Society must be Defended

by Foucault, Michel (2003)

Key Passage

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we saw the emergence of techniquesof power that were essentially centered on the body, on theindividual body. They included all devices that were used to ensurethe spatial distribution of individual bodies (their separation, theiralignment, their serialization, and their surveillance) and the organization,around those individuals, of a whole field of visibility. Theywere also techniques that could be used to take control over bodies.Attempts were made to increase their productive force through exercise,drill, and so on. They were also techniques for rationalizingand strictly economizing on a power that had to be used in the leastcostly way possible, thanks to a whole system of surveillance, hierarchies,inspections, bookkeeping, and reports—all the technologythat can be described as the disciplinary technology of labor. (p.241)

Keywords

Foucault, Foucauldian, Homo Economicus, Exchange, Nature, Society, Sovereignty

Themes

Society must be Defended, Foucault Citations

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