostly interpreted as being caged at schools or at offices where a specific rule of law must be followed or else the person will be considered a social outcast (Cooper, 2019). However, after 1940, the idea of disciplinary society changed as the complex system of power and knowledge was developed where it was emphasized that people should make use of their knowledge to regulate their actions. In this case, the essence of a disciplinary society will include different mechanisms that allow the individuals to control and regulate their actions which will help in maintaining social order and stability. This idea of Foucault was much better than the previous ideology because it maintained social order without inculcating fear of confinement, and it strongly focused on surveilling the people in a social context to make them act according to the social ideals. For example, in schools, the teachers and administrative staff will do the task of surveillance while in offices HR and team leads of different departments will surveil the employees. This is an example of social control that was used as a basic mechanism by Foucault. According to Foucault, the people living within the society must be given a fair chance to live per their will, but their actions should not be without any control. Social control is referred to as the phenomenon where it is expected from the people that the rules and regulations set within the society are practiced according to the formalized mechanisms that can optimize the society (Van den Berg & Stoltz, 2018). However, there should be no use of force practices; instead, the people should know that their actions are being judged and surveilled, which means that they should be on their best behavior. Hence, ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 4 Foucault changed the overall mindset of society, and he penetrated the idea of social control as a main mechanism of disciplinary society that was different from other ideologies. Another argument that is presented by Foucault through his disciplinary society perspective and use of power and knowledge theory is that surveillance should not be perceived as keeping an eye on others, but it should be about the constant creation of visibility. This means that individuals should know that they have to be morally correct such that even if no one is watching them, they remain socially appropriate. According to Foucault, it is a matter of personal thinking and growth that how individuals perceive the modern disciplinary society and how they will replicate it in their daily life (Markula-Denison & Pringle, 2007). This concept is a manifestation that the individuals living in a society should be trained and observed in a welloriented manner so that they can be under social control due to the notion that they are being watched constantly. Upon integrating this concept with the theory of knowledge and power, it can be inferred that personal growth depends on the learning and knowledge of the individuals that make them realize that in a society they are always being judged. Moreover, people also realize that not only they are being monitored, but they have to set an example also that can be a social portrayal of societal control for other individuals. This application of theory provided by Michel Foucault and realization of individuals is a source of social control, inclusion, and integrity of society in a formal manner. Another concept that is related to social control achieved by Foucault's disciplinary society is self-discipline i.e., the individuals portraying a positive behavior without any external force. Humans naturally adapt the behavior to which they are exposed and most humans behave in a way that they see their family behaving. Families in most cases are a reflection of society; they follow the norms and culture to their core and somehow this culture gets embedded in personalities as a self-discipline. Therefore, self-discipline, surveillance, and self-realization are interconnected phenomena that can result in the social ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 5 development of personalities aligned with the norms of the society that allows the people to show acceptable behavior per social ideals. Another argument that is noticed while analyzing Foucault disciplinary society is the fact that modern society is moving at a fast pace and now the institutions like prisons, schools, hospitals, and factories are getting developed. These institutions no longer believe in forcefully making individuals do their work, but use a more rational approach and provide individuals with an environment to self-develop their personality according to their perceptions under the condition that they will be monitored. All these institutions make use of almost the same techniques of surveillance and discipline where they aim that the individuals are not only obedient but are productive in their actions as well, which can be a source of efficiency. For this purpose, these institutions make use of a variety of interventions that can result in the productivity of employees while ensuring that they become model citizens. For instance, schools make use of assessments, testing, surveillance, and class activities to control the students and make them develop routines that can meet the standards of the school. Similarly, jails have reentry programs, rehabilitation, and punishments combined that allow individuals to re-enter society with a positive mindset (Fahmy & Mitchell, 2022). Likewise in hospitals, there are monitoring and surveillance actions taken by nurses and physicians to notice the behavior of the patients and provide them with timely treatment. This implies that there are different forms of surveillance and monitoring programs being used in all sectors of society, today. Moreover, it is due to the advent of modern technology, that digital gadgets are now used to monitor and surveil individuals. For example, in schools, teachers make use of CCTV cameras for classrooms, in the healthcare sector there are digital monitoring tools that monitor the vitals and current health situation of patients, and in prisons, there are modern mind games and activities that can promote positivity among offenders. Hence, the idea of Foucault disciplinary society is an evidence that ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 6 theory of power and knowledge can be implemented at all the times as the scope of monitoring and surveillance will never end in any integrated society. It is evident from the analysis that there the development and use of this disciplinary society is variabke in the history due to technology advancement and changes in the perceptionf of people. Now that contemporary society and its relationship with the disciplinary society context is observed, it is found that the disciplinary mechanisms are even more universal and sophisticated due to the introduction of modern technologies and advanced forms of surveillance. In the contemporary era, many new technological gadgets are introduced starting from digital cameras, smartphones, apps, virtual cloud spaces, and large databases that allow virtual access. These modern technological gadgets also