Walter Truett Anderson biography and contributions

Foucault

In an interview with L'Express, Michel Foucault describes his investigation of power and how it operates and manifests in post-modern societies. Beyond the question of who is in power, Foucault's analysis addresses the "strategies of power" and the "techniques of power," (42; 43). Strategies include the specific mechanisms by which power is created or maintained: the network of relationships that underlie decision-making. The techniques of power refer to structural features or methods like management.

Foucault draws on his work investigating prisons to substantiate his claims and provide examples. Foucault points out that while imprisonment serves a direct purpose related to power brokering, penal institutions do not serve the economic function some theorists have claimed. More importantly, the prison enabled population checks and controls. Foucault even suggests that the modern forms of power are used to condition human behavior: implying widespread and nefarious means for social control.

Thus, power is linked to oppression but not in the direct ways it has been in the past. He notes, "the way in which power is exercised and functions in our society is little understood," (41). Finally, Foucault notes that science maintains direct power over the "truth" with serious implications for personal freedom.

Response

Foucault's analysis of power presented in the brief interview reveals the complexity of power relations in the post-modern world. His work is therefore highly relevant to almost any social science. Networks of power in our society are more subtle and operate in less centralized and less overt ways then they did in the past. For example, most power in Western society is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of executives. The boards of directors of major corporations often share members, with one individual being able to serve on numerous different boards. Most members have similar backgrounds, with a large proportion being Harvard Business School graduates. Many are also embedded in politics, indicating the power links between business and government. This is a primary example of Foucault's strategies of power: the way government and business and intimately tied with few checks or balances between them.

The techniques of power are more overt. These relate to what we can or cannot do as law-abiding citizens. For example, drug laws in the United States are notoriously strident. The possession of small amounts of marijuana are punishable by imprisonment. Whereas Americans have the liberty to drink themselves to death or eat fried foods until their arteries burst, they do not have the freedom to smoke. Prohibition of drugs is an example of how power techniques (in this case laws) are used to control the behavior of the public. In fact, the drug laws are a perfect example of how power strategies and the penal system work hand in hand. A large number of prison inmates are drug offenders. Many if not most of them also share certain ethnic and class characteristics that indicate how power manifests in different demographics.