Traditional approach to power
Foucault is one of the few writers on power who recognise that power is not just a negative, coercive or repressive thing that forces us to do things against our wishes, but can also be a necessary, productive and positive force in society.
Power produces reality
Foucault argued over centuries, socieites have changed from feudalism
argued that over centuries, societies have changed from feudalism, to monarchies, to democracies; but our political theories of power have not kept up with those changes. Since we no longer live in monarchies, Foucault argued, we need a more finely tuned theory of power that can help us understand the many different ways power operates when there are no dictators.
Power
We must cease
We must cease to describe the effects of power in negative terms: it ‘excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’, it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact power produces; it produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong to this production
Where is power present
Who is foucault
French postmodernist, has been hugely influential in shaping understandings of power, moving away from the analysis of actors who use power to coerce, toward the idea that ‘power is everywhere’, diffused and embodied in discourse, knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’ (Power for Foucault is what makes us what we are
How does foucault’s idea of power differ from previous ideas
According to Foucault, where is power
Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups by way of ‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination or coercion, seeing it instead as dispersed and pervasive. ‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’
‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is
A key point about Foucault’s approach to power is that
it transcends politics and sees power as an everyday, socialised and embodied phenomenon
Foucault is largely influential in
Describe disciplinary power
how does disciplinary power work
the sovereign mode of power operates in democracies when
authorities (people or laws) try to control other people
Feature of sovereign mode of power
power most obvious in a monarchy, where the king or queen possesses ultimate authority over other people’s lives.
Foucault used the term ‘sovereign’ to refer to this noble mode of power.
it most closely resembles forces of domination and control with which we are familiar.
In democratic societies,
people are subjected to laws and coercive practices (sovereign power)
We control ourselves
Disciplinary power is the kind of power we exercise
Disciplinary power is the kind of power we exercise over ourselves based on our knowledge of how to fit into society. We discipline ourselves on the basis of messages we get from society – knowledge, rewards, and images – of how we are supposed to live. We try to be normal by disciplining ourselves even in the absence of threats of punishment.
Foucault’s analysis tells us that disciplinary power is executed through mechanisms that are different from the mechanisms of sovereign power. For example
sovereign power is exercised through physical punishment and rewards. Disciplinary power, on the other hand, is exercised through surveillance and knowledge.
disciplinary power
One surveillance mechanism is
the gaze. The gaze is symbolized by the panopticon, a prison design that allows a supervisor to watch inmates.
The concept of the gaze is important because it shows that it is not necessary to watch people constantly because people will regulate themselves even when they think they are being watched. The gaze gives people the feeling that they are being watched, and that feeling is a mechanism of our self-discipline.
power makes
social order effective and intelligible
according to Foucault, power can make social order effective and intelligible even when power does not have the characteristics social and political theorists normally attribute to it including
What does power create?
power creates the intersection between knowledge and action that is a characteristic of practice
Link between truth and power according to Foucault
power and truth directly imply each other
truth is an effect of power and in turn reproduces power