Abstract

The study applied Foucauldian concepts of disciplinary power (Foucault, 1991). Foucault identified several ways carcerality is enacted within institutions: hierarchical observation, normalising judgements, examination, spatialisation and regimes regulating behaviours and time (Foucault, 1991; O'Farrell, 2005). However, this analysis develops Foucauldian theory in relation to disciplinary power to include technologies of relationships and of the self (agency) (Leask, 2012). Little has been written about carceral and disciplinary influences on higher education but there is evidence about the impact on students (Fox, 1989; Kelly, 2012) and staff (Fox, 1989; Harding and Taylor, 2001; Hendrix, 2010). Foucault (cited in Chambon et al., 1999) argued that social work is a societal regulatory mechanism and evidence of Foucauldian disciplinary power in social work, including the ability to resist, has been discussed (Moffatt, 1999; Gilbert and Powell, 2010).