Social Theory of Foucault

This essay explores the social theory of Foucault, its value in understanding power and knowledge, its flaws, and its relation to public health. Foucault believed power was pervasive and discursive, rising from knowledge. His theory offers a distinct contribution to knowledge management research and highlights the productive force of power. However, there are flaws in his rejection of objective truth. The bio-power concept of Foucault can help in managing and controlling the population.

Running head: SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
Social Theory of Foucault
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
Social Theory refers to an analytical framework or a paradigm that is used for the
interpretation of social phenomena. Social theory is used for making the distinction and the
generalization among the various kind of societies and it helps in analyzing modernity that
has emerged in the last centuries. Michael Foucault is a French philosopher and a social
theorist whose theories helps in addressing relationship in between the concept of power and
knowledge (Dillon & Neal, 2015). This essay describes the contemporary theorist and
explains the value of his social theory. It elaborates on the flaws of his social theory and
explains how it can be used to enhance the understanding of that of public health.
Michael Foucault was French postmodernist who was instrumental in shaping
understanding in relation to power. Foucault stressed in the idea that power was present
everywhere and his work was a departure from the previous ideas of power. He held power to
be diffuse instead of being concentrated and he held the notion that power was enacted
instead of being possessed. He constituted power to be discursive instead of being purely
coercive. Foucault challenged the traditional notion of power that held it to be synonymous
with coercion but instead they thought of power to be pervasive (Zamora & Behrent, 2016).
According to Foucault, power comes from different areas and power can be said to be not an
agency or a structure. Foucault thought of power to be like a regime of the truth that pervades
through the society and undergoes constant changes. Foucault made use of the term power for
signifying that the power gets constituted with the help of accepted form of the knowledge.
Foucault stated that truth was produced with the help of multiple form of the constraint. Truth
can help in inducing regular effect pertaining to power. Each society possesses regime of the
truth which means the kind of discourse that it accepts and functions as being true. The
regime of truth is brought about with the help of scientific discourse and it is reinforced with
the help of education system and media. Foucault did not conceive of power to be a negative

2SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
or a repressive thing which forces people to carry out things against their wishes but it acts as
a productive force within the society (McHoul, McHoul & Grace, 2015).
The value of the social theory of power and knowledge of Foucault lies in the fact that
he stated that power rose from that of knowledge. He stated that knowledge-power
relationship helped in guiding the course of society and it governed the society in that of the
post-modern era. Foucault held the notion that world was created with the help of language
and post-structuralist perspective of Foucault helped in developing post-modernism. Foucault
thought that language can be said to be conditioned with the help of social structure and
discourse (Lemke, 2015).The value of his theory lies in the fact that he pointed out the inter-
relationship that existed between word and other discourses. Foucault stated that there was no
original definition in relation to truth and he uncovered knowledge that led him towards
power. According to Foucault, truth was produced with the help of power and that power and
knowledge involved one another. The value of his theory of power lies in the fact that it
offered a distinct contribution in relation to knowledge management research and it brought
out the idea that power can also act as a productive force that can help people in the aspect of
collaboration (Crampton & Elden, 2016). The theory of Foucault is valuable from the point
of view of an organization as it believes in the fact that power can help in producing
knowledge within an organization. The social theory of Foucault is of great significance as it
directs attention to relative authority of discourses within the historical context. Value of the
theory of power of Foucault is owing to the fact that it helps in exposing relational character
of the collaborative relation among the members of organisation. It states the relation
between the collaborative relation and the communication practices within an organisation.
The perspective of power that is resource based helps in directing attention to the using of
power resources by a single actor (Lynch, 2014). The value of Foucault’s theory of power
and knowledge lies in the fact that he brought out the fact that discourse can help in shaping

3SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
an organisation. The value of the theory of Foucault lies in the fact that it perceives power as
being productive pertaining to specific truth claim along with rationalities. The social theory
of Foucault can shape the broader society along with the specific organisation (Dean, 2017).
Knowledge Management from the perspective of Foucault can help in creating space in
relation to different form of the knowledge along with marginalised voices. The social theory
of Foucault can be said to be valuable as helps in the deconstruction of the power relations
along with discursive practices.
The flaws that have been found in relation to the theory of power of Foucault revolves
around the fact that power cannot be said to be everything. This is owing to the fact that
people in the society have differences pertaining to power and hence it cannot act as the
driving force behind the human behaviour (Hatch, 2018). Foucault does not offer any
functioning definition in relation to truth and hence it can be stated that there are flaws in his
social theories. The apparent rejection of the objective truth of Foucault is another arena that
can be said to be a weakness of the theory of Foucault.
The health ‘promotionisms’ can be said to be examples of ‘pastoral power’ that is
oriented towards salvation. According to Foucault, salvation does not have much to deal with
that of life hereafter but it deals with the health and the happiness of the people. Health
promotion can be said to be an example of salvation within which government of choice
plays an important role (Luke, 2018). The bio-power concept that Foucault developed acted
as a positive power pertaining to the lives of the people that helps in managing and exerting
specific amount of control on the population. It can help in disciplining the human life and
the mental health of that person. Modern disciplinary society according to Foucault can help
in achieving strategy of the normalization that can help in producing self-regulated
individuals. The idea of disciplinary power of Foucault laid stress on the view that the
illiterate along with unhealthy population would be of great importance as a valuable

4SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
workforce pertaining to government. The government created an education policy that can
adapt population to that of the capital requirements (Elden, 2016). Discipline has to
maintained in the workforce that complied with minimum standard pertaining to hygiene that
can help in avoiding epidemics.
Foucault laid emphasis on the fact that power was prevalent at all the places and he
conceived of power to be diffuse that was enacted. He held the view that power was
discursive and not coercive. Foucault believed that power can rise from knowledge and
knowledge-power relationship can help in guiding society. It can be useful in governing
society within the post-modern era. The theory of power along with knowledge of Foucault
can pave the path for shaping society and that of specific organisation. Knowledge
Management can create space of various forms of the knowledge. Bio-power concept of
Foucault was a positive force that can help in the aspect of managing and controlling the
population. It can discipline human life and control the mental health of a person.

5SOCIAL THEORY OF FOUCAULT
References:
Crampton, J. W., & Elden, S. (2016). Introduction Space, Knowledge and Power: Foucault
and Geography. In Space, Knowledge and Power (pp. 13-28). Routledge.
Dean, M. (2017). Governmentality. The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory, 1-2.
Dillon, M., & Neal, A. (Eds.). (2015). Foucault on politics, security and war. Springer.
Elden, S. (2016). Space, knowledge and power: Foucault and geography. Routledge.
Hatch, M. J. (2018). Organization theory: Modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives.
Oxford university press.
Lemke, T. (2015). Foucault, governmentality, and critique. Routledge.
Luke, A. (2018). Genres of power: Literacy education and the production of capital.
In Critical Literacy, Schooling, and Social Justice (pp. 161-185). Routledge.
Lynch, R. A. (2014). Foucault’s theory of power. In Michel Foucault (pp. 21-34). Routledge.
McHoul, A., McHoul, A., & Grace, W. (2015). A Foucault primer: Discourse, power and the
subject. Routledge.
Zamora, D., & Behrent, M. C. (Eds.). (2016). Foucault and neoliberalism. John Wiley &
Sons.