Playground Panopticism

Abstract

In this article, the author invokes Michel Foucault's analysis of panopticism to understand the performance of mothering in the suburban playground. The mothers in the ring of park benches symbolize the suggestion of surveillance, which Foucault describes as the technology of disciplinary power under liberal ideals of governance. However, the panoptic force of the mothers around the suburban playground becomes a community that gazes at the children only to ultimately gaze at one another, seeing reflected in the children the parenting abilities of one another. The author analyzes the elaborate rules of playground etiquette and social competition that occupy the mothers, linking their social discourses to the public neighborhood playground as a symbol for child-centered (suburban) ideology. The author then compares the mothers at suburban playgrounds with the parents that she observed at McDonald's PlayPlaces, which affords different context of use, design and social opportunities. She argues that maternal social worlds need to be understood in relation to the play of children on playgrounds and the increasing appeal of commercial playplaces.

The ‘good’ parent in relation to early childhood literacy: symbolic terrain and lived practice

“…Thus an understanding of parenting means exploring ''the conditions, the spaces, in which it is possible for women and men to think and embody'' their parenting practice (Loveridge, 1990, p. 20). Blackford (2004) has compared two spaces within which parents and children perform their identities -a neighbourhood playground and a play centre attached to a mall-based fast food restaurant. This study is relevant to our project because it suggests that immediate social context impacts on parents' identity work.…”

“…Blackford (2004) has compared two spaces within which parents and children perform their identities – a neighbourhood playground and a play centre attached to a mall‐based fast food restaurant. This study is relevant to our project because it suggests that immediate social context impacts on parents' identity work.…”

Clothing Norms in Tertiary Institutions: Negotiating Fashion Towards Social Hegemony

“…The panopticon is a schema that facilitates the exercise of disciplinary power through surveillance (Gallagher, 2010). Researchers tend to describe schools as ″panoptic spaces″ (Gallagher 2010, Bushnell 2003, Blackford 2004, Perryman 2006 a ″prison in disguise″ (Barker et al, 2010 andHall, 2003) and an enclosed place (Dolgun 2008 cited in Ceven et al, 2021) with a culture of strict discipline and surveillance. Foucault identifies a correlation between school and prison, like the prison, where prisoners are related to as children that must obey the decisions of their parents.…”

She's From a `Good Family'

“…Joanne's surveillance and assessment of Margaret's mothering practices noted in the preceding section is one example among many at West Hill Academy. As Blackford (2004) argues, this type of surveillance suits mothering ideology rather well for it successfully diverts attention away from what actual mothers are doing as well as away from the circumstances in which they find themselves. Importantly, as in Joanne's case, it enlists women in the surveillance of their children's lives and of other mothers' lives with the intent of enforcing an ideal that is impractical and ultimately unattainable; at some level, this practice inevitably sets mothers, and children, up to fail.…”

“…While this assertion may not be new or surprising, research on motherhood has not acknowledged the relationship between mothers and children fully, preferring to assign children a symbolic rather than actual place in understanding motherhood issues. Likewise, in childhood studies, an exploration of the ways in which the nature of motherhood and the nature of childhood are transforming one another is only beginning to be addressed (Blackford, 2004). As I explore in this article, a 'tightening of the net of social control around children and childhood' impacts in similar ways upon women's lives and motherhood as well (see James and James, 2001).…”