Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault: summary

Paul-Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French philosopher, historian and political activist who is considered one of the most noteworthy thinkers of the 20th century. Foucault’s ideas and theories have shaped many academic disciplines, including history, philosophy, psychology and of course, sociology.

Born and raised in Poitiers, France; Foucault was drawn to the humanities from a young age. He studied philosophy and psychology at university and was fundamentally interested in the many intricate ways power operates in society. He held various research and teaching positions throughout his life, and was also politically active, supporting left-wing causes such as prison reform.

Foucault published several books on a wide range of sociological, philosophical, and historical issues, including power, knowledge, mental illness, psychiatry, medicine, sexuality, the nature of punishment, the surveillance state and more.

Foucault was at times a controversial figure in French academia while he was active. He faced homophobia and often took unpopular political stances, such as protesting antisemitism and war. However, his work has gone on to become some of the most-cited of all time and continues to be relevant today.

Foucault’s academic contributions continue to be incredibly influential today.

Michel Foucault: sociological theory

Among some of Foucault’s most famous works of sociological theory are:

1. Madness and Civilization (1961)

2. The Birth of the Clinic (1963)

3. The Order of Things (1966)

4. Discipline and Punish (1975)

5. The History of Sexuality (1976)

Michel Foucault: key concepts

As we have mentioned, Foucault wrote and theorised extensively about society and the human condition. Some of his key concepts and contributions to sociological theory are as follows:

• Discourses

• Power/knowledge

• Sovereign power and disciplinary power

• The Panopticon

• Governmentality and biopower

Let’s now look at each of these in turn.

Michel Foucault: discourses

One of the central concepts that Foucault was interested in throughout his career was discourse and how it shaped people’s lives and realities.

Foucault illustrated this in his work The History of Sexuality. He argued that modern ideas and norms around sex, sexuality, desire, pleasure etc. are not fixed or natural, but the result of a new discourse about “sexuality”.

He pointed out that social categories such as “homosexual” and “heterosexual” did not always exist – they were created through discourses that classified people as such. That is, “homosexuality” was not a label until it became an issue of moral and medical concern in the 18th-20th century and was contrasted against “heterosexuality”, which became the point of reference for “socially acceptable” behaviour.

Michel Foucault: power and knowledge

Another key concept that features prominently in Foucault’s work is related to power and knowledge. He argued that knowledge and power are not independent of each other but are intimately linked, so much so that he coined the term “power/knowledge”. Having the “right” knowledge, he suggested, is always an exercise of power and, likewise, having power is always a function of this knowledge.

Therefore, exercising power is always based on a foundation of knowledge, and who or what claims to have this “knowledge” can advance their own interests and power in society (often at the expense of others).

Foucault talked about how power/knowledge comes from the discourses we discussed above. He discussed how dominant discourses e.g., treating some aspects of human sexuality as “abnormal”, are an exertion of power over vulnerable groups in society like women and non-heterosexual people.

Michel Foucault: sovereign and disciplinary power

A major way that power is wielded in modern society is through discipline. However, this was not always the case. In Discipline and Punish, Foucault argued that in pre-industrial times, power was primarily exercised in society through a sovereign (a monarch or central authority), and was very violent, public and immediate in nature. For instance, physical punishments would be administered in public for committing a crime or not following the rules.

From sovereign to disciplinary power

From the 18th-19th century onwards, this sovereign power gradually shifted to disciplinary power, which regulates the beliefs, behaviours, and actions of members of society much more subtly. Unlike the brute, sovereign force of kings or lords, people are now disciplined through means such as:

• Establishing routines and regulating times, e.g., working strictly from 9 to 5 every day

• Designing spaces to allow for discipline, e.g., the way classrooms or prisons are designed

• Conditioning people to constantly survey themselves and each other, e.g., being on their “best behaviour” in public (detailed below)

• Imprisonment, in the worst cases, where people are punished outside the public eye and sometimes rehabilitated

According to Foucault, this disciplinary power permeates a variety of institutions that we interact with in society, from schools, workplaces, and hospitals to prisons and militaries. It means that we no longer need a singular, powerful entity to control us – we learn to control ourselves.

Michel Foucault: Panopticon and surveillance

Surveillance was one of the biggest concerns of modernity to Foucault, and is an issue that has perhaps become even more pressing in contemporary society. We learn to discipline ourselves and other members of society through constantly monitoring our ways of thinking, behaviour, lifestyles, and appearances.

This is even more prevalent with the advent of CCTV technologies and smartphones that have made it easier than ever to identify anyone who fails to conform to what is socially acceptable.

Foucault used the Panopticon to exemplify the way surveillance operates in society. The Panopticon was a prison designed so the warden/guards can see into the prison cells at all times, but the prisoners cannot see them, causing the prisoners to behave as if they are being watched even if they are not.

It was originally theorised by philosopher Jeremy Bentham in the late 17th century, and although it was never actually built, the concept was used as a basis for multiple institutions, including some prisons.

To Foucault, the Panopticon embodied surveillance in modern society. Wikimedia Commons

Michel Foucault: governmentality and biopower

The term ‘governmentality’ was coined by Foucault to describe how individuals and populations can be led to govern their own conduct themselves, through their own will. That is, governmentality is a form of power in society that does not arise simply from the state, but also from the participation of the people in their own governance.

Therefore, “government” is not limited to the state, and controls people through avenues that are not limited to the political or administrative.

In particular, Foucault pointed out that in contemporary society, the conduct of individuals was increasingly governed through managing entire populations. Unlike disciplinary power, which was directed at individual people and their expressions, modern governmentality was based on biopower.

For instance, biopower is exercised when a government sets to control people’s reproductive choices of whether to have children.

Michel Foucault: postmodernism

Foucault's ideas on power, knowledge, discourses, surveillance, punishment, etc. are all extremely influential to postmodernist theory.