Date: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 10:19:25 +0100
Subject: Re: Resistance



>
>Members of this list are certainly aware of the "Subject and Power" essay --
>but indeed it is difficult for me to think of a text or interview by
>Foucault that was not interested in resistance. He was trying to make things
>visible that were otherwise off the radar and could not be tracked by
>traditional conceptions of the working of power, critical or otherwise. In
>Discipline and Punish one could speculate that F's desire to trace out the
>shadows of modern forms of power sometimes produced the impression that
>things were very dark and that resistance could not survive in such a
>climate, but at the end of the day I don't see DP as a rejection of the
>possibility of resistance but rather as an attempt to bring to light certain
>strategic and tactical moves, unawareness of which hobbles resistance
>itself.
>
I would agree with this last point.  I think another good reference is the
History of Sexuality, especially Vol 1, where Foucault's conception of
power as diffuse, linked to practices of freedom and therefore prone to
resistance is well outlined.  Another good reference is the interview
entitled The |EThics of the Concern of the Self as a Practice of Freedom
which can be found in English in Rabinow's edited collection of Michel
Foucault's writings/interviews/etc., Volume 1, Ethics.

I don't want to get too much into the game of plugging one's own modest
contributions to scholarly output but I have an article in Ageing and
Society (Vol 19) entitled Growing old and resistance which attempts to use
resistance to make sense of the way in which people constituted as old
through various practices of regulation might possibly be able to resist
stereotypical views of old age by subverting these very practices.  One of
the tests of the usefulness of Foucault's conception of resistance which is
embedded in his analysis of power, government and freedom is in carrying
out empirical work and so it may be worthwhile to seek out material which
is underpinned by this sort of analysis.  Im trying it with old age, but Im
not sure what else has been done in other fields.
Hope this helps
Emmanuelle

Emmanuelle Tulle-Winton
Lecturer in Sociology
School of Social Sciences
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow G4 0BA
Scotland
Tel: 0141 331 3330  (+ 44 141 331 3330 international)
Fax: 0141 331 3439  (+ 44 141 331 3439 international)