What Is Foucault's Theory Of Power

Power/Knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Michel Foucault. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980. 270pp.

Reviewed by Tayyaba Javed. This book ‘’ Power/knowledge Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977’’ is a wonderful and to the point but comprehensive and accomplished introduction to the thought of the French philosopher, a psychologist and a historian Michel Foucault. This book is a compilation of interviews, discussions and lectures, which act as a concrete foundation and a summary to the ideas, Foucault outlined in his major works especially his conception of power which is central to his theory.

The first essay On Popular Justice shows Foucault’s criticism of popular tribunals. His analysis deals with the danger

Three different periods can be detected in his work. I) Archaeological (1950-1960). II) Genealogical (1975-1977). III) Ethical (1978-1987). Focusing mainly on the second and third phase of his career, this book also helps to clarify a lot about his early research .The issue of the power was of great importance in Michel Foucault’s philosophical work. Apart from Marxist interpretation of power relations, he perceives the notion of power not as something that state or institutions possess and use oppressively against individuals, instead for Foucault, power is something that acts and operates in a certain way. Power is more a strategy than a possession, co-extensive with resistance, a dynamic and constructive factor. Hence, Foucault’s idea of power is all- pervasive found in any kind of relation between the members of society. He is interested, not in the conventional treatment of power. But he used it in much more broader terms :‘’ Power must be analyzed as something which circulates, or as something which only functions in the form of a chain . . . Power is employed and exercised through a netlike organization . . . Individuals are the vehicles of power, not its points of

This new form of power is known as disciplinary power. Foucault’s idea of subjectification is closely linked to the Bentham’s panpticon; a new kind of prison building in which the prisoners would be unable to know whether they were being examining or not. This notion of authoritative gaze becomes prevalent in society through different institutions. Such kind of gaze also, in a way, becomes a means of looking at ourselves. So, we become a subject of our own gaze and continuously observe our bodies. As a result, power is exerted in the form of self-regulation. In Politics of health in Eighteenth Century, he is of the view that there were two immense methods of power that made the accretion of men possible. First was the privileging of the child and medicalization of the family. Second was the authorization of hygiene and the function of medicine as the policy and system of social