Living in the ‘empire of the gaze’: time, enclosure and surveillance in a theological college

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’.