The course focuses on the mechanisms of social and political control, both from a historical perspective and with respect to the evolution of the political and social discourse orders developed during the second half of the twentieth century. In this perspective the first part of the course will focus on the analysis developed by Michel Foucault in Surveillance and Punishment. Birth of the prison (Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison, 1975).

Starting from this text, the course in the first part aims to trace an examination of the theoretical and social mechanisms underlying the massive changes that have occurred in the penal systems of Western civilization in modern times.
In his work, which is part of a process of reflection on total institutions, Foucault puts into question the commonly accepted concept that prison has become a relevant form of punishment as a result of the humanitarian demands of the reformists.
The way he achieves this effect consists in meticulously tracing the cultural changes that have led to the dominance of the prison, focusing his attention on the body and the demands for power. Prison is a form used by "disciplines", a new technological power, which can also be found, according to the author, in schools, hospitals, barracks, and so on. The main ideas of Surveillance and Punishment can be grouped in the four parts of the work: torture, punishment, discipline and prison.
In the second part the course will focus on the role of the total institution in the analysis of Goffman.