Panopticism, Mitchel Foucault (research text summary)

What is Panopticism?

Panopticism is a social theory which developed by Michael Foucault (the French Philosopher) in his book, Discipline and Punish.

This is the manipulation and effect on Society over time. An example he gives in the book is one of a 17th Century town when the plague appeared. To begin with there is a 'Strict Spatial Partitioning' Which means that the town will be shut down and split into four sections. Panopticism is all about surveillance, this first comes into place when Syndic is assigned to each street keeping everything in order. I wasn't sure what a Syndic actualy was so i researched into it and it turns out that they are 'One who helps in a court of justice'. So, the Syndic has a few jobs as well as keeping an eye on everything, One of these is that he is assigned to lock every single door to every house on his issued street and then gives his key to 'The Intendant' which traditionaly refers to the holder of a public administration office, But in this case they would be the holder of the keys. There is one intendant per quater. This states an order which stops the world from being free, whoever tried t get out onto the streets could possibly be killed.