Date: Sun, 05 Feb 95 01:36:24 EST From: Ken <KENNETH-AT-VMESA.UERJ.BR> Subject: Re: What do you mean - power? Hi, folks. Greg McSweeney brought about the panopticon metaphor in the discussion about power, and I tend to agree that this is a key approach. Unlike someone else stated, F _does_ acknowledges domination, if not exploitation (that sounded like a - not too good - marxistic attempt to criticism). One shouldn't forget the relationship of this metaphor with discipline, a notion that is, IMHO, at the very heart of F's description of power microphysics. We should not forget that disciplining isn't restricted to convicted "criminals", but quite on the contrary. One very important area of disciplinarization (does that word exist?) is medicine. Through medical knowledge/power it is possible to rule over populations, determining almost every aspect of living: what one should eat, what kind of work should one do, what kind of sexual engagement one should have and so forth. On the other hand, this disciplinary action faces resistances, like when people seek non-official medical practices, for instance, or just plainly refuse to adopt some degree "healthier" practices. One possible correlation of this account of power clashes would be Gramsci's notion of hegemony, and how it's attained and sustained. My ex-supervisor, in her PhD thesis (dealing with medical institutions) did use such approach. Orthodox marxists didn't quite like it at the time... :) Yours, Ken ------------------------------------------------- Kenneth Rochel de Camargo, Jr. MD PhD Technical Coordinator - UnATI (Old Age Open University) Research Associate - Instituto de Medicina Social UERJ (Rio de Janeiro State U.) - Brazil Bitnet: kenneth at bruerj.bitnet Internet: kenneth at vmesa.uerj.br ------------------
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