Foucault and the Theories of Power and Identity Essay

Foucault believed that power is never in any one persons hands, it does not show itself in any obvious manner but rather as something that works its way into our imaginations and serves to constrain how we act. For example in the setting of a workplace the power does not pass from the top down; instead it circulates through their organizational practices. Such practices act like a grid, provoking and inciting certain courses of action and denying others. Foucault considers this as no straightforward matter and believes that it rests on how far individuals interpret what is being laid down as obvious or self evident, institutional power works best when all parties accept it willingly. Foucaults notion of power is a difficult notion to†¦show more content†¦In that sense power acts as a positive force as oppose to a negative one; it enables people to control their own lives. Although power is seen as an unrestricted issue it is still viewed by Foucault as a stabilising force th at leaves little room for manoeuvre, the way in which this is done is by, for example, a workplace closing down possibilities, inciting or inducing a certain course of action as oppose to proliferating them, this is the way in which they keep a hold on peoples lives, ordering them in a particular direction. It is at this point, Foucault argues, where the workforce feels as if they are being monitored, that they bring themselves into line and assume the role that has been indirectly carved out for them.2 In other terms power works on and through agents in ways which structurally limit what they otherwise might have done.3 This method of domination is that it is through people working on their own conduct that they bring themselves to order. At the level of the ongoing running of institutions on a day-to-day basis, individuals internalise what is expected of them because it seems the right and proper thing to do. If this sounds less than total domination, that isShow MoreRelatedAnalys is Of Foucault And Queer Theory 1211 Words   |  5 PagesIn Foucault and Queer Theory Spargo defines queer theory as a nebulous group of cultural criticism and analysis of social power structures relating to sexuality . It is these power structures and aspects of culture that are responsible for the discourse that creates and informs ones understanding of gender, race, and sexuality. However these aspects of identity do not exist separately from one another, but are constructed in tandem throughout history. These layers of identity inform each otherRead MoreButler and Foucault: A Revision of Power Essay1268 Words   |  6 Pages Both Foucault and Butler claim that sexuality is not what makes us who we are, that it is simply a social construct. In addition, they both believe that by submitting to the mechanisms of power and categorizing ourselves sexually, we are giving impetus to our own subjugation. While they hold similar beliefs in many ways, and much of Judith Butlers wo rk is building upon work done by Michael Foucault, Judith Butler does diverge from Foucaults ideas. The reason Butler revises Foucault is that hisRead MoreEvaluation of the Usefulness of Selected Examples of Foucaults Theory951 Words   |  4 PagesWithin this paper, I shall evaluate the usefulness of selected examples of Foucault’s theories from a feminist perspective. To begin, a short introduction will outline the era in which Foucault wrote, as this has been seen as influential to his work, inspiring him to move away from the former ideological ways of thinking about the world (Taylor and Vintges 2004, Mills 1997). I shall then go on to consider the changing nature of feminism, which has moved on from viewing patriarchy and men as the oppressorsRead MoreLiterary And Cultural Theory During The Modern And Postmodern Period1539 Words   |  7 PagesTheories investigating subjectivity have dominated the field of literary and cultural theory during the modern and postmodern period. The way we understand subjectivity effects the way we understand the world around us, whether the subject is viewed in the Cartesian manner as a fixed entity, with a pre-existing nature that is not affected by the discourses that surround the it, or if we view the subject as one produced in and through the forces of power available in the time period, whether theyRead MoreCompare and Contrast Goffman’s and Foucault’s Explanations of How Social Order Is Made and Remade1615 Words   |  7 PagesThere are many theories regarding how social order is produced and reproduced , but this essay will focus on the similarities and differences between the two contrasting accounts of how social order is produced, provided by Goffman and Foucault. Social order is the term used to describe the unspoken rules of conduct in everyday life, or a stable social situation in which connections are maintained without change or if change occurs it is in a predictable way. (Taylor, 200 9, p. 173) These differingRead MoreGramscis And Foucaults Notions of Power1471 Words   |  6 PagesPower is a concept that is at the core of issues regarding social stratification (Scott Marshall, 2009). Therefore there have been many debates regarding what this concept of power actually means. For Gramsci, power needs to be considered legitimate by those who are subject to it, and the legitimacy of power is gained through the manipulation of social norms (Scott Marshall, 2009). This manipulation of social norms, links to Gramsci’s notion of ideological hegemony. Gramsci uses hegemony to showRead MoreGay And Homosexual Identity : Is It Defined As A Person?1495 Words   |  6 Pagesdesires toward another of the same sex† (Merriam-Webster). Nonetheless, movies, books, television shows, and other forms of media evidently display that we have become a society that defines homosexual identity in relation or opposition