Surveillance and cultural Panopticism
Situating Foucault in African modernities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7213205 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Pascah Mungwini (0000-0001-8354-1299, University of South Africa, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2012 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 340-353 |
| Publication date | 2012-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South African Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0258-0136 • E-ISSN: 2073-4867 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02580136.2012.10751780 |
| OpenAlex | W2058968334 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 17 |
In philosophical terms, the African encounter with Western modernity defines the context within which much of what unfolds in postcolonial Africa can be understood, including even its ethical and social problems. This work utilizes Foucault’s theory of panopticism to reflect on the challenges of social control and harmony in contemporary African society. It establishes the link between panopticism and indigenous African cultures from the fact that indigenous societies deployed mechanisms of instituting social control and harmony similar to the phenomena of panoticism and the technologies of control that it symbolizes today. African metaphysical thought, its beliefs, and mythological paraphernalia played the important role of providing an overarching framework within which questions of social control, relations, ethics and even harmony with nature were defined and understood in the past. Modern institutions and technologies of surveillance, whilst crucial to social control, may need to be supported by re-strengthening indigenous interpretive and normative cultural frameworks that promoted elements of self-surveillance and responsible being in traditional communities
Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Harmony (color · Indigenous · Modernity · Mythology · Normative · Social control · Social science · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Philosophy
The Chrysanthemum and the Sword
Discipline and Punish
Mortals and Immortals
International Relations, Political Theory and the Problem of Order
Post-Colonial Studies
Types of Self-Surveillance
Enlightenment, modernity and war
The politics of the gaze
On Visibility and Power
From Myth to Reality
Beyond Subjection
Cam Era' - the contemporary urban Panopticon
Revisiting Shame and Guilt Cultures
Tales of Faith
Understanding African Philosophy
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,5 |
| Citation span | 2020 - 2026 (7) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |