Panopticism

The panopticon was designed in 1791 by Jeremy Bentham. Bentham suggested this structure could be used for all sorts of disciplining institutions; prisons, hospitals, work houses, schools, mad houses. The building is set out with the panopticon in the centre, which was a tall tower, surrounded by an annular building. The latter consisted of cells, one for each inmate, the cells would have windows so that the inmate was always visible from the tower. The supervisor would be in the tower, but due to the blacked out windows, and its distance from the outer wall, the inmates in their cells could never be certain that they were under observation from the tower at any particular moment. Each inmate could not be sure that their actions would not go unseen and so they would have to behave 'properly' all the time; which would in turn make them discipline themselves..Panopticism is a theory of institutional power. In places such as offices and schools, people can  assess characters and conclude rigorous classifications by observing them in their natural environment through the form of the panopticon. In each of it's applications, Panopticism can strengthen power because it can reduce the umber of those who exercise it, whilst at the same time increasing the number of those on whom it is exercised.