Panopticism.

Panopticism within Retail environment.

In retail environment consumers are conformed to comply with one of the fundamental laws of society, the act of theft, upon doing this they can be convicted of theft, either given a fine or sent to jail, although the consequences of their actions aren’t what hold the power over the consumer, it is more so to do with our society being based on the major effects of the Panopticon model, ‘to induce in the inmate a state of consciousness and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power’ ­­_{(Foucault, 1977)}, where the panoptic model of nineteenth century society was the central inspection tower in the middle of a prison, today’s society has seen a huge leap in technology with film, allowing for millions of CCTV cameras to be placed almost everywhere in public, these CCTV cameras in retail create power within the individual, becoming ‘self monitoring’, ‘self correcting’ ‘docile bodies’ _{(Foucault, 1977)}. It is the consumer that holds power over themselves, creating a mental power rather than a physical one implied by the store manager and society, and through this feeling the need to behave and adhere to the rules of society. This brings into play ‘power should be visible and unverifiable _{(Foucault, 1977)}’, in this situation the camera would be visible, but you would not know if anybody is watching the video feed, hence the panoptic effect. This applies to anywhere monitored by CCTV the camera has now become the leading panoptic machine constantly creating a situation of ‘one being see but never seeing’ _{(Foucault, 1977)}; weather it’s walking down the street or waiting in an air port, the use of cameras has revolutionized the Panopticon, creating a wonderfully conformed world from a mental constraint. ‘a real subjection is born from a fictitious relation.’ _{(Foucault, 1977)}