Page 36 - Contemporary Political Sociology Globalization Politics and Power

22 Changing Definitions of Politics and Power

The most general sense in which power is productive for Foucault is
through knowledge. Knowledge, especially that of the social sciences, is
closely implicated in the production of docile bodies and subjected minds.
“ Discourses ” is the term Foucault uses for these systems of quasi - scientifi c
knowledge. Knowledge as discourse is not knowledge of the “ real ” world
as it exists prior to that knowledge. Although it presents itself as repre-
senting objective reality, in fact, discourses construct and make “ real ” the
objects of knowledge they “ represent. ” Knowledge is distinguished from
other ways of apprehending the world and considered to be “ knowledge ”
of the objective world because it is supported by practices of power. As
Foucault sees it, knowledge involves statements uttered in institutional
sites in which it is gained according to certain rules and procedures, by
speakers who are authorized to say what counts as “ truth ” in that par-
ticular context. For Foucault, the analysis of discourse requires the deter-
mination of how new objects of knowledge emerge, under what discursive
and non - discursive conditions, and especially, what effects of power they
produce. As he puts it, “ Truth is linked in a circular relation with systems
of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it
induces and which extend it ” (Foucault, 1980b : 133).
Foucault ’ s analysis of knowledge as constitutive and implicated in
power breaks, then, with the “ offi cial ” view the social sciences would like
to have of themselves as disinterested, neutral, and, as such, contributing
to human progress. It also breaks with the radical view that knowledge

produced in elite institutions is inherently mystificatory, concealing real
relations of power. As Foucault sees it, it is not so much that discourses
conceal power, but rather that they contribute to its exercise in the pro-
duction of social relations of authority and conformity.
Power produces individuals both as objects and as subjects. In Discipline
and Punish , Foucault describes how docile bodies are produced by orga-
nizing individuals in practices of surveillance that train comportment

according to classifications of normal and abnormal. This takes place in
different ways in different institutions across the social field, including the

military, factories, schools, hospitals, and so on (Foucault, 1979 ). In The
History of Sexuality , volume I, he analyzes the production of sexualized
bodies in practices of confession (Foucault, 1984b ). According to
Foucault ’ s analysis, far from being natural, “ sexuality ” has been devel-
oped over a long historical period. We in the West have learned to experi-
ence ourselves as desiring in particular ways, initially through the Christian
confession and now, in contemporary society, in settings which use thera-
peutic techniques – in psychotherapy proper, but also in counseling, social
work, education, even “ phone - ins ” about personal problems, confessional