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Research Paper | Social Science | India | Volume 8 Issue 3, March 2019

Surveillance Schools: Understanding from the Perspectives of Michel Foucault

Hemashree Duarah

Abstract: Surveillance schools make use of modern technologies to keep an eye on children and their actions. These modern technologies include Closed Circuit Television (CCTV), Fingerprint Identification and RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification). The main focus of this paper is to understand the impact of the modern techniques of surveillance on students in Dibrugarh District (Upper Assam, India) Schools from Michel Foucault perspective. Michel Foucault was a French Philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century. Discipline and Surveillance are the two core ideas of Foucault. He analysed the emergence of modern institutions such as Schools that have played an increasing role in controlling and monitoring students. Power is coercive but also works in consents therefore the students in the schools learn to comply and behave under the supervision of the School authority. In Schools the children function under strict supervisions and surveillance. Under the stringent surveillance of the school authority the students end up being robots despite being innovators and creative. The schools operate in a more sophisticated discipline fashion similar to the prisoners in dungeons. The existence of surveillance helps to grab law breakers by recording their movement. Surveillance techniques are used to ensure that the school rules are followed. But Foucault believed that it has huge negative implications. He claimed that awareness of being observed stifles individuality and created conformity. People end up acting, thinking and being the same for fear of being caught out or being punish.

Keywords: Surveillance, Schools, Students, Foucault, Discipline, Power

Edition: Volume 8 Issue 3, March 2019,

Pages: 583 - 585

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