Bentham’s Panopticon: From Moral Architecture to Electronic Surveillance

While Jeremy Bentham’s ambitious blueprints for penitentiary construction were never wholly embraced, many elements of his “Panopticon” concept have gradually been incorporated into prisons, schools, and workplaces. But it is the idea of moulding human behaviour through constant surveillance, as opposed to Bentham’s architectural innovation, that has left a mark on societal organization. David Lyon gauges the extent to which our modern world – of data banks and electronic surveillance – has been shaped by the eighteenth century Panopticon.