Full text of DOI:10.1111/1467-954X.00247

Living in the `empire of the gaze':
time, enclosure and surveillance in a
theological college
Trevor Welland
Abstract
Interest in `the body'as a focus of sociological research and theory has, in part,
drawn on Foucault's concept of `biopower' in order to investigate and interpret the
often complex intersections of control and resistance. This type of analysis has
significance for occupational socialization research that explores and interrogates the
institutional settings and processes of professional preparation. In this paper, aspects
of Foucault's analytic frame will be used to describe and interpret how full-time,
residential training for ordained ministry functions to inscribe and regulate the
`docile bodies'of the trainees. It further explores the means by which students
conform to and contest this `curriculum of the body'.
Introduction
Recently there has been an increase in interest in `the body'as a focus of
sociological research and theory ,eg Featherstone et al., 1991; Turner, 1992;
Shilling, 1993; Woodward, 1996; Richardson and Shaw, 1998). It has been
argued that this development can be linked to a range of issues, such as
debates on the representations of gendered bodies, the perceived relationships
between the body and consumption, and the proposal that the body acts as a
focus for a number of contemporary anxieties over, for example, pollution
and disease ,Richardson and Shaw, 1998: 1±2). Along with emphases on
representations and consumption, empirical and theoretical work have
focused on the body as a site of control and resistance ,Ramazanoglu,1993;
Woodward, 1996). Much of this area of work has drawn on Foucault's
analysis of social practices via the concept of `biopower',Foucault, 1978). As
Dreyfus and Rabinow ,1982: 127) outline, biopower explores the `inter-
relationships of sex, truth, power and the body'. A key dimension of this idea
is that of `control of the body', where the body is viewed as something to be
manipulated; the human being as `subject', therefore, is an object of power
,Foucault, 1982). Foucault ,1977: 135±136) argues that bodies are compelled
through disciplines, and that the `docile'and `inapt body'can be shaped and
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Trevor Welland
ordered towards identity:
,t)he classical age discovered the body as object and target of power. It is
easy enough to find signs of the attention then paid to the body ± to the
body that is manipulated, shaped, trained, which obeys, responds, becomes
skilful and increases its forces ... . The body is docile that may be subjected,
used, transformed and improved. ,Foucault, 1977: 136)
For Foucault, this discipline proceeds from `enclosure', or `the distribution of
individuals in space',Foucault, 1977: 141) and the control of activity or
establishing of rhythms via the timetable and visibility ,Foucault, 1977: 201).
Technologies of control and discipline ,or what Foucault describes as the
`polymorphous techniques of power') are inscribed in the very structure of
disciplinary institutions ,Bartky, 1988) and can be seen to be features of spatial,
architectural and temporal determinants.
This analysis clearly has significance for occupational socialisation research
that explores and interrogates the institutional and organisational settings of
professional preparation, in that this foucauldian perspective provides a useful
theoretical framework for `making sense'of aspects of the training and
formation processes that present a `genealogy of the self', or that account for
the emergence of a `policing of the self'in the construction of identity. This is
especially so if one regards the body as a `site of experience'and an obvious
starting point for the process of knowing. In this case, the generation and
construction of social ,or embodied) memory of actions and procedures can be
regarded as part of the anatomy of `professional habitus',Bourdieu and
Passeron, 1977; Bourdieu,1990), where `habitus'refers to the `socialized body,'
or the `dispositional core of the practitioner',in other words, the system of
modes of perception, thinking, appearance and action that are the con-
sequences of socialization, or those meanings imposed and internalized as
legitimate).
In this article, Foucault's analytic frame will be shown to be particularly
useful in describing and interpreting how residential training for ordained
ministry, through both the timetable and `gaze'of staff and other students, acts
to inscribe and regulate the `docile body'of the trainees in preparation for the
transition to an ordained status. The article further explores the means by
which students conform to and contest, this `curriculum of the body'.
Methods
The discussion is grounded with qualitative data from a research project that
maps and explores the professional socialisation of a group of trainee priests
within one theological college. In seeking to render visible and problematic
something of the `choreography'of training for ordained ministry, it was
important that I also became a part of what the trainees themselves
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experienced. I, therefore, decided to adopt an ethnographic approach, using
qualitative methods of participant observation and informal, semi-structured
interviews, as well as analysis of a range of documentary evidence.
Intense observation was carried out mainly during September±June of the
first year of fieldwork. Observation was selected as a main research strategy
during my time `in the field', since I wanted to understand the routine aspects
of life in this setting and experience recurring structural, interactional and
meaning patterns, as well as to share in the participants'world and activities.
