A comparative analysis between Foucault and Elias: emergence of prisons and the permanence of the passionate punitive fervor
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19180/1809-2667.v19n22017p177-192Keywords:
Norbert Elias, Michel Foucault, Prison, Civilizing process, PunishmentAbstract
The hegemony of prisons as universal punitive measure, in contrast to previous public sentencing, is a historic fact that marked the transition to modernity. Considering this paradoxical scenario that remained in modern society after the emergence of prisons, this article aims to provide sociological explanations of the transition from public forms of punishment to those encapsulated and distant from society. The study is based on two authors who seem to be opposite in both theory and method: the German sociologist Norbert Elias and the French philosopher Michel Foucault. By different routes, both provide explanations on this paradoxical situation, although keeping points of contact. We also point out how that this diagnosis was somehow, years earlier, present in the Durkheim's writings. This plurality of explanations, derived from distinct theoretical traditions of the same phenomenon, demonstrates that the permanence of prisons and its mismatch with contemporary society is an objective social phenomenon, regardless of the sociological approach.Downloads
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