...concepts of Michel Foucault From 1989 to 1999, the time period of the Clinton Administration, a homosexual force entered the American consciousness. Court cases and rhetoric of the 80s incited a discourse in which homosexuality was "re-articulated, re-negotiated, and unmistakably re-repressed" (Davis 3). Supreme Court judgment and actions taken by Congress with the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy exemplify theories of sexuality and power expressed in the philosophies of Michel Foucault. Foucault was a French-born philosopher historian. He examined social institutions such as medicine, psychiatry, the prison system, and the human sciences in general. Specifically he focused on how these institutions relate to power interactions. For a time he was associated with structuralism, which is an intellectual movement in which the culture of humanity is semiotically analyzed. However he distanced himself from the structuralism movement after the 60s. He wrote on a wide array of topics from knowledge to power and discourse. He considered himself "Nietzschean" (Fox 169). In viewing his own system of philosophy this way, he rejected the postmodernist label attributed to him. In fact, he held that his work was in line with the modernity of the philosophies of Kant. In The History of Sexuality Foucault examined the role of sex and gender in power relations. This three volume series was published in 1984. In the first volume, Foucault explores the functioning of sexuality as a way...
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...elite in society dominate and control; the inequality between of race, class, gender, sexuality and nation. In this paper, I will refer to three theorists: Michel Foucault, Audre Lorde and Patrica Hill Collins to analyze their vision of the ideal society and what should it be like. Also, I will also mention what we should need to do to get there. Michel Foucault is the French philosopher and one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th Century. He wrote different kinds of books and the most special one is about a new way to view the prison system. In this book, he used discipline and punishment to lay out his thoughts on how the elite in society dominate and control the society. Foucault is an anarchist and dislike societal rules. He thought these rules affected on the human spirit. Foucault’s theories mentioned the nature of power and its functions. It means power controls knowledge and how it is used as a form of social control. He analyzed the word of power is easy to cause some misunderstandings with a mode of subjugation, violence or form of the rule. In his theory, he does not agree to use a general system of domination produced by other groups which affected the society. In his discussions on power and dissertation, they have influenced many theorists. Those theorists believe that Foucault’s analysis of power structures could help the strove against inequality. In Foucault’s society should not be constantly engendering states of power and use the power to get...
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...Do we now live in a ‘panoptic’ society? Discuss through the ideas of Michel Foucault. This essay will examine French social theorist Michel Foucault’s (1926-1984), concept of Panopticism. It will give an example of the way it can be observed, through contemporary society. Firstly, it will cover a general aspect of Foucault’s work, regarding his historical method and his understanding of madness, power, knowledge and the body. It will discuss the idea of the Panopticon and how it shaped the idea of discipline and power. Furthermore, it will examine one element of Foucault’s theory, and how it could be applied in contemporary society, through the subject of security in public places. Foucault’s 1964 work Madness and Civilisation, studied the evolution of madness from the sixteenth to the twentieth century, showing the evolving change of how madness was perceived over time in society. During the time of the Renaissance, Foucault found that people who were ‘mad’ were seen as liberated (Foucault 1967). However, the classical age in the seventeenth century created ‘enormous houses of confinement’ which reduced madness to silence (Foucault 1967:35). The mid seventeenth century saw madness associated with confinement. These institutions housed people who were poor, unemployed, prisoners and insane. In 1656, the ‘Hôpital Général’ was founded in Paris and could be seen from the start, that it was not a ‘medical establishment’, but rather a sort of ‘semi-judicial structure’ (Foucault...
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...Michel Foucault (1926-1984) was a French 20th-century historian and philosopher who spent his life closely analyzing and critiquing the power of the modern western capitalist state, including its police, law courts, prisons, doctors and psychiatrists. His goal was to work out nothing less than how power worked and sought to change society’s current functions of these various systems. In Foucault’s, “Society must be defended”, he talks about the power over life and how the government helps to dictate public opinion and societal norms. One of these powers is disciplinary power, which is the normalization of individual bodies. This ideal centers on the fact that the body is like a machine and must be controlled in order to reach maximum efficiency....
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...misguided to assume that they should. Corber and Valocchi refer to this notion in their suggestion that Queer Theory focuses on forms of sexuality which fall ‘outside’ of the typical binaries (2003:1). Queer writer Annemarie Jagose states the Queer Theory works to destabilise the belief in ‘natural’ sexuality by exposing the incoherencies that occur within the varying relationships of sex, gender, and sexuality (1996: 3). By having an analytical framework which includes numerous modes of sex/gender/sexuality combinations, such as cross-dressing, sadomasochism, and androgyny, Queer Theory acts in critical relation to the hegemonic social norms through which traditional sexual identities are governed and accepted (Weed and Schor, 1997: vii). Theorist David Halperin (1997) suggests that numerous varying degrees of difference and interpretation exist within any given from of sexuality - for example, there exist both feminine male homosexuals and masculine male homosexuals, and so on. Related to this is one Queer Theory’s central claims, which wishes to state that femininity/masculinity have no necessarily explicit link to biologically sexed females/males. Corber and Valocchi suggest that the belief that this link is anything other than arbitrary serves to legitimate social patriarchy, and that stigmatisations occur when such sex/gender/sexuality combinations step outside these social norms (2003:7). Another central claim of Queer Theory is that...