During my first days in the field and throughout the early part of the first
period of fieldwork, l had no real policy in terms of what I observed or the
gathering of data. My primary concern was with establishing rapport with the
students and staff. However, throughout the next nine months I undertook
observations of the weekly `in house'Pastoral Theology course ,Thursdays, 2±
5 pm) and University based Lectures on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday
mornings. In addition, l would `linger and loiter'after attending the main
evening chapel services, as well as at lunch and evening meal times and on
Sunday tea afternoons. Fieldnotes were made throughout this period of
observation and expanded accounts based on these initial notes were produced
as soon as I was away from the setting.
From January,1997±March, 1998, 16 students, two senior staff members
and a member of the regulatory Board of Ministry were interviewed.
Interviews were conducted face-to-face with participants over a period of one
to two hours. As is common with ethnographic interviews, a loosely framed
schedule was followed which covered the following key areas: the background
to vocation and calling; selection processes; perceptions of skills and qualities
necessary for ordained ministry; expectations of training experiences of the
training programme and the assessment of competency. In addition, five
female candidates participated in a focus group early in the second year of
fieldwork. Interviews and the focus group session were tape-recorded and
transcribed.
I also found that a variety of documents were of interest to the research and
that a great deal of information could be derived from easily accessible sources
such as the college prospectus, noticeboards, student timetables and the diaries
which they kept whilst on pastoral placements.
St David's: introducing the trainees and the course
The fourteen theological colleges in England, Scotland and Wales provide a
residential setting for the full-time, vocational training of candidates for
stipendiary ,salaried) ministry that have been centrally selected and sponsored
by the various denominations of the Anglican Communion. All of the major
denominational communities ,Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist) require
candidates for ordination to complete some form of basic theological training,
and the theological colleges ,or seminaries) aim to equip candidates for
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ordained ministry through the diversity of courses offered. In some ways the
theological colleges can be viewed as good examples of `greedy institutions'
,Coser, 1974) in terms of the multiple demands ,physical, intellectual and
spiritual) made on their trainees. To embark on one of the training courses
provided is to begin a period of `challenging uncertainty',Davies,1998) which
involves separation from the trainee's ordinary lay status and the adoption of a
`threshold', or `liminal' status, prior to ordination ,Davies, 1998: 227±233). In
order to attain the social status and identity conferred through the ordination
rites, students must voluntarily undergo this `rite of passage'that prepares
them for specific roles and networks of social expectation ,Coxon, 1965). The
unique function of the theological colleges, therefore, is to facilitate this
transition through the transmission of a `sacred tradition',Hughes and
DeBaggis, 1973: 181) that consists of an `ideological'component ,a set of
theological doctrines), a moral code and a pastoral role that involves both
cultic=ritualised forms, as well as what could be broadly termed `counselling'.
These emphases in training have led to ordained ministry being variously
described as a `humanistic profession',Kleinman, 1984) or an `ideological
profession',Curcione, 1971).
The training programmes consist of four major areas of study, including
Biblical Studies; History of the Judaeo-Christian Tradition; Theology and
`Professional Studies'. Encountering and exploring these intellectual arenas
contributes to the development of and a familiarity with a `professional
language',Kleinman, 1984) that comes to permeate the language of the
students'everyday interactions. However, whereas in other occupational
groups this learned indexicality and acquired `translation competence'might
help lay claim to an exclusive expertise and monopoly of the right to practise it,
it has been argued that trainees within the theological colleges are being
prepared for an `ill-defined task'or an `open ended social role',Davies,
1998: 228) since the churches now operate within social matrices that are more
secularized, and ordained ministers have had to adapt by becoming `humanistic
professionals',Kleinman, 1984) that have adopted social roles and functions
associated more with the `emotional labour'of caring professions, such as
social work or counselling.
St David's College, the setting for this piece of research, was founded early
in the 1900s, and is situated in the fashionable area of Bishoptown, a `leafy'
suburb of Westcity. The main buildings of the college are adjacent to the
ancient Bishoptown Cathedral and `symbolic links'were maintained through
regular student participation in liturgical services. Such links, as well as the
presence of visiting bishops or senior clergy, reinforced the hierarchical nature
and context of the ecclesiastical setting within which the trainees would work
once ordained. These formal networks of social relations are also functional in
the mediation of occupational `enculturation'and professional `habitus'
,Bourdieu, 1990).
