Foucault
has publicised a number of interesting concepts, most of which contradict with
modern hegemonic values. We arranged a group meeting to collaborate over his
key theories. Whilst reading Foucault’s works I found that most of them were over
complicated and prolonged. We decided upon analysing “The Foucault Reader”, because
it includes his key ideologies on power/knowledge and discourse. Also we found
we’d have more time analysing and discussing the book due to its direct and
simplistic discourse.
In
this book Foucault rejects the accepted values of power/knowledge, and invents
his own. It’s commonly thought of that each individual has a self identity, and
that some people possess more power than others. Foucault observes the way in which knowledge/discourse
and power are integrated in a modern Western society, and argues that knowledge
creates a persons identity. For
Foucault those who are in control have the ability to manipulate and contrive a
person’s selfhood. “…psychiatric
internment, the mental normalization of individuals, and penal institutions…
are undoubtedly essential to the general functioning of the wheels of power.” (p.58) Power
derives from institutions, rather than the individual. However, Foucault believed that power is not a quality obtained, power is a temporary alternating force. Those who conditionally possess power in
a postmodern society would also include churches, schools, the government, and
the army, all of which use it as a “discipline”.
Foucault argues that power isn't completely a negative force in society, but has advantages too. "What makes power hold good, what makes it accepted, is simply the fact that it
doesn't only weigh on us as a force that says no, but that it traverses and
produces things, it induces pleasure, forms knowledge, produces discourse. It
needs to be considered as a productive network which runs through the whole
social body, much more than as a negative instance whose function is repression." (p.61)
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