The Structuring of Power

This chapter examines the various types of structures of power investigated by Foucault. We first look at the twin notions of a web of powers and of circuits of power. We then take our cue from Foucault’s suggestions to reconstruct both of these notions in simple terms, giving them a well-defined and coherent content. Their value is argued to be mostly heuristic: they afford a particular vantage point from which to observe social reality, this being the vantage point of power. We then try to make sense of the idea of the ‘anonymous’ functioning of power and its process of self-accretion. Finally, we turn to the notion of domination as a structural and oppressive imbalance of power.