Governance and Human Rights / Governance and Rule of Law / Prison and Power: Michel Foucault and the South African Prison System

Prison and Power: Michel Foucault and the South African Prison System

Governance and Human Rights
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14 November

The French Embassy and the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) are pleased to invite you to a talk by Justice Edwin Cameron and Sohela Surajpal, two of the authors of the new book ‘Behind Prison Walls’.

Their talk will bring together Michel Foucault’s reflections on systems of discipline and South Africa’s experience of incarceration, offering an original analysis: how prisons, far from serving as tools of rehabilitation, become instruments of social control and the perpetuation of inequality.

Prison and Power: Michel Foucault and the South African Prison System

📅 Date: Tuesday, 25 November 2025

🕠 Time: 15:00-16:30

📍 Venue: Dibukafé 70 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg

RSVP here. 

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Join us for a special talk by Justice Edwin Cameron and Sohela Surajpal, two of the authors of the new book 'Behind Prison Walls'. Their talk will bring together Michel Foucault's reflections on the systems of discipline and South Africa's experience of incarceration, offering an original analysis: how prisons, far from serving as tools of rehabilitation, become instruments of social control and the perpetuation of inequality.
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