disciplinary power

punishment

monopology (game)

Michel Foucault

disciplinarity

is a form of power concerned primarily with breaking a multiplicity of men into individual bodies . It addresses itself to individual bodies (the body), where biopolitics is addressed to a multiplicity of men (or population), and sovereign power instituted the state's power over territory (or land).

disciplinary power is primarily concerned with breaking a 'multiplicity of men' into 'individual bodies,' whereas biopolitics 'is addressed to a multiplicity of men' (SMD, 243). While sovereign and disciplinary power are charged with policing life as individual subjects, then, biopolitics disenfranchises each individual's life and death by turning it into a generalized matter of population. If the subject is 'neutral' in relation to sovereign and disciplinary power, s/he becomes a statistic in terms of biopolitics. (Houen 2006)

is a mode of power which takes as its goal the making of docile bodies, productive bodies perfected mainly in working classes in workshops, barracks, prisons, and hospitals.

The basic goal of disciplinary power was to produce a human being who could be treated as a 'docile body.' This docile body also had to be a productive body. The technology of discipline developed and was perfected in workshops, barracks, prisons, and hospitals... in each of these settings the general aim was a 'parallel increase in the usefulness and docility' of individuals and populations. The techniques for disciplining bodies were applied mainly to the working classes and the subproletariat, although not exclusively, as they also operated in universities and schools' (Dreyfus and Rabinow 135).

is at the root of the fact that, in our society, prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons.

The diagram in Discipline and Punish, as you might remember was the Panopticon, which described not only the prison but all the institutions of disciplinary society. Foucault asked 'Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons''

is concerned with breaking a 'multiplicity of men' into 'individual bodies' in contrast to biopolitics which is addressed to a multiplicity of men (i.e.) population.

disciplinary power is primarily concerned with breaking a 'multiplicity of men' into 'individual bodies,' whereas biopolitics 'is addressed to a multiplicity of men' (SMD, 243). While sovereign and disciplinary power are charged with policing life as individual subjects, then, biopolitics disenfranchises each individual's life and death by turning it into a generalized matter of population. If the subject is 'neutral' in relation to sovereign and disciplinary power, s/he becomes a statistic in terms of biopolitics' (Houen 2006)

is establishes itself through 'normalization' which, in contrast to socialization, is totalizing and is brought to bear on 'all aspects of life' what makes normalization different (and dangerous) is that it seeks to cover all practices.

Foucault refers to the totalizing tendency of disciplinary power as 'normalization.' Normalization is, of course, more than socialization into norms. Socialization into norms is the universal way the understanding of being or power governs the actions of the members of any society. In the new arrangement which has emerged more and more clearly since the Classical Age, however, norms are progressively brought to bear on 'all aspects of life' What makes normalization different (and dangerous) is that it seeks to cover all practices. Heidegger, quoting Nietzsche, says, 'the wasteland grows.' (NET)

is operational on two poles, simultaneously individualizing and indicating one's position within a mass.

The disciplinary societies have two poles: the signature that designates the individual, and the number or administrative numeration that indicates his or her position within a mass. This is because the disciplines never saw any incompatibility between these two, and because at the same time power individualizes and masses together, that is, constitutes those over whom it exercises power into a body and molds the individuality of each member of that body' (Deleuze 1992:5).

is power which seeks to spatialize, observes, and immobilize social action.

spatialisze, observe, and immobilize socail action (Foucault 1980:159).

is that which structures the social terrain and present logics. The disciplinary invasion of power corresponded to the resistance of the individual.

Putting this society to work and ensuring obedience to its rule and its mechanisms of inclusion and/or exclusion are accomplished through disciplinary institutions (the prison, the factory, the asylum, the hospital, the university, the school, and so forth) that structure the social terrain and present logics adequate to the 'reason' of discipline' (Hardt and Negri 2000 23). Disciplinary power rules in effect by structuring the parameters and limits of thought and practice, sanctioning and prescribing normal and/or deviant behaviors.

disciplinary power, n.All

disciplinary power