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<title>Power-knowledge</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Power-knowledge</span></span>

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<p>In <a href="Critical_theory" title="Critical theory">critical theory</a>, <b>power-knowledge</b> is a term introduced by the French <a href="Philosopher" class="mw-redirect" title="Philosopher">philosopher</a> <a href="Michel_Foucault" title="Michel Foucault">Michel Foucault</a> (<a href="French_language" title="French language">French</a>: <i lang="fr">le savoir-pouvoir</i>). According to Foucault's understanding, power is based on knowledge and makes use of knowledge; on the other hand, power reproduces knowledge by shaping it in accordance with its anonymous intentions.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Power creates and recreates its own fields of exercise through knowledge.

</p><p>The relationship between power and knowledge has been always a central theme in the social sciences.<sup id="cite_ref-volume-control_2-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-volume-control-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Foucault's_conception">Foucault's conception</h2></div>

<p>Foucault was an <a href="Epistemology" title="Epistemology">epistemological</a> <a href="Constructivist_epistemology" class="mw-redirect" title="Constructivist epistemology">constructivist</a> and <a href="Historicism" title="Historicism">historicist</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-Mader2014_3-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Mader2014-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Foucault was critical of the idea that humans can reach "absolute" knowledge about the world. A fundamental goal in many of Foucault's works is to show how that which has traditionally been considered as absolute, universal and true in fact is historically contingent. To Foucault, even the idea of absolute knowledge is a historically contingent idea. This does not, however, lead to epistemological nihilism; rather, Foucault argues that people "always begin anew" when it comes to knowledge.<sup id="cite_ref-Taylor2011intro_4-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Taylor2011intro-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>Foucault incorporated mutuality into his <a href="Neologism" title="Neologism">neologism</a> power-knowledge, the most important part of which is the hyphen that links the two aspects of the integrated concept together (and alludes to their inherent inextricability).

</p><p>In his later works, <a href="Michel_Foucault" title="Michel Foucault">Foucault</a> suggests that power-knowledge was later replaced in the modern world, with the term <a href="Governmentality" title="Governmentality">governmentality</a> which points to a specific mentality of governance.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Subsequent_developments">Subsequent developments</h2></div>

<p>While in most of the 20th century the term ‘knowledge’ has been closely associated with power, in the last decades ‘information’ has become a central term as well.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> With the growing use of <a href="Big_data" title="Big data">big-data</a>, information is increasingly seen as the means to generate useful knowledge and power.

</p><p>One of the recently developed models, known as the <b><a href="Volume-Control_Model" title="Volume-Control Model">Volume and Control Model</a></b>,<sup id="cite_ref-volume-control_2-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-volume-control-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> describes how information is capitalized by global corporations and transforms into economic power. Volume is defined as the informational resources—the amount and diversity of information and the people producing it. Control is the ability to channel the interaction between information and people through two competing mechanisms: <a href="Popularization" class="mw-redirect" title="Popularization">popularization</a> (information relevant to most people), and <a href="Personalization" title="Personalization">personalization</a> (information relevant to each individual person).

</p><p>According to this understanding, knowledge is never neutral, as it determines force relations. The notion of power-knowledge is therefore likely to be employed in critical, normative contexts. One example of the implications of power-knowledge is <a href="Google" title="Google">Google’s</a> monopoly of knowledge, its <a href="PageRank" title="PageRank">PageRank</a> algorithm, and its inevitable commercial and cultural biases around the world, which are based on the volume and control principles. A recent study shows, for example, the commercial implications of <a href="Google_Images" title="Google Images">Google Images</a> algorithm, as all search results for the term 'beauty' in different languages predominantly yield images of young white women.<sup id="cite_ref-volume-control_2-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-volume-control-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<ul><li><a href="Knowledge_is_power" class="mw-redirect" title="Knowledge is power">Knowledge is power</a></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

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</style><cite id="CITEREFFoucault,_Michel,_1926-1984.2008" class="citation book cs1">Foucault, Michel, 1926-1984. (2008). <i>The history of sexuality</i>. Penguin. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9780141037646</bdi>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/709809777">709809777</a>.</cite><span class="cs1-maint citation-comment"><code class="cs1-code">{{cite book}}</code>: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)</span></span>

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<li id="cite_note-volume-control-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-volume-control_2-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-volume-control_2-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-volume-control_2-2"><sup><i><b>c</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFSegev2019" class="citation journal cs1">Segev, Elad (2019-09-05). "Volume and control: the transition from information to power". <i>Journal of Multicultural Discourses</i>. <b>14</b> (3): <span class="nowrap">240–</span>257. <a href="Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1080%2F17447143.2019.1662028">10.1080/17447143.2019.1662028</a>. <a href="ISSN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISSN (identifier)">ISSN</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1744-7143">1744-7143</a>. <a href="S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:203088993">203088993</a>.</cite></span>

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<li id="cite_note-Mader2014-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Mader2014_3-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Mader, M. B. (2014) Knowledge. Ur Lawlor, L. (red.) & Nale, J. (red.) <i>The Cambridge Foucault Lexicon</i> (s. 226-236). Cambridge University Press, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-0-521-11921-4</bdi></span>

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<li id="cite_note-Taylor2011intro-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-Taylor2011intro_4-0">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Taylor, D. (2011) Introduction: Power, freedom and subjectivity. Ur Taylor, D. (red.) <i>Michel Foucault: Key Concepts</i> (s. 1-9). Acumen Publishing Ltd., <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>978-1-84465-234-1</bdi></span>

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<li id="cite_note-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-5">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><cite id="CITEREFLash,_Scott.2002" class="citation book cs1">Lash, Scott. (2002). <i>Critique of information</i>. London: SAGE. <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>9781847876522</bdi>. <a href="OCLC_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="OCLC (identifier)">OCLC</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/654641948">654641948</a>.</cite></span>

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