Surveillance Theory

• Surveillance Theory:

  Strengths:

  • Foucault’s work has stimulated research into surveillance and disciplinary power- especially into the idea of an ‘electronic Panopticon’ that uses modern technologies to monitor us.
  • Researchers have identified other forms of surveillance, including actuarial justice and profiling.
• Surveillance Theory:

  Limitations:

  • Foucault exaggerates the extent of control. For example, Goffman shows how some inmates of prisons and mental hospitals resist controls
  • Surveillance may not change peoples behaviour a Foucault claims. For example, studies show that CCTV may fail to prevent crime because offenders often take no notice of it.