The theory of Panoptical control

Bentham's Panopticon and Orwell'sNineteen Eighty-Four

Bibliographic Data

ID4005093
AuthorsHarry Strub (0000-0002-4297-6330, University of Winnipeg, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume25
Issue1
Pages40-59
Publication date1989-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-5061 • E-ISSN: 1520-6696
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/1520-6696(198901)25:1<40::aid-jhbs2300250104>3.0.co;2-w
PMID11608676
OpenAlexW1989653486
LanguageEN
Citations received10

The basic idea of panoptical control is that people will obey the prevailing rules and norms when they know they are being watched. The theory was developed by Jeremy Bentham 200 years ago when he designed an architecturally and managerially innovative model prison called Panopticon. Along with his Utopian Panopticon-poorhouse scheme, Bentham's vast plans have been viewed as the most thorough combination of physical and social engineering ever devised. The various elements of panoptical control theory received their most systematic realization in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-four. The novel serves to illustrate the theory and also to suggest Orwellian overtones to Bentham's plans, which were quite antithetical to his Utilitarian philosophy.

Control (management) · Criminology · Epistemology · Jeremy bentham · Panopticon · Political science · Prison · Realization (probability) · Social control · Social science · Sociology · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy

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