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FOUCALUT'S CONCEPT OF THE NORM.
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Social coercion as a feature of power implementation in society.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Social coercion as a feature of power implementation in society. Power as the right of life or death. The omnipresence of the mechanisms of discipline. The State's control of individual human beings. Incarceration of juvenile delinquents. Person-to-person encounters. Codes and norms of fast-food consumption. Power at the microlevel.
Paper Introduction:
This research examines Foucault's critique of the concept of the norm. Foucault's analysis of the emergence of regimes of discipline in the West charts the development of social coercion as a defining feature of power implementation in society. The basic argument is that power as the right of life or death, associated with state regimes, was transformed into power in determining quality of life as it is understood in the modern period. According to Foucault's line of thought, the individual human being is considered an object upon which authorities may enact various ideas of control. In his description of Mettray, a farm colony for juvenile delinquents and/or abandoned children, the control does not necessarily entail brute force, though that is not out of the question, but rather other forms of coercion, including isolation from the community and the construction of a physi
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Ed. The person-to-person (clerk-to-customer) encounter has the manifestappearance of interaction, but the fact is that the process of fulfillingthe transaction governs the encounter, not anything like an authenticpersonal connection, a point that becomes clear if a customer makes aspecial request (e.g., no onions) that falls outside the expected patternof behavior. Thus, in the shelter of these two considerable protectors, and, indeed, acting as a link between them, or a place of exchange, a carefully worked out technique for the supervision of norms has continued to develop right up to the present day (Foucault 41 -11). But what does seem clear is thatcritique of corporate structures that determine a good deal of the contentof social and economic relations by reason of the exercise of corporatediscretion is a worthy enterprise. We are in the society of the teacher-judge; the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the "social worker"-judge; it is on them that the universal reign of the normative is base; and each individual, wherever he may find himself, subjects to it his body, his gestures, his behavior, his aptitudes, his achievements (Foucault 415-16).Foucault looks at the regimentation of behavior in accord with norms thatoccurs at so many different levels of society and hears "the distant roarof battle" (418), though battling the corporate fast-food monster seems anunlikely form of social revolution. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2 . To the degree the corporate structureand all the power it entails can be obliged to acknowledge the sentience ofthe other--as individual customer, not as a unit undifferentiated from itsaggregate market segment--then it is possible that the impact and reach ofcorporate power can be diminished, or at least interrogated. New York: Random House, 1977. Eating a fast-food meal also involves being awareof rituals (or codes or norms) of behavior that accomplish a food purchase--standing in line inside or waiting in line in one's car at the drive-thruwindow outside, paying at the first window and picking up at the second,the whole transaction taking place in full view of closed-circuit video. Ritzer describesthe fast-food industry as one in which (among other things) consumers areobliged to adhere to norms by "reading" what he terms "codes" associatedwith of purchasing and eating the products on offer: "'Reading McDonald's'might involve such aspects as understanding what some people are sayingwhen they consume 'value meals' and what others are saying by eschewingsuch meals" (Ritzer 274). Citing Foucault to the effect that"power exists and the microlevel, [and thus] resistance must also takeplace at the microlevel," Ritzer (276) suggests that social revolution isimplicated in creative responses to corporate norms. "The Carceral." Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. But that distinctionignores a point argued by Ritzer with regard to corporate regimentation ofsocial interaction that is completely consistent with Foucault'sdescription of the reliance that society has placed on the medical andjudicial rationales for incarceration of social misfits. This passage makes clear that Foucault is not merely discussingMettray but the whole of social organization and the supervisory functionof authoritative entities, particularly when reinforced by legal andjudicial power, exerts strong influence on behavior. In Readings in Social Theory: The Classic Tradition to Post-Modernism. . Obviously there is a qualitative difference between the incarceratedindividual and the person who lives in his own house. Significantly, Mettray inhabitants were sent therein consequence of a judicial determination based on recommendations ofcredentialed physicians. The roar ofbattle that Foucault hears might begin, as Ritzer suggests, with an"abnormal" Big Mac order by someone who knows his onions. Subversion of the code of conduct, corporate procedures, and the likebecomes a revolutionary exercise not only because it obliges the corporateentity to alter those procedures per se but also because the corporateentity must deal with the subversive element idiosyncratically, as if thatelement has what it asserts: an identity, uniqueness, and equality ofstatus vis-à-vis the corporate structure. The point is that the codes and norms of fast-food consumptionare determined and managed by the authority and business-format expertiseof the corporate entity. This pattern of commitment appears to have gainedwider currency than the context of the 19th-century juvenile work farm: [T]he supervision of normality was firmly encased in a medicine or a psychiatry that provided it with a sort of "scientificity"; it was supported by a judicial apparatus which, directly or indirectly, gave it legal justification. At Mettray, theuniverse of experience was circumscribed institutionally. The basic argument is that power as the right oflife or death, associated with state regimes, was transformed into power indetermining quality of life as it is understood in the modern period.According to Foucault's line of thought, the individual human being isconsidered an object upon which authorities may enact various ideas ofcontrol. All of this is furthercomplicated, according to Ritzer (269-7 ), by the fact that demand for fastfood has been manufactured by aggressive marketing that, implicitly, sendsthe message that fast food confers benefits on purchasers. The entity may be reluctant to enable the handlingof something that is outside the norm, or may not equip its clerks torespond effectively to nonpatterned customer inputs. Peter Kivisto. Foucault arguesthat the pattern of supervision of which Mettray was emblematic has beenenlarged to encompass the whole of society. In his description of Mettray, a farm colony for juveniledelinquents and/or abandoned children, the control does not necessarilyentail brute force, though that is not out of the question, but ratherother forms of coercion, including isolation from the community and theconstruction of a physical and linguistic vocabulary of experientialreality in the facility. 3rd ed. In his discussion of fast-foodhegemony in the eating habits of popular culture, Ritzer suggests that thebest thing that could happen to McDonald's is its absolute destruction; onesuspects he is exaggerating to make his point, for it is difficult to seewhy he would wish to be so cavalier about the practical consequences toemployees if McDonald's were forced out of business. "The 'New' Means of Consumption: A Postmodern Analysis." Illuminating Social Life. To distinguish fast-food codes from the codes and norms of penalinstitutions is, by Foucault's lights, to make a distinction without adifference. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Pine Forge P, 1998. 4 9-18.Ritzer, George. James Farganis. Foucault refers to the "emergence of a new form of 'law': amixture of legality and nature, prescription and constitution, the norm"(415). As a consequence, society canbe said to be disciplined and regimented much as prisoners in the penalsystem are. This research examines Foucault's critique of the concept of the norm.Foucault's analysis of the emergence of regimes of discipline in the Westcharts the development of social coercion as a defining feature of powerimplementation in society. . One does not have tobelieve that McDonald's engages in exploitative labor practices as well asnon-nutritious food sale to see that pushing its millions of employees outof work would not amount to a public service either of the employees or ofthe millions of consumers of Big Macs. In that regard, Foucault cites: the omnipresence of the mechanisms of discipline . 261-83. Works CitedFoucault, Michel. Ed.
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