'Visibility is a trap' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

'Visibility is a trap' - Essay Example Foucault’s work and contribution extend to the social domain as well as philosophy. His philosophical work is being expressed with context to the history and the changes as they take place in parallel and with time. For example the most important factor and understanding in his study is that of the most prevailing factor in form of the urban drive and urban migration. As a result of the urban drive, quite a few patterns have changed and the outlook has changed in a certain definite way in contrast to what it was in past. The visibility being a trap concept is one similar phenomena being derived from the same urban ambiance and its co relation has been drawn in the same pattern. Urban society and the digital element: Modern urban societies are characterized by presence of digital dominance, with everything being handled by the computers and digital devices, apart from their servicing features; they also provide the functions of monitoring and surveillance in certain specific way. For example all the metropolitans have established cameras and monitoring systems, this is also true in the case of highways, buildings and the official work places, where each action is being monitored in a closed and disclosed both ways (Ingersoll 2008, 186). Origin of the concept of visibility: The term can be loosely coined with observation, monitoring and surveillance and its routes stretch back to the last decade of 18th century when the word Panopticon (Dalton & Evans 2004 ,67) was first used for the purpose of watching over the prisoners to notice their activities from a common and panoramic view point enabling for clear observation against their any objective moves that would create any disturbance and turbulence. Characteristic traits of modern urban environments: A modern urban society is characterized by observation of individuals in their working environment. The roles are defined in such a manner that each team and its member works in a tier and hierarchy (Chow 2012, 47) in strict scrutiny and observation. This observation and direct exposure has been termed as a trap by Foucault in his assessment and the quite famous quote. Various proponents of the field from research on social studies and sciences have tried to investigate the aspect of the correlation and affectivity and relevance to the society in certain specific way and each of them has found some material and substance in this regard which would lead to the assumption that urban societies depict more relevance to this concept than any other mode of social outfit. Two common schools of thoughts prevail from the overall discussion, each presenting their views and stressing for the statement at hand and observing and presenting it i n different manners and checking its relation to the various variables of the society how they would have an impact on the individuals as well as those who are related to the other people in the society in one way or the other (ernst 2012). The need: The possible need driven by the visibility factor can be that of not just the establishment of the order in the society but also making things easier for people in a bigger perspective. It