During the first period of fieldwork ,September, 1996±June, 1997), the
College was responsible for training twenty full-time, residential students ,four
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women, and sixteen men) in three year groups. As in other ethnographic
studies of training settings and among groups of trainees ,eg Atkinson, 1981;
Davies, 1988; Parry, 1988; Coffey, 1993; and Salisbury, 1994a) these students
were marked by their heterogeneity. Their ages ranged from twenty-four to
fifty-five years. There was a high degree of `spatial specialisation',Goffman,
1961) within the college since, whilst married couples and `singles'lived within
the same community, the `singles'lived in small study-bedrooms ,similar to
those in residential halls on university campuses), whilst couples and families
occupied `family homes'owned by the college, which were on, or close to, the
college grounds. In addition, the students had diverse occupational back-
grounds, for example teaching, research science, financial, social and police
work. Six of the students had entered St David's two to three years after
graduating from university, or completing postgraduate research or degrees.
Delamont and Galton ,1986: 180) indicate how the structural arrangements
of schools have consequences for pupil identities and friendship groupings.
This was certainly the case at St David's. Whilst the students were assigned to
mixed, informal, tutorial groups, the year group remained one of the most
significant set of student-student relations for the trainees.
Most of your friends here would tend to be in the same year group as
you. [...] We do tend to form cliques, and the group that I am in this year
,there are four of us) [...] we are all in our third year, and we all had had
good bonds with existing friends who since have left. It is very much a
mutual support network. ,Nigel, third year student, age 26)
In addition, senior student positions and duties within the college were held
and performed on the basis of year groupings. Thus, the `Senior Student'and
key appointments on the Student Committee were all students in their final
year of training. However, significant `allegiances'could also be forged on the
1
basis of `churchmanship'affiliation and identity.
The college was also served by three full-time male members of staff who
were all priests. They acted as leaders to student tutorial groups of mixed age,
sex, year group and `churchmanship'. In addition to these, the college also cited
in its prospectus the use of a range of part-time staff involved in academic
studies at the university, pastoral studies `in house'and `Spiritual Directors'
who, for a short period each term, were resident in college.
At the beginning of their period of formal training the new trainees
experience a one week `induction course'. During this time they were
introduced to the `College Rule',the institutional `manual'for communal
living) and the structured routine at the college ,see below). In addition, all of
the trainees register for their academic courses at the local university. In order
to determine which course the students will follow, they are individually
interviewed by staff. The different courses validated and inspected by the
central Board of Ministry were designed to match the ability levels, previous
educational experiences and proposed length of study of the different students.
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These academic courses were taught mainly within the Department of
Theology at the local University of Westcity, where the St David's staff
members also lectured, and were delivered through a programme of lectures
and seminars.
In addition to the formal, academic aspects of training, St David's arranged
certain `at home'courses with a more skills-based focus. These compulsory
courses included `Pastoral Care in the Parish'which was timetabled on
Thursday afternoons. This was designed to introduce students both
theoretically and practically to a range of pastoral skills necessary for ordained
ministry eg, the rites and processes involved in preaching and conducting
marriages, funerals and baptisms. Students were also linked to local parishes
during their period of training and were expected to spend part of each Sunday
assisting in the services and preaching twice per term. During the long summer
vacation period students would spend up to a month in a parish in their home
Diocese ,geographical area), as well as gaining experience `shadowing'
chaplains in schools and hospitals.
Ethnographic research on experienced, but unqualified, Further Education
teachers ,Salisbury,1994a=b), and midwives ,Davies, 1988) has shown that
previous roles and statuses can be `dramatically inverted'when students
encounter the training setting for the first time. Similarly, my initial field
experiences at St David's revealed that on entering the theological college, this
inversion of status rendered the trainees `vulnerable novices',Salisbury,
1994b: 78) as they adapted to becoming students and learners. This was clearly
identified for the students when, on their first evening at St David's, the new
students gathered to meet the Principal ,Canon Johnson) in the Chapel to hear
about `The College Rule'. In talking about their previous experiences and what
they should expect from their training, Canon Johnson intoned solemnly from
the front of the chapel:
You must forget what you have experienced before. We do not want to hear
`in my parish we did this or that'from you. No, we are asking you to start
afresh.
In opposition to features of the trainees'often extensive and rich `apprentice-
ships of observation',Lortie, 1975) through earlier, `lay,' parish experiences,
the institution viewed the students as `submissive tabula rasa',Merton et al.,
1957). It was encountering this transparent desire that the students should
`start afresh', that first encouraged me to make problematic `the body' within
this setting and consider its mechanisms of the `insatiable management of
social spaces, social practices and forms',Scheurich, 1995: p. 297). The trainees
were frequently confronted with the contrasts between their former lives and
experiences, what they were doing in the theological college and how it had
implications for their future working lives. Goffman ,1961: 23) has argued
that neophytes enter `total institutions'with a `presenting culture'derived
from their `home worlds', and that one of the functions of initial encounters
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with the institutional world is that of `disculturation'via an engagement with
admissions procedures and new instructing rules. The `assaults upon the self'
experienced by the trainees at St David's were designed to begin the process
of initiation and incorporation into a clerical social world at odds with their
presenting cultures and characterised by authority, discipline and the
cultivation of certain moral standards.
