Discipline values the act of positioning itself, not which position an individual holds

Evidence

By a process which can be considered analogous, individuals are being deliberately distributed among pre-arranged positions, allocated in each classroom to a desk that is ‘permanently assigned’. ‘A student is not permitted to change his place in any of the classrooms without permission; this order is to be followed in all classes.’ Similarly, each student is assigned to a military rank – corporal, sergeant, or sergeant-major. There is a meticulous concern for the discipline of rank and place. It is not the particular place that matters – desks can be assigned by drawing lots – but the act of positioning and remaining in place. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 260

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies that discipline’s essence is positioning and staying put, not where one lands.
• XREF: Connects to Foucault’s discipline as spatial distribution and to Milgrom’s institutional mechanics where entry control substitutes for screening. — connects to: Schools reward discipline and subordinacy regardless of their effect on achievement — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America:…, 505