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...Michel Foucault's view on power is an odd one. When most think of power, they usually entertain ideas of strength, wealth, government, dominance over others, as well as a multitude of other things. Foucault, however, does not look at power in a traditional sense. To him, it is not a structure nor an institution. Oddly enough, he also sees power as something that can not be “acquired, seized or shared.” (94) Foucault sees power as an omnipotent source. It exists everywhere and is all encompassing and accessible to all. It is not wielded by a group or any single person. He ties his meaning of power to the discourse of sexuality and how it serves as a medium through which this power is utilized. The piece starts off by delving into the characteristics...
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...Empowerment and Community Planning Chapter 1 Theories of Power A Survey Towards the Development of a Theory of Power Before beginning the discussion of empowerment and the development of a theory connected with it, I want to deal with a concept that is prior to empowerment—power. Power is a key concept for an understanding of processes of empowerment. The theory of empowerment that will be developed further on will draw its inspiration from an integration of two domains: from an understanding of theories of power and the use of insights drawn from these for the purposes of developing a theory of empowerment, and from an analysis of processes of empowerment. Hence, this deeper study of it will also make possible a better understanding of states of powerlessness, practices of disempowerment, and processes by which people and communities struggle for control over their lives and environments. A Brief History of Theories of Power This chapter makes no pretension to survey all the existing literature in the field of the theories of power. It begins with a historical survey of thought about power in the social sciences, relating only to the most prominent theories. Further on, a number of theories that contain elements suitable to the development of a theory of empowerment are presented in more detail. Modern thinking about power begins in the writings of Nicollò Machiavelli (The Prince, early 16th century) and Thomas Hobbes (Leviathan, mid-17th century). Their books are...
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...France in the year of 1926. He became very well educated throughout his academic years. He followed in the footsteps of Emile Durkheim and many other French philosophers, and attended École Normale Supérieure in 1946. While attending École, he was greatly influenced by Hegel through his professor Jean Hyppolite and his "interpretation of his work" and Marx ideas through his professor Louis Athusser and his "structuralist readings (Gutting). Marxism contributes heavily to one of Foucault's earliest writings, the introduction to Dream and Existence by Ludwig Binswanger happened to be influenced by Heideggerian thought, and as a student of Heidegger, so was Foucault (Gutting). After finishing at École, he held a handful of different positions throughout the 1960s, at French Universities. Later in 1969, he received the upmost and highly respected position of professor of History of Systems of Thought. He worked this position up until he fell victim to AIDS and later died in 1984 (Gutting). One of Michael Foucault's later and most famous writings are Discipline and Punishment: The Birth of the Prison. Published in 1976, this book looks at and studies the genealogy of the modern penal system implemented. That is, prison is the heart of the modern discourse of punishment. Foucault socially analyzes punishment and how changes in power affect punishment. One of the first things this theory focuses on and most essential to his theory is power and the relationship between power and knowledge...
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...Foucault and the New Historicism Author(s): Geoffrey Galt Harpham Source: American Literary History, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Summer, 1991), pp. 360-375 Published by: Oxford University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/490057 . Accessed: 18/10/2011 05:25 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Literary History. http://www.jstor.org the Foucault and New Historicism GeoffreyGait Harpham "People are always shouting they want to create a better future,"Milan Kundera writes in The Book of Laughterand Forgetting."It's not true. The futureis an apatheticvoid of no interestto anyone. The past is full of life, eager to irritateus, provoke and insult us, tempt us to destroy or repaint it. The AfterFoucault: HumanisticKnowledge, only reasonpeople want to be mastersof the futureis to change PostmodernChallenges the past"(22). Not only is the historicalrecordlargelyan archive Edited by Jonathan of domination and rebellion...
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...® Acodemy of Management Heview 1993, Vol. 18, No. 3. 518-545. FOUCAULT. POWER/KNOWLEDGE. AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT BARBARA TOWNLEY The University of Alberta Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault. I argue that human resource management (HRM) may be best understood as a discourse and set of practices that attempt to reduce the indeterminacy involved in the employment contract. Here I reread HRM practices from a Foucauldian power-knowledge perspective and suggest that this provides an avenue to reorient contemporary, historical, and comparative analyses of the area. A glimpse at human resource management (HRM) texts would seem to give light to a comment by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, and Walton (1984) that HRM is a series of seemingly disjointed activities. This notion echoes an earlier view of Baldamus (1961: 347) that what is encompassed by HRM's subject matter is "anything from supervision, incentives and profit sharing to machine-paced production, methods of training and employee selection." Often this heterogeneity is excused in terms of HRM's reflecting the ad hoc and reactive nature of its origins (Jacoby, 1985; Niven, 1967; Ozanne, 1967). What the heterogeneity of HRM highlights, however, is the importance of an organizing principle, or analytical focus, as opposed to common sense description, which gives HRM practices a theoretical coherence. HRM's heterogeneity stresses the importance of an order "that turns a set of bits, which have limited...
