Foucault and Power: A Critique and Retheorization. Issue 3 (2nd October 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Haugaard, Mark
• Is Part Of: Critical review. Volume 34:Issue 3/4(2022)
• Page Start: 341
• Page End: 371
• Publication Date: 2022-10-02
• Subjects: Foucault -- agency -- domination -- power -- structure; Libertarianism -- United States -- Periodicals; 320.512
• DOI: 10.1080/08913811.2022.2133803
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0891-3811

Abstract

ABSTRACT: From the perspective of sociological theory, Foucault's concepts of power, power-knowledge, and discipline are one-sided. While Foucault contends that there is no center of power, his account of power remains top-down or structural, missing the interactive and enabling aspects of power. A more balanced view would suggest that all exercises of power include meaningful agency (the ability to do something); social structures (not simply as constraints but as interactive creations); social knowledge (including both reifying truth claims and enabling truth or knowledge); and social-ontological being-in-the-social-world (both as enabling and dominating).