Training for ministry: training for `total exposure'
When you are training people for ministry, especially Anglican ministry, it is
very much about community life ± you've got to be available to people at all
sorts of awful times of day and night [...] there are services morning, noon
and night [...] there are the Barn Dances and the Festivals and whatever.
You do get this feeling of total exposure of yourself and family. The vicarage
is public property, and the parishioners see it as church property and they
expect to be in and out of the living room, and they are ,laughs). I think that
it is that that has to be prepared for. ,Donald Leavis ± staff member)
It is vital that in ministerial formation students live together for residential
periods where they are vulnerable to one another's continued gaze and
enquiry. ,ACCM, 1990: 7)
As the reflections of the `Advisory Council for the Church's Ministry' ,ACCM)
and Donald Leavis, a senior member of staff at the college, indicate, this idea
of being `in the gaze', or `total exposure', is seen as being an essential
component of ministerial preparation and served as a key principle in the
structuring of the regime at St David's. Thus, as with medical students ,Becker
et al., 1961; Atkinson, 1981), the students at St David's were not only trained in
skills appropriate to their future occupational roles, but they were also
prepared for an imminent `network of social expectation'in the parish ,Towler
and Coxon, 1979: 168) which involved very public surveillance, not only of the
student who would be ordained, but also members of their immediate family.
Thus, the idea of a future `being in the parish'and its implications for trainees
and their families, legitimated officially and at the local level this intense,
residential mode of preparation for the students. It became clear as a result of
undertaking this research project that the `context is itself part of the learning
process ...',ACCM, 1990: 1).
As will be discussed, exposure and surveillance were largely mediated via the
timetable ,which both structured and regulated the activity and location of the
body, as well as the appropriate use of time) and the inevitable consequences of
living in intimate and close proximity to staff and other trainees.
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Leaming the habits of `clerical' time
One of the things that you will notice here is the pattern and regulation of
the day, this will set you up for life in the parish [...] When you leave here
you must be organised, so you must learn to manage your time sensibly. If
you end up rushing around like some lunatic, and feeling as if you have had
an awful day, it will be because you've been disorganised. In the parish, you
must work at that balance between discipline and relaxation.
,Canon Johnson, the Principal, introducing `The College Rule')
Adam ,1995: 64±65) explains that `punctuated and sectioned time which
provides strict guidelines for activity and rest periods was first developed in the
monasteries of the West'. She shows how social scientists have established a
link between the secular time discipline of contemporary life and the ascetic
daily rounds of monastic existence. She goes on to argue that `in Western
societies we have imposed the monastic schedule on ourselves'. The trainee
priests within this study were expected from the outset to adopt ordered
approaches to time management.
As with other institutions, for example schools ,Ball et al., 1984; Delamont
and Galton, 1986), and hospitals ,Roth, 1963; Zerubavel, 1979) time and
timetables at St David's were a significant organisational feature, and
indicated that `reified, abstracted time and its rationalised control',Adam,
1995: 65) was a key educational strategy in regulating the body. In addition
to this regulatory function, the timetable sought to make visible activity
within the college.
That time was to be a `profound phenomenological component'of life at St
David's ,Ball et al., 1984) was introduced to students during the intensive
`induction period'during their first days of training. These `initial encounters,'
then, during which the students became familiar with `The College Rule, served
to present them with the `most explicit introduction to college values',Coxon,
1965: 492) and to render visible the various modes and strategies of
accomplishing `symbolic violence',Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977).
As with the temporal aspects of organisational structure in other examples
of denominational educational institutions ,Burgess, 1983), secular time
dominated the religious and liturgical calendar. The `yearly cycle'at the
College closely followed that of the university, in that there were three terms
per year ,30 weeks), with an additional 4±6 weeks in pastoral placements
during vacations eg, parishes, hospitals or schools.
