Foucault, genealogia ja poliittinen teoria

Authors

• Tuija Pulkkinen

Abstract

The effect of Michel Foucault’s thought for political theory and practice follows from the genealogical approach which differs crucially from the liberal ontology. The liberal and Political Theory ontological space consists of transcendental individual beings who act (by making choices) in accordance with their interests. In Foucault’s genealogy power cannot be defined as a relationship between two transcendental agents, because power is considered as logically anterior to agents. The weak point of the liberal conception of power is that it is not able to conceive of power as transformative in relation to the parties concerned. I would claim that Foucault’s way of theorizing has an effect which confronts the issues left problematic or hard to deal with within the liberal framework. These are the ones which have to do with power as constituting identities. The issues of becoming and being of a certain gender, class, race, nationality, ethnic origin, or sexual orientation involve issues of power which blur and problematize the fixed theoretical boundary between an individual and »the environment» outside the individual. The power involved in the constitution of an individual may be detected and confronted with meticulous genealogical analysis