The objective of this paper is to revisit the metaphor of the Panopticon, borrowed by Michel Foucault from Jeremy Bentham to describe the development of disciplinary institutions in Western societies from the early nineteenth century, and to examine its relevance for the analysis of modern electronic means of surveillance. Widely used in the early stages of the study of new surveillance technologies, the metaphor of the Panopticon, particularly in the field of 'surveillance studies,' is growingly seen as inadequate to understand the impact of the latest surveillance tools and practices. This paper seeks to show that dominant interpretations of Foucault's use of Panopticon as referring to techniques of domination or to 'power over,' while legitimate as regards some of his earlier writings, overlook Foucault's later works on technologies of the self. That is, in Panoptic dispositifs in particular, as well as in settings involving power/knowledge configurations defining 'normality' more generally, individuals may end up exercising power over themselves without any coercion. It is argued here that the development of modern information and communication technologies may be said to produce a setting, the description of which as 'panoptic' is even more pertinent than was the case with respect to Western societies of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Building upon recent empirical works on the 'chilling effect,' particularly in the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations in 2013, the article discusses modern technologies of the self-self-restraint and self-censorship-that new technologies, enabling different forms of surveillance, produce in Western societies. It also outlines the areas in which the notion of the Panopticon may be useful in terms of guiding research into self-discipline and self-restraint in the context of the proliferation of modern techniques of surveillance.

Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon prison project was based on three central assumptions: the omnipresence of the “watcher”; the universal visibility of objects of surveillance; and the assumption, by the “watched,” that they are under constant observation. While the metaphor of the panopticon, following Michel Foucault’s work, was often applied to workplace and workplace surveillance to highlight the “disciplining” power of the supervisor’s “gaze,” this paper argues that it is only with the recent advent of digital employee monitoring technology that the workplace is becoming truly “panoptic.” With modern electronic means of surveillance, the supervisor is always “looking”—even when not physically present or not actually watching employees—as all worker actions and movements may now be recorded and analyzed (in real time or at any time in the future). This paper argues that the modern workplace approximates Bentham’s panoptic prison much more than the “traditional” workplace ever did and examines the implications of this fundamental historical change in the paradigm of employee monitoring for power relations in the modern workplace.

The lockdowns imposed by most governments during the Covid-19 pandemic have resulted in an unprecedented increase in teleworking. This spike in remote work has generally been greeted with enthusiasm by both academic and non-academic commentators and there is now a widely shared view that employers should be encouraged to retain and enhance the teleworking arrangements in the post-pandemic period. This paper examines the spread and normalization of telework during the pandemic with reference to the growth of the 24/7 work culture and the blurring of boundaries between work and private lives that have been developing in the last two decades or so. It is argued that the rise in remote work during the crisis is contributing to the movement towards 24/7 work and to the collapse of the boundary between professional and private life, particularly as a result of remote employee surveillance that comes with telework. It also results in a new form of alienation – the alienation of workers from their private homes.

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