The daily temporal structuring of `life in the gaze'at St Davids' was
outlined for students in the `The College Rule', and the main elements
consisted of: compulsory common worship in the college chapel; academic
study at the university; `in house'pastoral programmes; and the routine =
schedule of communal life, such as shared meal times, tutor group meetings,
domestic work ,eg washing up and laying tables for meals), and times of
silence. Hence the weekday `College Timetable'would resemble a `monastic
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day', and usually consist of the following pattern of services and other
activities:
Rising Bell
7.00 am
7.30 am
7.45 am
8.00 am
8.30 am
,daytime)
6.00 pm
6.45 pm
Morning Prayer
Silent Meditation in the Chapel
Communion
Breakfast
University Lectures
Evening Prayer
Dinner
As with schools, periods of change in activity were made explicit through use of
`the bell'. At St David's, as in monastic communities, the `Rising Bell' would be
rung at the beginning of the day, and signal `the call'to communal morning
worship. The bell would also be rung before other chapel services throughout
the day.
The period of training and the regime of the theological colleges, then, can
be viewed as establishing `regular routines, patterns and discipline',ACCM,
1990: 13) for ministry. In relation to this function, time was observed to
operate as a powerful `coercive facticity',Ball et al., 1984: 45) at St David's in
regulating the student body, and the `pressure of the schedule'was a
fundamental means of testing competency in preparation for future occupa-
tional roles ,Delamont and Galton, 1986).
In general, the trainees responded to this form of regulation in the same
ways that students have been observed to in other institutions. As Ball et al.
,1984: 43) have found from research in school settings:
For the vast majority of school pupils ... school time is experienced
passively and unquestioningly. Their personal timetables are subordinated
to the standard period, school day, school week and term; and the
synchronisation and sequencing of the timetable ... . Time is a boundary
condition that imposes its own logical pattern upon social action.
Whilst students are seen to conform in more `front stage'settings, `time is
something they want to claim for themselves',Ball et al., 1984: 42). Student
opposition to `institutional time'was most obvious when tensions arose out of
the conflict between `personal=individual'and `official =collective'time ,Adam,
1995: 66). The amount of `out of hours'time put in by the students effectively
blurred the distinction between personal and collective time and emphasised
the fact that whilst `in the parish'private and professional time were
inseparable. Like other caring professionals, eg medical staff, to be a priest
meant always being `on duty'.
The university and its time and demands were experienced as being
dominant features in the students'lives and generated a problematic sense of
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living a `straddled identity', or inhabiting `multiple lifeworlds' ,Schutz and
Luckmann, 1973). The trainees experienced real anxiety in being both
university and clerical students, not least due to the daily physical bi-location
between the theological college and university. Living `between two worlds'
,Weis, 1985) created tensions for the students, especially in managing the
demands of undergraduate academic pressures ,attendance at lectures, essay
writing etc.), in addition to the further expectations of occupational
preparation within this residential setting.
It's just very difficult coping with what's required of us in college, as well as
all of the academic stuff in the university. It's like living in different worlds
[...] When things really get going it's going to be difficult to fit everything in.
,William, first year student, aged 24)
Because we are so integrated with the university ,all our lectures are in the
university), and then there are a few `add on'lectures, which give us
ministerial additions in this college, I find that once that you have gone for a
whole week of lectures on a degree course in a university and have things
added on back here, you don't really want to do any more, like the daily
chapel routine, and placement in a parish. This year I'm doing a placement
with the `Big Issue', working with them on Thursday afternoons. It does get
very tiring with the amount that is asked of you. You're doing over and
above what a normal degree student is expected to do. You're expected to
do the same amount of academic work. ,Gavin)
The college really can't make up its mind what it wants to be. It is
somewhere between being a college of higher education and a monastery [...]
Certainly for some here, they regard the academic side as keeping them
away from work experience in the parish, from the practical side that really
matters. ,Nigel, third year student, age 26)
The demands of training, therefore, not only constructed geographical and
physical boundaries for the students ,eg between theological college, university
and home), but also constructed temporal boundaries. Nespor ,1994) in
researching the curriculum for undergraduate students in physics and
management has argued that these forms of spatio-temporal boundaries and
the resulting sense of separation, reinforce group cohesion and identity which
are important in connecting students to future social worlds of professional
practice.
Even where students had adopted elements of the Principal's time
management ideals, they signalled their rejection of aspects of the institutional
sequencing of time and activities, indicating strategies for their own
prioritisation. This opposition was often justified through knowledge gained
from their own pastoral placements or previous students and, therefore, by
reference to `real experiences'in the `real world'of the parish. In this way,
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narratives challenged the official justification for certain regulatory practices,
and mirrored the `contrastive rhetoric',Hargreaves, 1984) and `privileging of
the practical'of trainees in other educational settings ,Salisbury, 1994a =b).