to heterosexual identity. The emphasis on heterosexu al identity as the norm forces males to exaggerate or display more of their masculine traits to stay with heterosexual stereotype. The popular television series, Glee, contributes to evidence of society definingRead MoreThe Theory Of The Birth Territory Theory Essay907 Words   |  4 PagesThe theory I selected to apply to the above situation is the Birth Territory theory. This theory was created from empirical data collected by the authors who serve as both midwives and researchers. It has a critical post-structural feminist undertone and elaborates on the ideas of Michel Foucault. The Birth Territory theory predicts and elaborates on the relationships between jurisdiction (use of authority and influence), terrain (the birthing environment), and personal emotional and physiologicalRead MoreCompare and Contrast Goffman and Focaults’ Explanations of How Social Order Is Made and Remade1698 Words   |  7 Pagesrelating and behaving. Social change provides the rules and regul ations for what is ‘normal behaviour’ at the present time. This assignment incorporates the contrasts and comparisons of how social order is made and remade through the theories of Erving Goffman and Michael Foucault. This sentence is a bit complex—why not say this assignment compares and contrasts the work of ---In order to illustrate this, two case studies of traffic regulation, ‘The Buchanan report’ and ‘ Monderman’s thesis’ will be usedRead MoreTopic . The Goals Of My Research Strive To Assess The Biopolitical1457 Words   |  6 Pagescritical issues concerning the composition of national and ethnic identity rise to the fore. Singapore, a nation state with an incredibly strong relationship to immigrant labour and a complex history of reproductive management, provides a pertinent case for the analysis of how governing state power-structures systematically other and stratify the reproduction of migrant populations. Research Questions: 1) How have governing state power structures functioned to create a hierarchy of otherness in Singapore

Four Entrepreneurial Principles I Learned About Success...

Four Entrepreneurial Principles I Learned About Success While Flying Home From Vacation By Sharon Schierling | Submitted On May 25, 2011 Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest Expert Author Sharon Schierling My husband and I were on vacation recently and on the return trip we had a aircraft full of very interesting people. And I got to thinking about what all these people do for a living and wondered how many of them were actually entrepreneurs. As a life and business coach I have discovered that nothing is ever as it seems and as I started looking at these people I realized that many of the reasons that people fail in business has more to do with them and their personal habits, than the economy, the cost of marketing or the type of product they sell. I observed a few behaviors that, at first made me smile, and then made me think about how these habits and actions would affect an entrepreneur s business or personal life. I came up with a few principles that good entrepreneurs should implement. 1. Good entrepreneurs need to learn how to slow down to read and follow instructions. As we were standing in the security line in the Orlando International Airport, there was a family of fiveShow MoreRelated65 Successful Harvard Business School Application Essays 2nd Edition 147256 Words   |  190 Pages Lauren. II. Harbus. III. Title: Sixty...five successful Harvard Business School application essays. HF1131.A1352009 808.06665-dc22 2009012531 First Edition: August 2009 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS Acknowledgments Introduction ix xi I. Defining Moment Stacie Hogya Anonymous Anonymous David La Fiura Anonymous Avin Bansal Anonymous Brad Finkbeiner Anonymous 4 7 10 13 17 20 23 26 29 ii. UndergradUate experience John Coleman Maxwell Anderson Lavanya Anantharman Rosita Najmi FayeRead MoreShort Cases19708 Words   |  79 PagesSubscribers paid $4.00 per package shipping and handling; average cost to Sonik was $0.50 per package. On average, subscribers purchased 19.9 CDs annually, mostly through Sonik’s website. Annual subscriber retention rate was 90 percent. Sonik accumulated CDs from various suppliers and fulfilled its own orders. Annual fixed costs of fulfillment were $400,000; shipments averaged 3.7 CDs per package. 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Epitaph and Dreaming Black Boy Free Essays

a) Compare the ways in which these two poems deal with the experience of oppression and racism. b) State which of the two poems you find more disturbing, and give reasons to support your answer. c) Identify and comment on TWO poetic devices used in each poem to highlight the workings of oppression or racism. We will write a custom essay sample on Epitaph and Dreaming Black Boy or any similar topic only for you Order Now â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy† and â€Å"Epitaph† are two poems which address the issues of oppression and racism. though they both deal with the same problem, it is handled and discussed differently. In † Dreaming Black Boy†, the persona, a young black boy in school, talks about his aspirations and dreams. He hopes for an end to racism. The persona tries to use his education to try to escape the harsh reality of racism. He not only mentions what is going on around him now, but also the past and even how he would like things to be in the future. He longs for acceptance, a good education, success, to travel and a break from mental slavery. He fails to grasp that despite his intelligence and physical maturity, the racist treatment will continue, thinking that what he experiences as a young boy is the worst, he has yet to find out how it is in the future. On the other hand, â€Å"Epitaph†, a significantly shorter poem, is