...what Foucault means by this remark with reference to the nineteenth century process he calls “the medicalisation of the sexually peculiar”. At the heart of the statement and references contained in the title are illustrations of how power is expressed through normative discourse in Western capitalist society. The process of how an act once termed ‘sodomy’ became transformed into the term ‘homosexual’ is fundamental to the nature of power in general and to the mechanism of discourse specifically. Foucault draws our attention to domains of discourse that are characterised by establishing quantifiable knowledge as truth, which society affords positions of authority, such as the medical profession. This authoritative mechanism was an instrument that was applied to an existing system of sexual relation governance resulting in a control-dynamic between power, knowledge and sex. The medicalisation of sexuality through discourse spawned a categorisation of the individual as determined by their sexual identity in a process of transforming experience into knowledge, knowledge into truth, and truth into reality. Foucault’s reference to the ‘sexually peculiar’ draws our attention to the delineation between the procreative model of relationships and all other pleasure-centred sexual acts. The child-bearing relationship’s sexual activities were regulated and protected at the exclusion and vilification of all others. Through the 17th and 18th centuries the power of discourse...
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...1) How do the texts you have selected EITHER challenge or reinforce conventional ideas about the following discourses? a. Gender b. Power (& Leadership) c. Identity d. Nature e. Culture The societies encountered by the Theban woman Antigone is Sophocles' Antigone, and the 19th century Englishwoman Jane Eyre in Jane Eyre, can be seen as highly unfavourable and disdainful of women. Both Antigone and Jane Eyre struggle and resist against a society which places men above them, and which sees expressions of female autonomy and liberty as unfavourable trends. Antigone and Jane Eyre both live in societies where a patriarchal culture dictates how these women should act within society, and what type of behaviour is acceptable, and which isn't. The control and subjugation of women – and the way they express themselves – can be seen as a consequence of discursive formations which aim to define the intrinsic qualities of men and women. It is in this context that the stories of Antigone and Jane Eyre can be seen as challenging conventional notions of gender and gender stereotypes, a highly pervasive discourse which affects a cluster of other ideas. This essay will argue that the characters Antigone in Sophocles' Antigone and Jane Eyre in Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre are characters who challenge gender discourses which were very prominent during their time, and subsequently, the ideational influences which structured leadership, the creation of identities, opinions regarding natural...
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...protection for their lifestyle. Through this discourse, sexuality has emerged from just how one accept themselves, to how the world accept everyone since people are now able to express their sexuality more openly than before. Through this evolved sexuality, Michel Foucault, a French Philosopher who studies power and knowledge, reviews how sexuality became what it is by connecting power and sexuality together in his book The History of Sexuality. Similarly, Judith Butler, a feminist philosopher, argues that people should not be identified...
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...Michel Foucault, the French postmodernist, has been hugely influential in shaping understandings of power, leading away from the analysis of actors who use power as an instrument of coercion, and even away from the discreet structures in which those actors operate, toward the idea that ‘power is everywhere’, diffused and embodied in discourse, knowledge and ‘regimes of truth’ (Foucault 1991; Rabinow 1991). Power for Foucault is what makes us what we are, operating on a quite different level from other theories: ‘His work marks a radical departure from previous modes of conceiving power and cannot be easily integrated with previous ideas, as power is diffuse rather than concentrated, embodied and enacted rather than possessed, discursive rather than purely coercive, and constitutes agents rather than being deployed by them’ (Gaventa 2003: 1) Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups by way of ‘episodic’ or ‘sovereign’ acts of domination or coercion, seeing it instead as dispersed and pervasive. ‘Power is everywhere’ and ‘comes from everywhere’ so in this sense is neither an agency nor a structure (Foucault 1998: 63). Instead it is a kind of ‘metapower’ or ‘regime of truth’ that pervades society, and which is in constant flux and negotiation. Foucault uses the term ‘power/knowledge’ to signify that power is constituted through accepted forms of knowledge, scientific understanding and ‘truth’: ‘Truth is a thing of this world: it is produced only by...
