<aside> ❓ 1. ‘Foucault’s concept of “power” is essentially the same as Durkheim’s concept of “society”.’ Do you agree? 2. Does Foucault’s notion of governmentality amount to a sociological theory?

</aside>

Reading List

• Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: Birth of the Prison, 1975
• Michel Foucault, Omnes et Singulatim: Towards a Criticism of ‘Political Reason’ (The
• Tanner Lectures on Human Values), 1979; https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/f/foucault81.pdf
• Colin Gordon, ‘Governmental Rationality: An Introduction’, Graham Burchell, Colin
• Gordon, and Peter Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, 1991
• Michel Foucault, ‘Governmentality’ (1978), Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter
• Miller (eds), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, 1991
• Richard Hamilton, ‘Michel Foucault’, The Social Misconstruction of Reality: Validity and Verification in the Scholarly Community, 1996
• Hannah Arendt, ‘Totalitarianism’, 1951, The Portable Hannah Arendt, Section III

Tutorial

For this week’s discussion on governmentality and totalitarianism, I have selected a few news quotes because they offer contemporary examples of how political power can be exercised. As you read through these quotes, please consider the following points:

• Centralised Control: efforts to impose a uniform narrative or ideology—whether by dictating the language used or by issuing mandates that penalise dissenting voices.
• Suppression of Dissent: measures against individuals and institutions (such as schools and media outlets) that express or promote ideas not aligned with the directive, a hallmark of totalitarian regimes.