Task 3 - Essay Idea

Propose a topic and working title for your Level 5 essays. Your proposal should include-

5 bullet points explaining the main thrust of your argument.
Your chosen methodological approach
At least 5 texts (referenced using Harvard) from the library that you think will be useful for this essay, with a comment next to each explaining why.
A .jpeg of a relevant image that you may discuss in the essay, again briefly explaining why.

For my essay, I have decided I want to choose a topic based on one of the lectures we have been given on level 5, specifically our first lecture and subsequent seminar on Foucault's views on panopticism and Bentham's Panopticon.

I do not know an exact title yet, but want to essentially build on task one, comparing an aspect of contemporary society to panopticism and critically analysing how far one can go in describing this aspect of our culture as panoptic. 

Since writing this post I have discussed with Richard and have settled on a title for my essay. 

To what extent is contemporary CCTV culture an example of Panopticism?

Outline/argument of essay

• Discuss the shift in power described in Foucault's 'Discipline and Punish' which makes up how we operate as a society today. Analyse the text, talk about when the shift started to take place... plague control measures. Shift from spectacular physical control to psychological control. 
• Outline Foucault's fascination with advances in psychiatry and medicine. Altering human consciousness and internalising responsibility. 
• Put Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon into focus. Describe the way it worked, the way it was laid out. Put across the reasons for its architecture and its polar opposition to previous control methods. How it promotes/leads to self-regulation and docile bodies. 
• Talk about CCTV culture. Talk about how it has evolved. Mention Monaco, the most CCTV'd mile in the world... and also the safest. CCTV has turned Monaco into the safest mile to live in the world. Is this down to self-regulation as everyone knows there isn't a place where they are not being watched?
• Evolution in CCTV - facial recognition cameras. Realisation that we are being watched changes our physical state as well as our mental state. 

Proposed Reading List

Foucault in Thomas, J, 2000

Hier, S & Greenberg, L. (2007) The Surveillance Studies Reader, Open University Press

Lyon, D (2007) Surveillance Studies - An Overview, Polity Press

Lyon, D (2006) Theorising Surveillance: The Panopticon and Beyond, Willan

Adams, Dr M, (2007) Self and Social Change, Sage Publications Ltd

Possible pictures to analyse in the essay.

Banksy 'What are You Looking at?

This image is perfect for what I am trying to depict. He has placed this mural in an ironic location, directly under CCTV cameras. Which is also ironic due to his famous secret identity. 

All three of these images are by Banksy, and each is relevant to my essay. He is an incredibly political artist and this is outlining my discussion on contemporary CCTV culture and the fact that it has changed how we function, both as bodies and as a society. 


Essay Ideas with Richard