About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the ideas of Michel Foucault, focusing in particular on: (i) Foucault’s account of the shift from capital punishment as the main form of punishment in premodernity to the prison in modernity; (ii) his explanation for this in terms of the state’s greater need for control in modern capitalist society and the greater effectiveness of prisons in achieving this; (iii) his notion of the disciplinary society and the role of prisons within it; (iv) his argument that prisons produce delinquents who can be blamed for social issues to distract from the harms of the powerful.

About the lecturer

Dr David Scott works at the Open University. He researches and teaches on prisons, penal abolitionism and the sociology and philosophy of punishment. His publications include For Abolition: Essays on Prisons and Socialist Ethics (2020), Against Imprisonment: An Anthology of Abolitionist Essays (2018), and, with Nick Flynn, Prisons and Punishment: The Essentials (2014).