本論文以米歇爾・傅柯(Michel Foucault)在《監視與懲罰:監獄的誕生》 (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison)中提出的規訓權力(disciplinary power)為 討論框架,探討現代網際網路中規訓權力、技術、知識論述與身體四者之間的動態關係與 運作過程。
隨著 20 世紀末網際網路的崛起,資訊傳遞、社群互動與知識生產的模式產生巨大的 轉變。人們逐漸脫離傳統實體的互動場域,進入以網路流動和演算法為核心的數位環境。 此種革命性的轉變,帶來了新的規訓技術,讓個體更有效地融入以網際網路為核心的社會 。與此同時,監控機制以更細緻的方式滲入網路之中,持續觀看人們的一舉一動,並以維 護社會安全與便利性為名獲得其正當性。因此,本論文將聚焦於監控空間、社群媒體的互 動性與網路開放性,進一步探討其中的規訓運作。在看似自由的網路環境中,網路技術如 何藉由平台介面、演算法、網路監控等規訓機制,推動、促成特定類型的知識論述生產與 流通?規訓權力又以何種隱蔽的方式滲透至日常的網路使用之中,重新塑造用戶的身體、 注意力與主體?;This thesis applies Michel Foucault’s conceptual framework of disciplinary power, as developed in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, to examine the dynamic interrelations and operational processes among disciplinary power, technology, knowledge discourse, and the body within the context of the modern internet.
In Foucault’s work, discipline has a dual meaning. First, as a technology of power, discipline operates through ritualized repetition and surveillance mechanisms to exert minute control over bodily behaviors. It corrects posture and actions, rendering bodies docile and compliant, thereby internalizing social norms. Unlike traditional sovereign power, which relies on direct violence and repression, disciplinary power functions in a covert and habitual manner, permeating all levels of society as an omnipresent network. Second, as a normative and classificatory knowledge system, or discursive practice, discipline establishes specific categories of objects through a set of normative mechanisms while simultaneously shaping legitimate discourses concerning those objects. Power and knowledge discourse are not independent but mutually reinforcing disciplinary power produces knowledge through classification and differentiation, and in turn, knowledge discourse legitimizes disciplinary power, making power’s operation more subtle and less detectable.
With the rise of the internet at the end of the twentieth century, modes of information transmission, social interaction, and knowledge production have undergone profound transformations. Individuals have gradually moved away from traditional physical interaction spaces into a digital environment centered on data flows and algorithms. This revolutionary shift has introduced new disciplinary operations that more effectively integrate individuals into an internet-centered society. At the same time, surveillance mechanisms have infiltrated the internet in increasingly subtle ways, continuously observing users’ activities, justified in the name of social security and convenience. Therefore, this thesis focuses on surveillance spaces, the interactivity of social media, and the openness of the internet to further investigate the operations of discipline within them. Within the seemingly liberalized online environment, how does disciplinary power function through platform interfaces, algorithms, and internet surveillance to facilitate the production and circulation of specific types of knowledge discourse? And how does it covertly permeate everyday internet use, reshaping users’ bodies, attention, and subjectivities?