Running head: FOUCAULTIAN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AS THE IDEOLOGICAL UNDERPINNING OF JAMES FERGUSON’S ‘THE ANTI POLITICS MACHINE’ Foucaultian Discourse Analysis as the Ideological Underpinning of James Ferguson’s ‘The Anti Politics Machine’ August 07, 2009 Foucaultian Discourse Analysis as the Ideological Underpinning of James Ferguson’s ‘The Anti Politics Machine’ Introduction In The Anti Politics Machine James Ferguson provides a brilliant critique of the conventional development theory. The authors logical thinking is based on Foucaultian theory according to which the ideas are not merely innocent abstractions but something that has a real social effect. Fergusons monograph is quite impressive, as, focusing on development discourse and institution the author encourages a healthy debate concerning the concrete functioning and the meaning of something that is called a dominant discourse, value and practice that has a decisive impact on our understanding of the world, shaping our perceptions. Basing on Ferguson’s ‘the Anti Politics Machine- Development, Depolitisation and Beurocratic Power in Lesotho’ the research paper provides thorough explanation how Foucaultian Discourse analysis lays the ideological cornerstone for much of Ferguson’s argument. The research paper dwells on the main concepts of Foucaultian discourse analysis, explains how Ferguson utilises it as a theoretical base from which his theory that development discourse precedes and is directly consequential of depolitisation or the ‘anti politics movement in Lesotho and finally, by critiquing Foucaultian discourse analysis and detailing its theoretical weak points, questions and argues whether these same theoretical weaknesses affect Ferguson’s argument. Foucaultian Discourse analysis Foucaults fundamental concern was the questioning of discursive assumptions.
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This article investigates the unfamiliar political implications of silence. Generally regarded as simply a lack of speech imposed upon the powerless, silence is thereby positioned as inimical to politics. In a normatively constituted lingual politics, silence’s role can never be more than that of absence. The subsequent understanding that silence can operate as resistance to domination has opened ...
In his theory, he challenged individual reason and will trying to show how every utterance was an utterance within a specific discourse to which specific rules of acceptability could be applied. Foucault challenges knowledge as a neutral speech position as he wanted to prove that the social services and humanities are inseparable from moralising projects. Foucault considered that social services and humanities did not elucidate the world but rather establishes regimes of truth and knowledge regulating the individuals approach to themselves, to the surroundings and to each other. Foucault had two main theoretical insights concerning discourse: a constitutive view of discourse (according to which the discourse was something that was actively constructing or constituting the society on different dimensions, such as social objects, the objects of knowledge, forms of self, conceptual frameworks, social relationships, etc.) and an emphasis on the interdependency of discourse practices of an institution or a society (the intertextuality of texts) (Stubbs, 1983).
According to Foucault, any given type of discourse practice was generated out of a number of others, and was defined by its relationship to others. According to Foucault, discourse analysis relates to the analysis of statements, which is one of numerous ways of analyzing verbal performances. Foucaultian Discourse analysis focuses not only on indicating what sentences are grammatical or possible, but also with identifying sociohistorically variable discursive formations (also known as discourses), or the systems of rules that make possible for specific statements to take place at specific times, institutional locations and particular places (McDonell, 1986).
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It was in his book Discipline and Punishment that Foucault outlines his theory that modern society was a disciplinary society. Here he described the disappearance of punishment as a public and violent spectacle which emphasized the infliction of pain to the body, to the emergence of surveillance of the soul which grew up around the development of the modern prison system.During the years 1760 to ...
Foucault considered that a discursive formation comprises of rules of formation concerning specific set of statements belonging to it, the rules for the formation of subject positions, enunciative modalities, the rules for the formation of the objects, the rules for the formation of strategies and the rules for the formation of concepts. According to Foucault, these rules of formation are formed by conbinations of non-discursive and prior discursive elements, and the process of identifying these elements makes discourse social practice (Escobar, 1994).
