Single technologies of order simultaneously generate disciplinary power and a realm of meaning

Evidence

In each of these cases the principle at work was the same. The methods of order and arrangement created the effect of structure. Like the careful layout of an exhibition, this structure appeared as a framework within which activities could be organised, controlled, and observed; and it also appeared as a plan or programme, supplementing the activity with its meaning. The same technologies of order created both a disciplinary power and a seemingly separate realm of meaning or truth. — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 41

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that power and meaning arise from the same techniques — that representation is not a separate mental realm but an effect of physical arrangement — is the book’s central, dense thesis.
• XREF: Parallels the reader’s notes that institutions restore reputation-information systems — both concern how material arrangements generate seemingly separate social or epistemic realms.