Exam june Flashcards
To what school of philosophy does Michel Foucault belong to?
Critical theory. In this theory political philosophers are seen as cartographers of the present (=mapping of reality). Critical theory assumes that philosophy is a critique on reality. Reality exists primarily of ongoing conflicts. This is further confirmed by Foucault who said: ‘‘Politics is war through other means”. Conflicts can however result in opportunities for change.
What is the traditional view of knowledge and power?
Knowledge and power are opposed to each other. There is a conflict of interest. Example: cancer research (knowledge of dangers of smoking) versus tobacco industry (power created by profitable business).
What is Foucault’s perception of knowledge and power?
Knowledge and power are not opposed but rather presupposed (= require each other). Knowledge can understand how power should be used and power can be used to acquire knowledge.
What are wrong assumptions about power and why are they wrong?
1) Power is bad:
Not true because power is sometimes acquired legitimate (democracy) and is productive. There can not be a society that is free of power.
2) Power is a resource (possessive theory of power):
Power is not a resource but a relation. It is about how much power a person has relative to another person. There is no stable ‘possession’ of power it is all relative
3) Power prohibits/forbids (prohibitive theory of power):
It is not that power is about keeping people in line. Power can also lead to empowerment (productiveness of power). An example is the BLM movement.
4) Power is only exercised by the state (juridical theory of power):
Private agents also can exercise power. Example: doctors having the power to make people better/revive them
What is Foucault’s typology of power?
Power is…
1) Everywhere:
It is not only exercised by the state but spread out across an entire society. Example: ‘micro-power relations’ is power on an individual level
2) Productive:
It is not of forbidding/prohibiting nature, it can lead to empowerment. Power relations can also create knowledge.
3) Reversible: Where there is power there is resistance. The power relation can flip. Example: French revolution where power relation between monarchs and the working class shifted. Power versus domination.
What are some historical kinds of power relations?
1) Sovereign power
This is where an agent with lots of power (like a king) has the power to decide between life or death on its subjects. Feudal relationships existed where people owned loyalty and service to a lord in exchange for protection. The king has the power to expose its people to death (like wars) and has ‘/power to make die or let live’. Rare form of power relation in todays society. Sometimes kind of exercised in martial law.
2) Modern biopower:
It relates to the practice of modern nation states and their regulation of their subjects through “an explosion of numerous and diverse techniques for achieving the subjugations of bodies and the control of populations. disciplinary and biopolitical power(More explanation later)
How did sovereign power lead to rehabilitation?
Executions (spectacle) were carried out to revive the power of the sovereign power relation. Prisons were used to detain criminals before punishment.
Punishments had to produce docile and productive citizens. Prisons could be seen as a re-education for criminals. Can be seen as a rough draft of the emergence of the disciplinary society. Techniques of the prison system relate to other fields (schools, hospitals).
How does discipline work?
What is the target? -> idle and unproductive individuals.
1) decomposition:
Break up human groups into individuals (like individual prison cells) and break up the human body into individual movement (like a marching army).
2) recomposition:
Measure individual performance through ‘examinations’. Results are placed in a hierarchy and judgement is normalized. For example how performance in schools is based on grades.
This leads to the production of ‘the individual’ as an
administrative identity.
What is the panopticon?
Internalizing the disciplinary gaze. Its an 18th century design for prisons and some other buildings. (pictures on google)
What is Taylorism?
disciplinary power applied to the workforce. Because of the industrial revolution there was a demand for increased labor productivity. Workers must be turned into standardized and docile resources of labor-power.
How does Taylorism relate to the process of disciplinary (decomposition and recomposition)?
Decomposition)
Individualize workers and blocking direct communication between workers. Strict study of the physiology of workers’ bodies. Workers perceived as ‘trained gorillas’.
Recomposition)
Keeping records of each workers. Create a hierarchy of employee performance and create production norms (quota). Strict supervision to recreate the effect of the panopticon (disciplinary gaze).
