Date: Wed, 14 Sep 1994 12:57:36 EDT
From: DAN SCHUBERT <S-SCHUBERT-AT-bss1.umd.edu>
To: foucault-AT-world.std.com
Subject: Re: Normalization and Control


Date sent:      Sat, 10 Sep 1994 03:44:47 -0400 (EDT)
From:           MEINKING-AT-delphi.com
Subject:        Normalization and Control
To:             foucault-AT-world.std.com
Send reply to:  foucault-AT-world.std.com

Dan:
 
Normalizing techniques are forms of strategical deployment that operate 
within a power apparatus actively coordinating and dispersing bio-power.  
Many of us call this "control."  Please post your take on Patton in regard
to these matters.
 
Yours in discourse,
 
Steven Meinking
The University Of Utah
meinking-AT-delphi.com


Foucauldians,

    My original point about a difference between control and 
normalization stems from my background in sociology.  In the 
sociology of deviance literature there is much work on the 
relationship btw forms of deviance and the social control of these 
forms of deviance.  My point is that Foucault seems instead to focus 
on the ways in which subjects (prisoners, students, etc) are 
constituted -- and normalized -- by certain discourses.  By 
constituting normalized subjects, social control becomes largely 
obsolete (hence, it often doesn't matter if the prison guard is 
manning the panoptic tower).

    As for my point about this distinction and Patton's essay, I'm at 
a loss to remember just what I was trying to say.

Dan