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...Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things. And surly it is not a simple or straightforward process. How this article exploring the concept of representation connect meaning and language to culture？ We will be drawing a distinction between three different account or theories：the reflective, the intentional and the constructionist approaches to representation. Most of this text will be exploring the constructionist approach with two major variants or models of the constructionist approach, the semiotic approach- Ferdinand de Saussure and the discursive approach- Michel Foucault. But we have to answer the question first：what does the word representation really mean？ 1.1 Making meaning, Representing things Representation is the production of the meaning of the concepts in our minds through language. There are two processes, two systems of representation. First, there is the system by which all sort of objects, people and events are correlated with a set of concepts or mental representations which we carry around in our heads.（like chair, table） Second, Language is therefore the second system of representation. (When we say we belong to the same culture, it is because we interpret the world in similar ways. That’s why culture is sometimes defined in terms of shared meaning or shared...
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...practices have largely been formed by individuals of power (for example, by coaches and medical professionals) in ways that they believe will develop an athlete's excellence. As a result, it is these individuals that hold significant accountability for the development of an athlete's physical performance, behaviour as well as their psychological and emotional well-being. (Becker,...
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...Forces using the 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...
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...Introduction * Whose theories of social order I will be using as the focus of my assignment. (Goffman and Foucault) Main Content * Goffmans views on what constitutes social order being made and remade through individuals, and how Mondermans’ Thesis relates to how Goffman views social order. * Foucaults’ views on what constitutes social order being made and remade through institutions and how Buchanans’ report relates to how Foucault views social order. * The differences and similarities with Goffman and Foucaults findings. Summary * Summarise what both theorists have said regarding social order and what I understand about these findings. There are many ways in which social order is produced and maintained. Social scientists are interested in a broader view of society, they look at what leads to problems and the things that need some sort of solution creating to improve them (Reflections on Ordered Lives); I am going to describe how social order is made by using the explanations of Michael Foucault and Erving Goffman, who are social scientists that have attempted to explain how social order is created and where it has come from, I will also be discussing how their views both differ in their approach and how they are similar. I am beginning with Goffmans’ explanations, from the detailed studies he undertook working within the framework of the functions of rituals and order in everyday life; he has tried to show ways in which societies...
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...1. Stereotypes, narratives, ideologies and discourses are devices that, in different ways according to different theorists, fortify media power. Critically analyse how these devices work, according to various theorists, and reflect upon which best explains communicative power. The social construction of reality is mediated through the communicative powers of stereotypes, narratives, ideologies and discourses and the media is extremely powerful in communicating messages with these devices. It will be argued that discourses are the most powerful communicating device used by the media in the postindustrial era today. Furthermore as per Croteau & Hoynes (2014, p. 9), the analysis will focus on recognised mass media that is readily available in print, film, radio, television, sound recordings and the Internet. Poststructuralists within sociology examine the structures of society and human agency. Human agency or action is influenced by sociocultural factors such as ideology that shape human identity and act subconsciously over an individual. Ideology is the system of meaning that helps explain, define and make value judgments about the world (Croteau & Hoynes 2014, p. 152). As we live in an interconnected world there are many ideologies as there are social structures in any given society. Related to this is that dominant ideas are hegemonic. Marx created the superstructure, which is the domain of ideas for example religion, legal structures, family, institutions...
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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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...Foucault’s Right of Death and Power over Life starts by explaining how sovereign power, entitled itself with the ability and right to decide to what extent bodies were worth of life or deserved death. He mentions that the West has been re-shaping its discourse on what bodies are desirable, non-desirable and what feature, actions, behaviors and so on, are attached to each one of these types of bodies. Through this approach, he introduces the concept of bio-power, or in other words disciplining the politics of the human body. By stating the regulatory role of bio-politics with a population he describes how power is exercised to administrate, manage and calculate (p. 140) the populations’ bodies. The concept of ‘population’ which he defined previously...