What is synopticon?
Because of the rise of digital technology, disciplinary power becomes more mobile. Examples: ankle bracelet, GPS trackers, drones.
What are biopolitics according to Foucault?
Biopolitics refer to the style of government that aims to exercise political power on all aspects of human life.
Biopolitical governments are aiming to ensure a strong and active population. Emergence of statistics (measure population performance) and public medicine (keep the population healthy).
What are biopolitical norms?
They are different from disciplinary norms. Discipline is the strategy to make individuals behave while biopolitics aims to manage a population.
The norms are…
1) Based on statistics rather than pre-established
2) Allows for outliers
3) Imposed indirectly. Individual freedoms are more respected
What are thanatopolitics?
The politics that decide who lives and who dies. For example how pandemics are managed where social and economic disadvantages contribute to higher mortality rates.
How did biopolitics lead to governmentality?
Biopolitics which were focused on managing public health was also getting more involved into economic productivity. This lead to the emergence of economics where statistical tools were created to measure economic strength (like GDP, inflation, unemployment rates etc.) Governmentality can be considered the knowledge and power of economic government (having knowledge about economy and the power to manipulate it).
What is ‘The Birth of Biopolitics?
A lecture series (like a course) that was created by Michel Foucault in 1979 which analyzed the role and status of the government and neo-liberal politics. It came before the rise of neoliberal politicians (Reagan and Thatcher).
Two approaches:
1) Neoliberalism as an economic form of rationality
2) Neoliberalism as a thought-collective
What was the environment in which neoliberalism departed?
During the 20th century where Keynes, communism and nazism were popular. Economists became critical of government interventions in the market. It was believed that classical liberalism needed an update. Neoliberalism was different from classical liberalism in terms that it still advocated for individual freedom in the market but also aimed for government interventions when needed. It became the dominant school in economics from 1970 and onwards. Multiple famous economists like: Hayek, Friedman, Becker, Eucken, Stigler.
What are the two principles of neoliberalism?
1) Competition: Governments must impose competition in order to ensure efficiency
2) Entrepreneurship
What is homo oeconomicus (entrepreneurship as a way of life) ?
Originated from The Chicago School and human capital theory. Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker analyzed how economic growth happened after the second world war.
Result? -> Human characteristics is considered as a stock of human capital to invest in. Individuals as utility-maximizing agent. Investing in yourself and increasing own human capital leads to personal innovation. It is a model for all human conduct. People must act in ways that are beneficial to themselves
For example: Becker stated that criminals engage in criminal activity because the potential reward outweighs the potential punishment (= they are economically rational)
Is neoliberalism just everything we don’t like about free markets?
No, it is a specific form of economic governmentality that increases the economic productivity of the population by imposing competition and encouraging individuals to conduct themselves as entrepreneurs of their own human capital.
What are major problems of neoliberalism?
Democratic deficit: Not all government-imposed competition/entrepreneurship is democratically
decided. Example: student debt. No say of students in this matter.
Example: Austerity. This is the process where governments create difficult economic settings in order to minimize consumer spending. (Like increasing interest rates)
What is Hayek (neoliberalist) counter argument against the democratic deficit of neoliberalism?
“Democracy is essentially a means, a utilitarian device for safeguarding internal peace and individual freedom. As such it is by no means infallible or certain. Nor must we forget that there has often been much more cultural and spiritual freedom under an autocratic rule than under some democracies and it is at least conceivable that under the government of a very homogeneous and doctrinaire majority democratic government might be as oppressive as the worst dictatorship.”
What is meant with curtailing democracy?
It asks the question if democracy is ending at the hand of neoliberalism. This is because of 2 reasons:
1) Constitutional restrictions to democratic input: For example: Constitutions that are reformed and can not be changed by parliament.
2) Strategic use of state of emergency: crisises used to impose regulations. For example how medical passports can become a serious option for the future as a result of COVID-19.
