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Foucault's Conception Of Power Analysis

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How can you identify power exactly? Maybe you would define it as being dominant, or the ability to do something or act in a particular way. As we think about this specific question, Foucault’s idea of power lies outside of many understandings to power. He does not hold any proper value in his idea of power. Foucault’s conception of power is a wide analysis. He moves away from notions which is set to power in a more binary way of domination and force. Power can be as a set of relationships existing everywhere in all sides of our lives from a more small level or to a larger level. Foucault’s analysis suggests that power is the omnipresent and can be found in all social interactions. First, let’s start off by understanding one of his notions. What is bio power? Foucault argues that biopower is a technology which appeared in the late eighteenth century for managing populations. It incorporates certain aspects of disciplinary power. If disciplinary power is about training the actions of bodies, biopower is about managing the births, deaths, reproduction and illnesses of a population. Foucault summaries this notion of power that have evolved during the 17th century. Bio power is described as the ability to “foster life or disallow it …show more content…

During the time I was in school, sex education has been a great increase of attention, mainly for high school students to prevent teenage pregnancy and also STDs. Currently, many classrooms separate students by sex in order to research into the sexual details for the child’s specific sex. This is definitely an example of bio power, seeing as the separation by sex controls the concept of a two gendered society and the explanation of sex education for one sex in terms of the other controls mixed sexuality. sexual education will always have a connection with sexuality, which in turn is always the link for the two poles of bio

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Content Response 1 For centuries, power has been a way of establishing hierarchy and social pyramids that have helped us create the society we live in today. However, we have become more aware of the constant influence that power has in human lives thanks to the perspective of critical theory, which has showed us that power is something that constitutes all of human interactions and relationships. Michel Foucault defines power as a behavior or process that permeates all human interaction (Allen, 2011). He states that power resides in every human encounter for the purpose of transforming structures of communication and meaning. Power is not limited to only a person in a power position, but it is present in any reciprocal relationship.

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The Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines power as possession of control, authority, or influence over others. Having the ability or capacity to change the future has been around longer than we can admit to imagine. Power comes in different shapes and forms , anything or anyone can have it. Even just having things can show and have power like how the Firefighters in Fahrenheit 451 carried these intimidating flamethrowers with immense heat. The people feared these firefighters and manipulated them into thinking books were evil because books had knowledge and creativity which held an even greater power.

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Power is the ability or capacity to do something or act in a particular way, Power is not only strength it is a human relationships, power is the authority one person holds over another. In the play The Crucible,written by Arthur Miller. Three characters Abigail Williams, Reverend Hale, and Judge Danforth. All want to gain power as the play goes on. But it takes a turn and influenced them negatively.

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What exactly is “power”? Power is the ability to control and have respect in a certain way. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, the small town of Maycomb have a trial in which a black man was accused of raping a white woman. But because of her class and gender, Mayella, the woman who claimed rape, lacks power, but her race makes her powerful.

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The meaning of power is the capacity or the ability to direct or influence the behavior

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But first what is Power? When researching Power words such as authority, control, direct, command and influence all appear. These words all support the following statement “Power is the ability to influence and control the behaviour of others.” The problem with power is that it often leads to those in power abusing it. As Lord Acton famously quoted “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

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"Tapping the Roots of Power" and "An Active Technique of Struggle" are two chapters where Gene Sharp, analyzes how power is continuously interchangeable amongst the oppressed which are usually minorities and their oppressors which usually are symbolized by people of power. In both chapters, Sharp in great detail gives the reader many scenarios in which oppressed groups through civil disobedience fight against their oppressors, usually leading to victory which resembles freedom and liberation. Although oppressed groups have a great deal to loose, their constant struggling motivates them to fight against the oppressor and regain their liberty and rights back. Once minorities start to challenge authority, their obedience is lost. Once this happens,

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Power is the ability to actor do something in a particular way. People who have too much power and abuse it, and turn their power into a negative power. Fear and tyranny are abused by people with power creating a negative effect on society. Leaders with a huge rule of power will abuse their role as a leader by creating a fearful environment.

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Towards the ending of the reading Foucault constitutes four fundamental principles in the effect of serving as a guideline regarding his research. First, Rule of Immanence—“local centers”, comprehension that power and knowledge intertwine. Second, Rules of Continual Variation—“distributions of power” and “appropriations of knowledge”. Third, Rule of Double conditioning—“Malthusian Control”, “Pattern of transformation requires strategy, although strategy relies on its own “prop and anchor”. Finally, Rule of the tactical polyvalence of discourses—“psychic Hermaphrodism” Discourse is the glue that binds knowledge and power (Foucault, 1978).

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Some would say power is the ability to control a group and have them become your followers while maintaining a strong leadership role. The two books, Animal Farm and Lord of The Flies use power through the two main chiefs of the novels. The book Animal Farm, by George Orwell, is about a group of animals that declare a rebellion against the owner of their farm. They take the farm over, and make Napoleon, the main character who is also the dictator of the book, take leadership of the farm. On the other hand, the book Lord of The Flies, by William Golding is about a group of boys who are stranded on an island with no adults.

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The answer lies in the relationship that sex has with knowledge and power. Focusing on how power controls sex by laying down rules and regulations to follow, he said that power insisted domination and submission. He said power hides its true intentions by calling it beneficial. Foucault argued that we need to develop analytics of power in order to understand sex. He said that westerners think of power as emanating from the law.

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Foremost, an advantage of Foucault’s concept is that Foucault believes that power possesses a more discursive aspect and can therefore act as productive as well as positive force on society (Hook, 2004). Foucault views power as productive and positive whereas most authors prior to Foucault have viewed power as negative and repressive. An additional advantage of Foucault’s concept is that a genealogical account is offered (Gaventa, 2003). This means that Foucault offers a fundamental historical critique which looks at the forgotten origins of human sciences (Hook, 2004). The purpose of genealogy is to critique the present and those aspects that are taken for granted.

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Power as conceptualized by critical theorists. Power is one of the words that holds great effect. It is defined by Webster (2015) as “the ability to control people or things; a person or organization that has a lot of control and influence over other people or organizations”. In general, a person or organization that holds power has authority over others. Thus, power is conceptualized in the organizational communication by critical theorists.

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Power is all over, nobody is either lacking power or outside the restraint of power. It isn’t people who are armed with power; but rather discourse as well as the discursive relations which view and establish people as followers. o To Foucault, a king is the same represented by power as are his followers. As a result power isn’t immovable; power doesn’t advance from a key point. Power can be recognised as a complicated group of dealings at work in a specific location.

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Paul- Michel Foucault was a French philosopher also known as a historian of systems of thoughts whose influence extended across a broad array of disciplines especially in the humanities and social sciences and a social critic. He created his own title when he was promoted to professorship at one of the most prestigious colleges in France “College de France” in 1970. He is perhaps best known for his ruminations on power, self identity, epistemology, and the evolution of systems of thought and meaning. He is often described as post-structuralist or post modernist, however Foucault himself rejected such titles, preferring to analyse their significance rather than identifying with them.

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