Tracing Disciplinary Architectures and Technologies From Panopticon Surveillance to Synopticon Spectacle

• In Event: 66.088 - Sheraton Roundtable 13 - Osgoode Ballroom
  In Roundtable Session: 66.088-5 - Knowledge Formation and Schooling Constructs

Abstract

This paper enlists a Foucauldian power/knowledge reading of schooling, leveraging various notions such as knowledge, power, and subjectivity, to historically analyze ways in which evolving architectures of disciplinary power become the pivotal point through which students’ growth is fostered or resisted. Particularly, we follow learning as it moves from Panopticon surveillance to the Synopticon spectacle model, where instead of few watching the many, many now surveil the few. Results trace these evolving disciplinary architectures through various pedagogical sites (desks, classrooms, desktops, video/project sharing sites). Implications discuss consequences of this shift upon the emergence and machinations of power/knowledge, as it calcifies norms of the body, the institution, and finally the larger schooling practices internalized within everyday life.

Authors

• Anna Montana Cirell, Arizona State University

• David L. Carlson, Arizona State University