Date sent: Sat, 10 Sep 1994 03:44:47 -0400 (EDT)
From: MEINKING@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Normalization and Control
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Send reply to: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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@xxxxxxxxxx
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
From: MEINKING@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Normalization and Control
To: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Send reply to: foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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@xxxxxxxxxx
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