I cope very badly here at times. Much to my dismay, I have become a great
list person. I'm so disorganised that I have had to adopt that system. There
is always something for you to do here. But I've made relaxation as much a
part of my list as anything else [...] have made a rule that I will never work
here in the evenings. I certainly can't do the late shifts, as people call them,
you know working until 2 or 3 in the morning. A friend who was ordained
last year gave me a good piece of advice in that you should see the day as
being divided into three segments. If you don't want to wear yourself out,
only work two of these. Which is what I do now, and what I'll do when I get
out. ,Nigel)
I have to apologise a lot for being disorganised. I keep on wondering how
I'm going to cope when important things like funerals have to be attended.
Otherwise the dead don't get buried. I just pray that I'll find some way. Just
being very severe helps, like saying I don't think attending this lecture would
be very important, in fact the time could be better spent doing some reading
or writing an essay, or something else. I think that that is the only way to
cope when your time is crammed in. ,Gavin)
Other students located their opposition within experiences in previous
professional occupational roles and identities, and expressed a desire for a
degree of autonomy in terms of managing the demands of preparation within
the training setting.
I would call it panic management here, where you go from one potential
disaster to the next, and you hope that you keep ahead all the way along the
line. I think the important thing is to try and plan, you've got to keep ahead
of the game and know what is going on. As far as the college is concerned
[...] there are a lot of pressures on time for a lot of people, and it does make
life difficult. I think it would be far easier if we weren't fettered by the
imposition of all of these activities at different times of the day [...] I've
worked in big organisations, and I think there are a lot of constraints that
the college could do away with. Although I value the fact that I'm praying at
certain times of the day, and I consider it a part of the discipline of the life
that I've entered [...] there just isn't going to be somebody standing over you
saying `You will go to morning prayer, you will go to evening prayer'. We
could with a little less force feeding. ,David, first year student, aged 50)
In relation to professional preparation, then, time and the training programme
must be of `good quality', and Foucault defines this as time in which `the body
is constantly applied to its exercise',Foucault, 1977: 151). For Foucault,
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Trevor Welland
within the ocularcentric `empire of the gaze', enclosure of the body is spatially
powerful, but also possesses a temporal dimension ,Jay, 1986: 178). As
outlined in other occupational socialization studies ,eg, Parry, 1988; Coffey,
1993) time is an important feature of preparation for the professions, and the
institutional and official emphases on time and time management at St David's
were linked not only to personal adjustments to the training regime, but to
foreshadowing and sign-posting some of the demands and realities of future
working lives and production.
Having explored features of time and the timetable in ministerial
preparation, l now turn to another of Foucault's disciplinary techniques of
the body: enclosure.
`Looking out for each other': training in a state of visibility
After supper the previous Principal would sit at his French Windows, and
check whose lights were on, and who was working. It's like living in God's
goldfish bowl here. ,Oliver, second year student, aged 55)
The long and intense period of training within an intimate and close-knit
residential setting was designed to `reveal much of the student's personality and
suitability for ordination',ACCM, 1990: 51). The enclosed and bounded
nature of the training environment rendered them very visible and vulnerable
to the appraisal of others living in the community. As indicated earlier, this
sense of being in the gaze, or of the total exposure of the candidate, is regarded
as being an important aspect of training for stipendiary ministry. This is related
to the very public nature of ordained ministry and the example of Christian
living demanded by members of this `ideological profession'. Surveillance of
the ability of students to cope with the pressure life in the gaze of a community
was formally performed by staff, who were responsible for assessing student
suitability for ordination and ministry:
Not only are they ,the staff) expected to teach, but also to assess students ... .
The assessing role of staff can at times be ambiguous and confusing to
students. A College or Course prepares people for ordination, and there is a
collective responsibility among the staff for recommending a student's
suitability for ordination. ,ACCM, 1990: 49)
As Oliver's description of the geometry and orientation of the public space
of the theological college as a `goldfish bowl'alludes to, the interpretation of
spatial coding at St David's resonates with Foucault's ,1977) analysis of
Bentham's `panopticon'. For Foucault, the panopticon is a means of gaining
access to individuals, their bodies, gestures and all daily actions ,Dews,
1987: 149). It is an architectural device consisting of a central watch-tower
surrounded by transparent cells. From here, a lone observer is able to watch
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and supervise a large number of individuals. The architecture and geometry of
the panopticon generate the effect of constant surveillance and is oriented
towards the production of `self-policing subjects',Dews, 1987: 150). Jay
,1986: 192) argues that `the external look becomes an internalised and self-
regulating mechanism which extends the old religious preoccupation with the
smallest detail, whose importance in the sight of God was immense'. As will be
shown below, student accounts described their sense of being on display, and
that the college setting was a stage for the demonstration of embodied
competence. Students and staff watched each other and judged each other in
terms of demeanour and overall competence. This sense of `panopticism'was
reinforced for me in the very first days of fieldwork as the following expanded
fieldnote describes.
