The Panopticon is an abstract diagram of power, not a literal building

Evidence

But the Panopticon must not be understood as a dream building: it is the diagram of a mechanism of power reduced to its ideal form; its functioning, abstracted from any obstacle, resistance or friction, must be represented as a pure architectural and optical system: it is in fact a figure of political technology that may and must be detached from any specific use. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 318

Categorization

• DEFINE: This is the move that lets Foucault (and the reader) extend the panopticon from prisons to all institutions — it is a ‘figure’ or diagram, a pure form of political technology.
• XREF: connects to: The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 31; Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38

Related

• The panopticon’s power rests on a fiction at its core (similarity 0.87)
• The panopticon amplifies whatever institution it is applied to (similarity 0.83)
• Panopticism extends discipline from enclosed quarantine to every distant element (similarity 0.82)
• The panopticon prison is sustained by a nonentity that must never exist. (similarity 0.82)
• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence (similarity 0.80)
• Power functions automatically when subjects believe they are always visible (similarity 0.79)
• Building the panopticon produces God as an emergent architectural byproduct (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence #corroborates (0.90) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38