include the use of social media, CCTV cameras, and biometric data to monitor individuals and surveil them at an even greater level. Social media allow authorities to surveil individuals and know about their thinking through their surfing history and posts that they make on these platforms, while CCTV allows them to view the overall scenario at a place and then analyze the behavior of individuals (Schyff et al., 2020). Moreover, the use of biometric technology is an advanced way that can be used to personally observe a person by getting access to their phones via their fingerprints or other biometrics methods. In this case, all these pieces of technology allow the authorities to collect personal data from social media platforms and access their personal data over a cloud virtual database. From these platforms, the personal thoughts and behaviors of individuals are observed which allows the authorities to know about the thinking patterns and the social behavior of the individuals. In the contemporary era, there is tons of data available online such that it is really difficult to sort the data and analyze the behaviors of the individuals. However, different people like parents, teachers, and elders have their roles to monitor specific individuals i.e, children, students, and other associated relatives, so they access those individuals and surveil their social activity. This ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 7 allows them to know about the social behaviors and this also lets the individuals know that they are being constantly surveilled. Due to the changes in the contemporary era, it is now a common perception that CCTVs are available in all places, and it is the reason why many people especially criminals refrain from partaking in unethical behaviors. Hence, in the modern day, the use of Foucault's disciplinary society has increased to a greater extent and its use will continue to grow in the future. The analysis of Foucault and his findings have provided a key insight and a powerful critique of the fact that disciplinary society is a source of modernizing, regulating, and controlling the world through surveillance, which is another form of discipline. However, there are a few critics who disagree with this stance that his theory of power and knowledge along with the definition of the disciplinary society is quite pessimistic and there are a lot of limits to this mechanism as there is a need for people, gadgets, and resources who can monitor individuals. Pessimism is promoted due to constant shock of the fact that someone is monitoring and they are judging them over all their actions, which makes then think negatively about their personality and let the individuals lose self-confidence. Moreover, they also argue that it will not result in social amicability and people will get far away from the social norms due to the social control and the continuous thought of being watched. To support their argument, they have said that this continuous monitoring is a source of reducing the agency of people to live per their will and makes them resist the social and cultural norms they are imposed by the disciplinary society (Curchod et al., 2020). Furthermore, new technology like CCTV acts as a burden on their psyche as they are being observed and their privacy is being invaded. This is also known as the concept of power asymmetry, but this argument is not valid as Foucault's ideas are widely applied and they discuss the interrelation between power and knowledge. The theory also circumscribes social decorum and proper changes in the society with time where one thing remains constant ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 8 i.e., monitoring and surveillance. So, the arguments of other theorists and researchers are not ideal, and it is noteworthy that Foucault's disciplinary model of society is applicable at all times as it improves productivity in all the spheres of life. Therefore, the use of this model of society should be encouraged as it ensures positive growth in society while ensuring that the individuals gain self-reflection and an analysis of their personality that allows them to be aligned with their culture and society without any negative emotions like pessimism, anxiety, or depression. In conclusion, Foucault has provided a key idea about disciplinary society and how power and knowledge can be used as an effective ideology to understand modern society's perspective. The above analysis has provided key insight into the idea that modern societies need to be regulated and controlled by the use of different mechanisms and for this, the use of surveillance as a disciplinary change can play its role. Moreover, the analysis also found that there is a significant relationship between knowledge and power where these two elements can shape modern institutions and their practices at any time and space. It is also evident from the analysis that a disciplinary society is based on new strategies that can promote challenge acceptance by making use of surveillance and discipline in daily life. Furthermore, the analysis has also discussed how the theory and model of surveillance provided by Foucault have improved over time and how it is used in the contemporary era to the extent that the surveillance is now a daily action taken against every individual. Lastly, it is explicated that there are varying thoughts of theorists and a few of them disagree with the idea of surveillance as they think that it will cause negative emotions like pessimism to prevail. However, it is wrong as the idea of surveillance is just a measure of social control. Henceforth, the detailed analysis of Foucault's theory and ideology has provided evidence that surveillance with the use of power and knowledge can be a source of social prosperity. ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY 9 References Cooper, F. (2019). Africa since 1940: The Past of the Present. Cambridge University Press. Curchod, C., Patriotta, G., Cohen, L., & Neysen, N. (2020). Working for an Algorithm: Power Asymmetries and Agency in Online Work Settings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65(3), 644–676. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839219867024 Cusset, F. (2008). French Theory: How Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, & Co. Transformed the Intellectual Life of the United States. U of Minnesota Press. Fahmy, C., & Mitchell, M. M. (2022). Examining recidivism during reentry: Proposing a holistic model of health and wellbeing. Journal of Criminal Justice, 101958. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2022.101958 Markula-Denison, P., & Pringle, R. (2007). Foucault, Sport and Exercise: Power, Knowledge and Transforming the Self. Routledge. Schyff, K. van der, Flowerday, S., & Furnell, S. (2020). Duplicitous social media and data surveillance: An evaluation of privacy risk. Computers & Security, 94, 101822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2020.101822 Van den Berg, Y. H. M., & Stoltz, S. (2018). Enhancing social inclusion of children with externalizing problems through classroom seating arrangements: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 26(1), 31–41.
