Omnipresent power undermines the grounding of resistance in Foucault’s theory
Evidence
But if this is so, if power is omnipresent, how is it possible, as Foucault did, to write the genealogy of modern disciplinary society? Foucault’s answer, in the 1970s at least, seems to involve relating genealogy to the forms of resistance which he argues are intrinsic to powerrelations. Thus he talks of ‘a reactivation of local knowledges - of minor knowledges as Deleuze might call them — in opposition to the scientific hierarchization of knowledges and the effects intrinsic to their power’. But are these ‘local knowledges’ any more than the oppositional other of the prevailing apparatus of power-knowledge? This is related to the general problem of resistance in Foucault’s work, to which a number of commentators have drawn attention. As Hubert Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow observe, ‘resistance is both an element of the functioning of power and a source of its perpetual disorder.’ But where does resistance derive its capacity to be the latter, given the omnipresence of power? — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 339
Categorization
- QUESTION: This is the classic immanent critique of Foucault — whether resistance can have any purchase if power is omnipresent. Worth chasing the Dreyfus-Rabinow framing.
- SEED: An essay angle: the logical instability of every theory that posits omnipresent domination — the ‘where does the resisting subject stand’ problem as it recurs across Foucault, Nietzsche, and postmodernism generally.
- XREF: The contradiction between correspondence theories of truth and ‘history is whatever we take it to be’ is the same incommensurability Jameson’s totalizing critique targets. — connects to: Foucault’s late turn back to Nietzsche still fails to ground resistance. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 45; Foucault’s notion of power erases class and revolution — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Nations, Classes, Literatures, 373; Foucault’s resistance lacks grounding because he abandons ideology (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Foucault’s notion of power erases class and revolution
#expands(0.85) — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 373 - Foucault’s resistance lacks grounding because he abandons ideology
#exemplifies(0.85) - Panoptic power derives from invisible omnipresence rather than real presence
#corroborates(0.80) — Jeremy Bentham, The Panopticon Writings, 38 - Hall admired Foucault despite criticizing his underspecified account of resistance.
#corroborates(0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 483