Foucault’s methods

Wow! This is very difficult information to process. I would have to supplement (in the future) the assigned readings for this week with reading Foucault’s The Archaeology of Knowledge, Madness and Civilization, The Birth of the Clinic for I am far away from understanding Foucault’s methods. I have a very vague general idea about his archaeology, genealogy and practices of the self.

The archaeological method (which is not o be understood as the discipline of archaeology) includes a set of complex concepts; for example the concepts of “savoir” and “connaissance” as they relate to knowledge refer to implicit knowledge-the “savoir” (the practices, the activities, institutional praxis), while “connaissance” refers to bodies of knowledge as provided in science books and philosophical and religious theories. Linguistically speaking, the French term of savoir is connected to action and the knowing how to (applied knowledge), while connaitre/connaissance refers to knowing about, (theoretical bodies and disciplines). As noted in Scheurich and McKenzie (in), “archaeology [as in Foucault method] is the study of savoir as the conditions of possibility of connaissance...[in other words] formal knowledges emerge more ‘irrationally’ from savoir, which includes not only the formal and rational but also the much broader ‘irrationality’ of politics, institutional practices, popular opinions, and so on”(p. 321).

The genealogical method study the relations and tactics of power, and include the “four general rules” for analysis: 1. usage of power to punish, repress, exclude, but also to produce, 2. usage of punitive methods as tactic of power to control souls not just behavior, 3. technologies of power, 4. leniency or humanization of power techniques (Denzin and Lincoln, 2008, pp330-335).


I was wondering if there are some good studies out there using Foucault’s methods. I would have to search.

Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2008). Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.