The entrance to the college campus is marked by a narrow driveway
bounded by low brick walls and a weathered sign bearing the name of the
college ,the only real clue as to the nature of the administrative building
facing onto the main road) [...] Set away from the busy road and masked by
this building, the driveway leads to the campus enclosure. A central lawned
area is almost completely encircled by a series of different buildings whose
windows face onto the grass. Behind me is the main building with the chapel
directly facing me. On either side are the residential blocks, that I later
discovered were segregated as study rooms and separate accommodation for
`marrieds'or `singles.' Looking around it seems clear that no matter which
part of the building one is in, from inside you can get a good view of all
other parts of the college grounds. It is as if the college is an observatory.
,Expanded fieldnote, 21.9.96)
For the students, living under the `tyranny of the gaze'was experienced
especially in the case of staff monitoring their attendance in chapel for
obligatory services and times of prayer. Each student on entering the college
was assigned a specific seat in chapel, and a floor plan, attached to the
noticeboard, indicated where each student should sit for worship. Whilst the
student places were arranged in rows facing the altar at the front of the chapel,
the staff sat in specially designated seats on a raised dais at the rear. From this
`vantage point'staff were able to identify which students were present or not.
Students strongly resented this aspect of assessment and considered it to be one
of the most negative experiences of their training. This was especially the case
since the surveillance was regarded as being extended not just to physical
presence in the chapel, but also to the way in which students led services or
performed other functions within worship. As Foucault argues ,1977: 152),
being in the gaze can engender a sense of a `correct way of doing something'
with an associated fear of criticism of incorrect use of the body.
I think the atmosphere in the chapel can be quite oppressive. There is a sense
that you have to conform to the way that the college recites prayers [...] quite
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rigidly. And there's that terrible thing where all the staff sit on that great big
throne at the back and look at the back of everyone, and they can see who
has overslept, and can see who didn't realise there is another reading. And
there's a real ± especially when there is someone out the front to serve ±
there is always such a sense of nervousness of getting it right [...] I know a lot
of people feel that they are being watched. And I think just the physical
nature of putting the staff back there isn't constructive. And spreading the
students into their designated slots isn't helpful. I do feel that there is an
oppressive nature to the chapel ± it's not conducive to worship. ,Gavin)
Probably most of you haven't seen this side of me in college, because I just
find college takes everything out of me and I just can't wait to leave. When
I'm out in the parish I'm not afraid to be brave and experiment and try
something new in a service and if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Er, I don't
do that in college because it's a different atmosphere, students and staff can
be so critical, you know what it is like, I'm sure you've noticed it. ,Margaret,
first year student, age 32)
Whilst it was the staff who formally performed this assessment and
surveillance role, students indicated that it was the informal gaze of other
students and their families, that noticed inappropriate behaviour in the
`backstage settings'away from institutional spaces, such as Chapel or lectures.
Even though the staff live in the community they will miss disputes, they
probably miss the feelings that students have about other students. There
will be students who are viewed in a certain way, and the tutors don't pick
up on our views of x, y or z. We do assess each other, definitely. I don't
know what others think of me, but I do know what is said about others. The
staff miss out on that gossip side of things. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly,
but I would say that we have more of an awareness of each other. ,Michael,
third year student, aged 27)
This was also indicated by Donald Leavis ,a staff member) when he spoke of
the assessment role of students and their families, even though they had no
formal role. He mentioned details of a recent `weeding out of the insane',in
this case someone with a `drink problem'), and that it was other students in
college who had raised the issue with staff.
In her work on the reproduction of subject knowledge and practice among
undergraduates in university settings, Nespor ,1994) argues that the
reconfiguration of students'spatial and temporal practices serves to connect
them to their respective disciplines. Thus, the spatio-temporal dimensions of
learning and the curriculum can be viewed as marking conscious and strategic
constructions of docile bodies and bodily practices. For the trainees at St
David's, too, space and time are seen to be important means of ensuring
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`correct training', and `observation and visibility of the body' can be
interpreted as a means of `coercion',Foucault, 1977: 170).
Resisting and affirming the `curriculum of the body'
Given the nature of surveillance, control and visibility at St David's, the body
and physical practice were seen to be effective domains or sites for the process of
resistance. Students accounts of their responses to training indicated that they
were not passive recipients of their formal curriculum. One of the main
oppositional strategies for `messing up',Goffman, 1961: 55) and winning
`symbolic and physical space from the institution',Weis, 1985: 35) was
absenteeism. As has already been mentioned, students would frequently
prioritise activities for themselves and often attend only what they considered
to be most important. This strategy was certainly adopted in relation to
university lectures. Other students were frequently absent from college overnight,
especially where their partners or families lived at a distance from the college.