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...1. After exploring the sociological literature on death and dying, explore and argue for or against one of the following statements: b. Death and dying are subjected to and defined by the clinical gaze. Euphemism and grandiloquence are core mechanisms employed in the theoretical and authoritative discourses surrounding the issues and definitions of death, as seen with the propositions put forward by the British Medical Association (BMA 2003). The BMA’s ideas allude to a suggestion that death could be redefined and that ‘Elective Ventilation’ (a prohibited medical procedure on the outer frontiers of legality and morality) might become a ‘new’ status of the dead and dying. Other articles take this presumption further, by questioning whether as individuals, society should legally be bound to ‘opt out’ rather than ‘opt in’ of this innovative condition; meaning if our bodies befall fatal injuries there is a presumption that they instantly become the assets of the medical 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...
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...all of these corporate failures, the level or absence of disclosure has had a lot to do with the unexpectedness of the collapse. This paper analyses the HIH collapse within a Foucaldian framework to demonstrate the need for accountants and auditors to work together so as to avoid criticism of the profession arising from unexpected corporate failures in the future. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to analyse the collapse of HIH and the role of its auditor, Andersen, within a Foucauldian framework encompassing archeology and genealogy of power and knowledge. The mythical Jedi force is used as a metaphor for power attained by the accounting profession through its claim to superior knowledge and skill to be applied in the public interest. Accordingly, the force includes professional ethics. The dark side is used as a metaphor for the collapse of HIH because accounting standards and practices, the accounting profession's power base, were used to conceal impending collapse resulting in the escalation of losses to policy holders, creditors and the general public. Regulatory responses to the Royal Commission into the collapse of HIH are viewed for purposes of this paper as the return of the Jedi in that the Corporate Law Economic Reform Programme (CLERP 9) proposals are aimed at strengthening corporate governance including auditor...
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...EXAMPLE: Human Rights Discourse A prominent discourse that plays a pivotal role in both the field of political decision-making and academic debate is the human rights discourse. As outlined by Frow (2005), discourse ‘has to do with practices and configurations of power, often rooted in organisations which both control and are structured by distinct disciplinary knowledge’s’ (p. 93). In this sense we can see the embodiment of power in the human rights discourse through its governing of domestic and international law as well as the construction of institutions such as the United Nations and Amnesty International. The introduction of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which seeks to impose a ‘universal’ code of conduct on the treatment of human beings, exemplifies the notion that ‘truths’ are radically historicized (Hall 1997, p. 46). Constructs the topic: Foucault argues that discourse constructs the topic; with this in mind when focusing on human rights discourse we are able to see how the individual rights of humans are spoken about on a domestic and International level, and the particular rights enthroned upon them. In this context human rights are understood as setting out certain standards of human behaviour. They originated in the West and are based on Western values that claim universality as the ‘truth’ which is outlined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’ (art 1). This notion...
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...Conceptualizing Self-Governance in Post-Modernity: In the modern world, power is increasingly exercised by individuals upon themselves, that is, through forms of self-governance. The authority of major institutions such as the government, church, and economy, is critical to understanding the relation of personal lives and societal development. These associations shape the development of individual identities. Self-governance is demonstrated by one’s identity dovetailed with the role one might take in society. Irrespective of major institutions or other outside influence, individuals will govern their lives autonomously to some degree. In post-modernity no outside force can completely control every thought an individual has, due to the desire for independence and convenience of social networking. According to Severyn Bruyn, an individual’s sense of ‘duty, obligation, privilege, conscience, and beliefs’ is formed in society’s associations (p. 34, 2011). Therefore the history of such major associations as the family, government, the corporation, and the church, show much about one’s identity. This essay will critically examine the idea that power is increasingly being exercised by individuals upon themselves, through forms of self-governance in the modern world. The roles of self-governance in relation to political and religious orders will be explored to demonstrate sociological theory and modern world societal development with focus on Western culture. Regardless of outside...
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