Summary
Summary Foucault Notes
- Module
- SO100 (SO100)
- Institution
- London School Of Economics (LSE)
Notes on Foucault for SO100 - Relationship between Power and Knowledge - Disciplinary Power - Bio-Politics - Sex/Sexuality - Governmentality
[Show more]
4 reviews
By: nancyruiyaoren • 5 year ago
By: farhinc • 6 year ago
By: aamnashahab • 6 year ago
By: Mason • 8 year ago
Content preview
What the Foucault?What is Power?
- Generally speaking, “the way in which the conduct of individuals and groups may be directed”,
the conduct in question here includes bodily as well as social conduct”
- Not conceived of as a property or possession of a dominant class but a “complex strategical
situation”, a “multiplicity of force relations” (power relations)
- Creates the individual
- “One of the prime effects of power is that certain bodies, certain gestures, certain discourses,
certain desires come to be identified and constituted as individuals”
- Both an effect of power and the element of its articulation
- We are active agents in our subjection —> self-regulation, the moment we become “the norm”
- “When there is power, there is resistance”
- Death is power’s limit
Relationship between Power and Knowledge
“Power produces knowledge (and not simply by encouraging it because it serves power or by
applying it because it is useful); that power and knowledge directly imply one another; that there is
no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, not any knowledge
that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations”
#1: Knowledge is needed for the exercise of power
- Knowledge serving as the techniques for the successful control of an object
- We willingly submit to experts in their field
- Example of medical practice
- Patients submit to doctors, listen to their advice based on the premise that they are experts
in the area of healthcare provision whereas they are not, hence the party with more
knowledge is in a position of power
- Foucault emphasises that when there is power, there is resistance, can lead to disease
mongering where pharmaceutical companies try to unethically boost the sales of their
medicine —> resistance in the form of increasing criticism against exploitation by big
pharmaceutical companies
- The more something is known, the more controllable it becomes; need to be able to understand
something in its entirety in order to exercise control over it
- Population control
- Use of demographics and statistics to measure fertility rates, marriage rates etc to chart the
progress of society in order to figure out where and how best to intervene
- Power-knowledge relations reproduced not only between individuals but also over the
populations
#2: Disciplinary mechanisms use the formulation and accumulation of knowledge to exercise
disciplinary power
- Key aspect of disciplinary mechanisms is that of surveillance
- Signifies the connection between visibility and power
- Rendering an individual visible made it possible to know and alter their behaviour
- Disciplinary power remains invisible whilst individuals are located in a field of visibility,
subjected to a mechanism of objectification and thereby to the exercise of power
- Panopticon as an exemplification of this relationship
- Exercises a power of observation, producing “homogeneous effects of power”
- Inmates subjected to a state of potential perpetual invisibility
- Inmates unable to know for sure if they are being watched by the guards in the central tower
(asymmetry of knowledge)
- Consciousness of being in this space where their every move is potentially made visible to the
guards ensured an automatic functioning of power
- The more one observes, the more power one becomes
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller mandamanda12. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for £3.49. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
48298 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy revision notes and other study material for 15 years now