about a black slave who was hanged, people stop what they are doing to watch the sight, yet the rest of the world continues to go on. The sugar cane continues to grow, unlike in â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy†, the persona in â€Å"Epitaph† is an adult, looking on a past occurrence and commenting on how these types of events have impacted on our lives today. â€Å"Epitaph† appears to be the most disturbing as it suggests that many of these slaves’ deaths are forgotten. The idea or notion that life goes on after you die and all you are awarded is a â€Å"pause†. The images in â€Å"Epitaph† are also more graphic. In â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy†, the poet uses euphemism to down play the harsh reality of the young black boy. For example, â€Å"plotters in pajamas† is used to refer to the KKK, a group infamous for the terror they caused on the black race. The main literary device used in â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy† is allusion. The persona alludes to white supremacy groups, a famous singer etcetera, to express the things he would like to change about his reality. â€Å"Epitaph† uses the â€Å"apostrophe† to give a visual image f the black slave hanging and swinging as he is hanged. This metaphor is effective in showing also how the slave has taken on the problems of the black race as his own. And his death belongs to the blacks. It is their history. Racism and slavery are two of the most controversial and oppressive elements in human history. Though both poems differ in style and technique, both successfully describe the physical and emotional effects of racism and oppression (slavery). This success is achieved through the use of allusions, vivid images, symbolic language and even euphemism. ) Compare the ways in which these two poems deal with the experience of oppression and racism. b) State which of the two poems you find more disturbing, and give reasons to support your answer. c) Identify and comment on TWO poetic devices used in each poem to highlight the workings of oppression or racism. â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy† and â€Å"Epitaph† are two poems which address the issues of oppression and racism. though they both deal with the same problem, it is handled and discussed differently. In † Dreaming Black Boy†, the persona, a young black boy in school, talks about his aspirations and dreams. He hopes for an end to racism. The persona tries to use his education to try to escape the harsh reality of racism. He not only mentions what is going on around him now, but also the past and even how he would like things to be in the future. He longs for acceptance, a good education, success, to travel and a break from mental slavery. He fails to grasp that despite his intelligence and physical maturity, the racist treatment will continue, thinking that what he experiences as a young boy is the worst, he has yet to find out how it is in the future. On the other hand, â€Å"Epitaph†, a significantly shorter poem, is about a black slave who was hanged, people stop what they are doing to watch the sight, yet the rest of the world continues to go on. The sugar cane continues to grow, unlike in â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy†, the persona in â€Å"Epitaph† is an adult, looking on a past occurrence and commenting on how these types of events have impacted on our lives today. â€Å"Epitaph† appears to be the most disturbing as it suggests that many of these slaves’ deaths are forgotten. The idea or notion that life goes on after you die and all you are awarded is a â€Å"pause†. The images in â€Å"Epitaph† are also more graphic. In â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy†, the poet uses euphemism to down play the harsh reality of the young black boy. For example, â€Å"plotters in pajamas† is used to refer to the KKK, a group infamous for the terror they caused on the black race. The main literary device used in â€Å"Dreaming Black Boy† is allusion. The persona alludes to white supremacy groups, a famous singer etcetera, to express the things he would like to change about his reality. â€Å"Epitaph† uses the â€Å"apostrophe† to give a visual image of the black slave hanging and swinging as he is hanged. This metaphor is effective in showing also how the slave has taken on the problems of the black race as his own. And his death belongs to the blacks. It is their history. Racism and slavery are two of the most controversial and oppressive elements in human history. Though both poems differ in style and technique, both successfully describe the physical and emotional effects of racism and oppression (slavery). This success is achieved through the use of allusions, vivid images, symbolic language and even euphemism. How to cite Epitaph and Dreaming Black Boy, Papers

The Rise of Islamism in the 20th Century free essay sample

Islamism is by now a powerful force. It runs governments in Iran, Sudan, and Afghanistan. It is an important force of opposition in Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, and the Palestinian authority. The paper at hand is going to analyze what conditions and events allowed for the rise of Islamism as an ideology in the later 20th century? The first part is going to introduce the concept of eurocentrism. Following this, Kemalism and its effect on Islamism is going to be discussed. In the last part of the paper post-modernism and Khomeini and their role in the rise of Islamism are highlighted. EUROCENTRISM Eurocentrism can be described as a phenomenon establishing the West as the center of the world by equating it with modernity and as a result make it the destiny of the world to become westernized, since this is equal with being modern. This development is based on the idea that the West knows best (Sayyid, 127). This concept has its historical roots in European