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...institution (Wilkinson 2012). An alternative belief is being presented, that our ethical and moral concerns should lay with the future recipient of our assumedly ‘redundant’ organs. Already some European states such as Wales are considering backing such a proposal (Wales News 2012). Actively delaying death or maintaining a body to increase organ donation is illegal as the interests of the patient are not paramount. Is the idea of Elective ventilation the ultimate scenario in defining death through a clinical gaze? Furthermore, does organ donation within the context of elective ventilation, not epitomize a dehumanizing medical separation of the patient's body from the patient's person? Does mind-body dualism, in this situation create a reductive view of humanity which reduces people to the sum total of their body parts? These questions will be analyzed within a Foucauldian framework which draws...
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...As the theorist Michel Foucault examines history to explore the layers of structure of power, I find the history of wedding tradition to be fascinating. “He uses history to dispel the sort of routine, instituted self-assurance people have about reality of such entities as the mental disorders they fear they may be suffering from, or the inner sexual needs they believe they have to release. Foucault has examined various kinds of systems of thought through which people have come to identify themselves as subjects.”(Rajchman) And then another good quote about Michel Foucault is “For more than a decade, his elegant shaved skull had been an emblem of political courage-a cynosure of resistance to institutions that would smother the free spirit and stifle the right to be different.” (Miller 13) I will be exploring how the present days views are reinforced; the dominant message of how a wedding should be and then how in some movies, the post-feminism is displayed which slightly alters this dominant image. I will be also exploring the mix of cultural traditions within the wedding to see how the structure is similar or drastically different. I will discuss Marx’s Materialism ideology aspect of the domination of the ruling class and explore the aspect of the base and superstructure with the mode of production/the system of economic relations within the institutions surrounding wedding ideology. Through close textual analysis, I will show the dominant ideology of the wedding industry...
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...Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism Introduction A very basic way of thinking about literary theory is that these ideas act as different lenses critics use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These different lenses allow critics to consider works of art based on certain assumptions within that school of theory. The different lenses also allow critics to focus on particular aspects of a work they consider important. For example, if a critic is working with certain Marxist theories, s/he might focus on how the characters in a story interact based on their economic situation. If a critic is working with post-colonial theories, s/he might consider the same story but look at how characters from colonial powers (Britain, France, and even America) treat characters from, say, Africa or the Caribbean. Hopefully, after reading through and working with the resources in this area of the OWL, literary theory will become a little easier to understand and use. Disclaimer Please note that the schools of literary criticism and their explanations included here are by no means the only ways of distinguishing these separate areas of theory. Indeed, many critics use tools from two or more schools in their work. Some would define differently or greatly expand the (very) general statements given here. Our explanations are meant only as starting places for your own investigation into literary theory. We encourage you to use the list of scholars and works provided for each...
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...International Journal of Medical Sociology and Anthropology ISSN: 2546-9763 Vol. 2 (2), pp. 066-075, February, 2013. Available online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals Review Review on Medicalisation: A critical appraisal with special reference to India Zulufkar Ahmad Khanday Department of Sociology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, 202002, India. E-mail: k.zulufkar.amu@gmail.com, Tel.: 8171286053 Accepted 10 December, 2013 The concept of medicalization emerged from the intellectual and social turmoil of the 1950s and 1960s as a critique of medicine as authoritarian and the expansion of its conceptual model to the analysis of social ills and attendant policy. “Medicalization” refers the process by which non-medical problems become defined and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illness and disorders”. This review is based mainly on three objectives; (a) first is to explain the nature of medicalization- i.e. what medicalization actually is and why there is need of de-medicalization, (b) second is to explain the how the medicalization has negative effects on the health of people- i.e. ‘the medical establishment has become a major threat to health’ and providing a dossier of medicine’s adverse effects – the wrongs and harms it has done – through processes of clinical, social and cultural ‘iatrogenesis’ or doctor-induced conditions, and finally (c) third is to explain the impact of the...
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...Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction ‘Jonathan Culler has always been about the best person around at explaining literary theory without oversimplifying it or treating it with polemical bias. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction is an exemplary work in this genre.’ J. Hillis Miller, University of California, Irvine ‘An impressive and engaging feat of condensation . . . the avoidance of the usual plod through schools and approaches allows the reader to get straight to the heart of the crucial issue for many students, which is: why are they studying literary theory in the first place? . . . an engaging and lively book.’ Patricia Waugh, University of Durham Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in 15 languages worldwide. Very Short Introductions available from Oxford Paperbacks: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Augustine Henry Chadwick THE BIBLE John Riches Buddha Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM Damien Keown CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson Continental Philosophy Simon Critchley Darwin Jonathan Howard DESCARTES Tom Sorell EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford The European Union John Pinder Freud Anthony Storr Galileo Stillman Drake Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H. Arnold HUME A. J...
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