The game in the prison. An approach from Michel Foucault.
Keywords:
Foucault, Game, Panopticon, Prison, PowerAbstract
The game is not a concept that Foucault addresses directly; although he uses it as a metaphor to speak, for example, of games of truth, he does not carry out a study of the game itself. However, as he proposes in “Powers and Strategies” (Foucault, 2007, p. 101), his thought should function as a toolbox. In this sense, based on a rereading of Discipline and Punish (2008b), the idea of the game is considered important when reflecting on the panopticon and the practices of the microphysics of power in the playful activity of prisoners. First, corporal punishment under the mandate of the sovereign will be discussed; subsequently, the characteristics of the reformers’ proposal, which seeks to deter crime rather than punish it, will be described; and finally, the punishment of the offender’s soul through disciplinary power. Secondly, from the perspective of human rights and programs that promise social reintegration, the case of the Mexican game known as Poleana is explained. By way of conclusion, it is considered that the game, rather than liberating, may possibly be just another cog in the machinery of power.
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