colonialism and imperialism. The discourse of eurocentrism is one of the major strands with which the network of western global power is held together (p. 129), since it provides them with a sense of nity and power, which serves as legitimacy for claiming to be the center of the world. Opposition that wants to resist this hegemonic order, can do so only in the terms of that hegemony. This leads to another assumption of eurocentrism: there is nothing outside the Western project. (p. 135) KEMALISM After the post-colonial order and the decline of the Ottoman Empire, the Muslim world was dominated by Kemalist discourses. Influenced by eurocentrism, Kemals vision was to mimic the European way of building and reigning a nation to become like the West and as a result become modern and reach political efficacy (Sayyid 155). This aim to become like the West resulted in major changes in Turkey and other countries being influenced by the Kemalist discourse. Before being abolished by the Kemalist regime, the caliphate constituted the nodal point, around which the Muslim unity and identity was built. At the same time it was the centre of the Muslim political structure, attaching Islam as a master signifier to the state. (p. 57) Abolishing the caliphate separated the link between state and Islam. The goal of Kemalism was to disconnect Islam from the state to be able to establish a hegemonic discourse without having to integrate Islam. Being aware of the fact that the Kemalist government could not neglect Islam altogether, since the possibility of using it to mobilize support still existed, Kemal tried to tie it in into his discourse. Acts like the abolishment of the caliphate and putting all educational institutions under direct state control to avoid Islamic concepts being taught, sought to distance and even exclude Islam from the Kemalist Turkey. (pp. 63-64) The effect of Kemalism on the role of Islam was different than expected. Instead of depoliticize Islam the policies of the Kemalist reactivated it. By removing it from the centre of their construction of political order, they politicized it. Unsettling it and disseminating it into the general culture made it available for reinscription. The rise of Islamism was enabled through the possibility to articulate it into a counter-hegemonic discourse. (pp. 72-73) Additionally, the social crisis, in which the discourse of Kemalism was in, was severe enough to make Kemalism appear unstable and Islamism, because at this time seeming to be the only discourse that was structured in an otherwise unstable environment, could emerge as opposition to Kemalism. It provided Muslim societies with social order and stability. Nevertheless, the existence of Islam alone cannot account for Islamism, since it is not a reflection of the religion, but it becomes a political discourse that makes use of Islam to undermine the Kemalist regime. Islamism makes use of the availability of Islam and increases its availability at the same time. Through this relationship a two-way process evolves in which Islam and Islamism are organized around each other. (p. 2) The most important task for Islamism was to establish Islamism as a counter-hegemonic discourse through the construction of order to be able to rule in opposition to Kemalism. Hence, overall the emergence of Islamism was equally dependent on the availability of Islamism and the erosion of Kemalism. (p. 77) The new hegemony of Islamism was only able to emerge because the old one began to unravel. Reasons for the failure were among others that the project of Kemalism failed to constitute all social rela tions and was not able to make all subjects within the Kemalist regimes fully internalize this discourse. It was not evenly represented in all Muslim societies and was therefore not able to impose it totally. (p. 85) This incompleteness of the discourse resulted in the politicization of Islam, which at the same time was also based on the inability of the Kemalists to make their picture of Islam as the backward, superstitious and traditional discourse seem natural. (p. 86). On top the Kemalist regime had difficulties to suppress existence of an Islamist opposition. All together these factors weakened the Kemalists hold as a hegemonic discourse. The only emergent counter hegemonic discourse readily available to substitute the crumbling anciens regime appeared to be Islamism, despite its uneven presence. (p. 86) POST-MODERNISM Around the 1970s, after the decline of Kemalism, the situation began to change. It became possible to articulate political demands using a vocabulary centered on Islam, without any attempt to associate Islam with the West (Sayyid 155). This period, called post-modernism, constitutes a critique of modernity, which tries to abolish the view of the West and modernity being synonyms. It aimed at breaking the substitutability of the West and modern. Decentring the West meant the weakening of this constructed western identity. If the West ceased to exist as an unified entity, it could not provide the unity to constitute modernity. (p. 110) Post-modernism did not see the West as continuing to be the nodal point of the discourse of modernity and decentred the West. (p. 110) This post-modern mind-set further spurred the emergence of Islamism, since it was only able to exist in a world in which there was suspicion of a western meta-discourse (p. 18). This possibility of rejection of westernization depended on the recognition that there was no historical necessity of the western hegemony; and after two world wars, decolonization and the decline of Kemalism there was enough support for this assumption. Only in a context in which it was possible to disarticulate and re-articulate the relationship between the West and universalism in a way that it was no longer seen as the center and equal to modernity, could Islamism emerge. (p. 128)