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Discourse, power and governmentality: Social movement research with and beyond Foucault

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  • Baumgarten, Britta
  • Ullrich, Peter

Abstract

In this article some ideas will be outlined, on how protest research can be stimulated, enriched and reformulated by (post-)Foucaultian thinking. We argue that Foucault and his very concepts of discourse and power provide a perspective on social movements that avoids too simple rational actor concepts, is more long-term oriented and pays more attention to the diverse aspects of the context of social movement action than does mainstream social movement research. We focus on four types of processes that can be analysed from a Foucaultian perspective. 1. Discourses define the boundaries for what can be thought of and communicated at a given point of time in a given society. These boundaries also apply for social movement actors. 2. Within these boundaries of the generally unthinkable we can analyse the framing of social movements and how they contribute to discourses. 3. Further, there are internal communicative practices of movement knowledge generation. These can be viewed as a set of (productive as well as restrictive) discursive regularities. 4. Discourses shape the subjectivity of the people, and thus impact on the mobilizing potential of social movements. Referring to governmentality studies we show how changing rationalities may influence the likelihood of social critique and protest.

Suggested Citation

  • Baumgarten, Britta & Ullrich, Peter, 2012. "Discourse, power and governmentality: Social movement research with and beyond Foucault," Discussion Papers, Project Group Civic Engagement SP IV 2012-401, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
  • Handle: RePEc:zbw:wzbcen:spiv2012401
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    1. Eve Chiapello & Luc Boltanski, 2001. "Die Rolle der Kritik in der Dynamik des Kapitalismus und der normative Wandel," Post-Print hal-00466547, HAL.
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    Cited by:

    1. Moshreka Aditi Huq, 2020. "The Significance of Civil Intellectuals’ Activism: A Case of Eco-Nationalistic Social Movement in Bangladesh," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-34, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    social movements; protest; discourse; Foucault; governmentality; power; knowledge; framing; Soziale Bewegungen; Protest; Diskurs; Foucault; Gouvernementalität; Macht; Wissen; Deutungsmusteranalyse;
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