Alan C. Hudson wrote:
>
> Her basic argument is that although Foucault's "bracketing" of normative
> questions of legitimacy proves useful in his efforts to detail the
> practices of power(s), it also makes it impossible for him to say which
> practices of power are good and which are bad.
>
> She argues that the root of the problem is the fact tht Foucault fails to
> distinguish between different types/forms of power.
>
Hi Alan
Nice to see some life in the list. It seems like it's been a while.
Here's my tuppence worth.
I find this kind of criticism of Foucault to be a bit bizarre since the
differentiation of techniques of power, the insistence on the necessity
of describing the exercise of power as it actually occurs and the denial
of the usefulness or possibility of a general concept of power is
precisely what Foucault is all about. So basically I think there is no
criticism to be answered on this point. Fraser has so clearly and
widely missed the mark in her reading of Foucault here.
Best wishes
Murray
=================================
Murray K. Simpson,
Department of Social Work,
Frankland Building,
The University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN,
United Kingdom.
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/SocialWork/mainpage.htm
tel. 01382 344948
fax. 01382 221512
e.mail m.k.simpson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Her basic argument is that although Foucault's "bracketing" of normative
> questions of legitimacy proves useful in his efforts to detail the
> practices of power(s), it also makes it impossible for him to say which
> practices of power are good and which are bad.
>
> She argues that the root of the problem is the fact tht Foucault fails to
> distinguish between different types/forms of power.
>
Hi Alan
Nice to see some life in the list. It seems like it's been a while.
Here's my tuppence worth.
I find this kind of criticism of Foucault to be a bit bizarre since the
differentiation of techniques of power, the insistence on the necessity
of describing the exercise of power as it actually occurs and the denial
of the usefulness or possibility of a general concept of power is
precisely what Foucault is all about. So basically I think there is no
criticism to be answered on this point. Fraser has so clearly and
widely missed the mark in her reading of Foucault here.
Best wishes
Murray
=================================
Murray K. Simpson,
Department of Social Work,
Frankland Building,
The University of Dundee,
Dundee DD1 4HN,
United Kingdom.
http://www.dundee.ac.uk/SocialWork/mainpage.htm
tel. 01382 344948
fax. 01382 221512
e.mail m.k.simpson@xxxxxxxxxxxx