In other situations, resistance through challenging acceptable notions of
`appropriate behaviour'could take on a more moral dimension. For example,
one student, when speaking of his disappointment that he had not been sent to
a more academically prestigious college, said:
I warned them that because Prue [his partner] lives just down the road, I'd
be at her place all the time [...] this week I've slept here only twice. Unlike
some of the students who have their girlfriends to stay, we would never sleep
with each other here. If anyone ever asked I'd say: `How dare you suggest
that we are having sex before we are married, I'm training to be a priest. I
sleep on the sofa'. There's nothing in the `college rule' about where I sleep.
,William, first year student, age 24)
In another example, Michael indicated the awareness of activities and identities
of other students, including those who were known to be, or suspected of being,
homosexual.
We are aware of what pretty well everyone else is up to, you know, who's
drinking heavily, who's sleeping with their girlfriend, or who might be gay,
that sort of thing. ,Michael)
Homosexual identities in particular were `policed'and marginalised by many of
the students. Indeed, student accounts of their processes of selection indicate
that, for some, the issue of what were deemed to be `inappropriate sexual
identities'was raised early on.
When I walked in to meet my bishop for the first time, really the first
question he asked me was `Are you gay'? ,Nigel)
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These forms of activity can be interpreted as standing in opposition to the
moral imperatives of the College Rule, which demanded the highest examples
of `Christian living'from those to be ordained.
Although students were aware of the pressures of their exposed condition
and the need for appropriate behaviour whilst training, students could also
identify some advantages to being `in the gaze'.
If you don't establish yourself in a clique [...] it is very difficult to be alone
here [...] you very much need the support and care of other students because
whilst pastoral support is available from staff, it is only available in crisis
situations. You tend to look after your own in the group.',Nigel, third year
student, aged 26)
Surveillance, therefore, could also be related to support and friendship for
students. Many of those interviewed disclosed accounts of having been covered
for by friends or other members of the college if they had infringed some
element of the College Rule, such as being away without permission or if they
had missed a compulsory event. The highly visible nature of life in this
residential training arena also meant that students could rely on each other to
informally monitor and regulate behaviour, especially within their immediate
groups of friends.
When the stress was getting to me, and I was getting out of line [...] when I
was getting ratty and snappy, I would start to take it out on others. That
was when I needed the others, and they were able to pull me up and say
`that's the line, and you have just crossed over it. We realise that you're
under stress, but don't take it out on anybody else'. So in that way we keep
each other in check. ,Nigel)
Conclusion
As has been outlined earlier, Foucault argues that bodies can be compelled
through disciplines, and that the docile body can be coerced, shaped and
ordered towards identity. The technologies of control and discipline that shape
and order the inapt body proceed from the spatial distribution of individuals
and the control of their activities through the timetable and visibility. In
relation to research on occupational socialisation and preparation for ordained
ministry, professional identity and habitus can be said to be constructed within
the disciplinary space of the training arena. Drawing on this perspective, this
paper has explored how aspects of theological training can be regarded as
simulations, in response to which students would develop appropriate modes of
behaviour, or life patterns for the ordering of working lives. The features of
theological training that foreshadow the realities of occupational practice
emphasise visibility, structure and routine for the body. An emphasis of the
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training environment, therefore, is seen to be on the demands imposed by
discipline, regulation and obligation, and these are mediated through the
timetable and the gaze of staff, other students and their families. The
occupational preparation of ordinands on full-time, residential courses has
been shown to exemplify and illustrate Foucault's focus on `biopower', in that
key elements of the training involve enclosure and the spatio-temporal
regulation of activity. These features seek to connect trainees with an
anticipated social world of practice and contribute to the construction of
professional identities and habitus. In this way, it can be argued that the
emerging `clerical identities'of the trainees are written and inscribed on the
body. However, as this paper has shown, Foucault's analysis does have some
limitations when applied to theological training, in that it ignores trainees'
creative responses to forms of regulation and surveillance. As with other
training settings, the regime of observation of bodily practices can be
consciously and strategically resisted by students.
University of Wales Cardiff
Received 18 February 2000
Finally accepted 24 July 2000
Notes
1 Churchmanship is the term used to indicate the positioning of ecclesiastical affiliation. For the
students at St David's this indexing was either as `low' church ,indicating a more `evangelical' or
`fundamentalist'position) or `high',denoting affiliation to a more Anglo-Catholic form of
practice).
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