[Commpsych] FW: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Foucaults position on Blackberries

[Dawn Darlaston-Jones]

Colleagues

I am forwarding this with a why smile of appreciation having just spent much
of the weekend responding to work e-mails (I am a seriously sad soul and
need liberating from this technological oppression that is self-inflicted
and therefore much worse)

Dawn

 

____________________________________________

 

Dawn Darlaston-Jones, PhD

Lecturer

Behavioural Science

College of Arts & Sciences

University of Notre Dame

19 Mouat Street (PO Box 1225)

FREMANTLE

Western Australia WA 6160

 

Tel: +61 8 9433 0567

Fax: +61 8 9433 6073

e-mail  <mailto:ddarlaston-jones at nd.edu.au> ddarlaston-jones at nd.edu.au

 

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From: The UK Community Psychology Discussion List
[mailto:COMMUNITYPSYCHUK at JISCMAIL.AC.UK] On Behalf Of richard pemberton
Sent: 03 February 2008 21:57
To: COMMUNITYPSYCHUK at JISCMAIL.AC.UK
Subject: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Foucaults position on Blackberries

 

 



 


The disciplinary office and the anti-blackberry movement 


 

 

Posted 9th January 2008 at 10:07 by
<http://www.bizface.co.uk/bizfaceforum/blogs/royston/> Royston 
 

A blackberry is one of those possessions, a fashion accessory, that say's
more about the social aspirations of the owner than in the supposed work
ethic they are trying to project. Like a platinum American Express card that
offers little extra benefit compared to the 'ordinary' green version other
than the ownership and the symbolic of display of the card that announces:
'I am a big shot'. In this case usually placed on the counter with a
suitable flourish for the maximum of effect with an audience present just
before the clerk behind the desk deflates the whole moment with a 'we don't
accept those here sir'.

In the mythical Blackberry world the symbolic display of the device
announces: 'I am indispensable', 'I'm a big shot', 'I am so important that I
receive emails 24/7 so I can make world changing decisions' (no you are
not). It becomes almost a ritual on the train, sit down, roll the thumbwheel
- and then the Blackberryite attempts to peer at a small screen to
thumb-type in some inane response to a colleague. Probably also sitting on
some other train on their way to their office peering into a similarly small
screen enacting a drama and playacting at work. I have received these
messages stripped of context with useless content - usually a simple
acknowledgement of some minor nature but in reality announcing to me (as if
I cared) that they 'working' and able to respond immediately.

There is also a darker side to the use of mobile technology which is an
extension in this post modern world of the disciplinary office and the rise
of surveillance at work. We are all aware of Foucault's use of the Bentham's
Panoptican:

The idea behind the panoptican prison was to enforce behavior and sense of
control. 'The arrangement of his room, opposite the central tower, imposes
on him an axial visibility; but the divisions of the ring, those separated
cells, imply a lateral invisibility. And this invisibility (that) is a
guarantee of order. If the inmates are convicts, there is no danger of a
plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the
future, bad reciprocal influences . if they are schoolchildren, there is no
copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers, there
are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of the distractions that
slow down the rate of work. (Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of
the Prison.)

The important point was that it was not necessary to have a visible guard
walking the corridors - it was enough to know the possibility of supervision
and this led to self discipline and control (of the prisoners,
schoolchildren and workers) that reinforced and re-stated the use of power
that caused compliance.

I see in the use of Blackberries, and other similar gadgets, an extension of
the disciplinary office - controlling people in time and space - ensuring
their availability to work at whatever time it is and wherever they are
physically. Even on the train, in their homes or during their 'free' time
they are available for work. Not self-motivated to work but self-supervised
and self- disciplined into performing at the beck and call of and subject to
the invisible supervisory power of the modern office.

What Blackberryites are doing is giving up their agency and freedom,
becoming a slave to a control mechanism that is not materially different to
the electronic tag sometimes used to monitor and control the movements of
ASBO bound kids.


Royston - a spokesperson of the popular front for the liberation from
Blackberries

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