In turn, the objects of discourse are transformed and constituted in discourse in compliance with the rules of specific discourse formation.
According to Foucault, discourse has the following characteristics: The constitutive nature of discourse (discourse constitutes the social (including social subjects and objects); The discursive nature of power (the techniques and practices of modern biopower are to a great extent discursive); The primacy of intertextuality and interdiscursivity (any discursive practice can be drawn upon others in complex ways and it identified by its relation with others); The political nature of discourse (power struggle takes place both in and over discourse).
Foucault wanted to show how any discourse implies excluding procedures that in turn, not only exclude arguments, themes, speech positions, etc from the discourse but also create outsiders, as it denounces groups of people as irrational, abnormal or sick, and at the same time, grant other groups of people the legitimacy and right to treat these outsiders (e.g., by therapy, imprisonment, etc.) Foucault wanted to show that power in modern society by no means can be pinpointed, and, therefore, isolated and separated from public welfare institutions such as hospitals, schools, etc or social sciences, to mention a few. Foucault argued that the power is ubiquitous as a productive factor. According to Foucault, power is in the individuals approach to things as far as the objects individuals relate to are always discursive objects that are produced by and in discourse. Power is also present in the individuals approach to themselves, as far as, for example, the individuals self-relation is also a product of power. Finally, Foucault considers that the power is present in the individuals approach to others, as far as, for example, mad people, or criminals are not in and of themselves mad or criminal (Stubbs, 1983).
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In order to be accepted into a discourse community, a person must learn typical ways people in that community communicate and argue. In this paper I will prove that I entered the discourse community of my high school soccer team by acquiring knowledge, establishing my credibility, and learning the game I love. In other words, I will be using the ethos, logos, and pathos appeals. I love to play ...
Conversely, madness or criminality are also discursive positions that are established with the intention to control. James Ferguson’s ‘The Anti Politics Machine’ and Foucaultian Discourse analysis In his ‘The Anti Politics Machine James Ferguson is obviously greatly influenced by Foucaultian discourse analysis and the permeation of power through non-political institutions. Ferguson is focused on the machinery of development rather than on the target population. By utilizing Foucaultian discourse analysis Ferguson has almost no illusions concerning the primacy of discourse over structural and material factors. In Fergusons ‘he Anti Politics Machine thought and discourse are articulated […] with other practices, but there is no reason to regard them as master practices, overdetermining all others. […] The whole mechanism of development is […] a mushy mixture of the discursive and non-discursive […] Systems of discourse and systems of thought are thus bound up in a complex causal relationship with the stream of planned and unplanned events that constitutes the social world.
(Ferguson 1994:275-276).
In his The Anti Politics Machine Ferguson dwells on how insightful the new approach can be if the ideological and more constricted aspects of the poststructuralist philosophy would be able to give way to a versatile and open pragmatism. Ferguson dwells on depolitising of the developmental processes. He argues that the developmental apparatus was specifically created to develop Lesotho (a land-locked country with hundreds of developmental programmes from 26 countries and few significant resources) in compliance with the programmes objectives and indicators, but instead the apparatus took on the life of its own by ignoring traditional culture and politics and assuming that economy could be the only factor of change. Ferguson claims that his work rests upon the anthropological methods and in his work he uses a decentred approach based on the concept of Foucaultian discourse analysis. He reviews both dependency and modernization approaches. According to Ferguson, both approaches allow that some possible change in economic relations (either it will be for bad or for good) are the main reasons for development programmes. Yet, he admits that most programmes in Lesotho never result in significant changes.
The Research paper on Discourse Analysis Mini Research
This chapter presents an introduction consisting of background of study, problems of study, objective of the study, and significance of the study. 1.1 Background of the Study Language has a social function as a tool to make connection between human beings. Without language, it seems impossible for people to interact with others in their daily life because language can express people’s feeling, ...
Both these approaches assume that the ideas of those who plan changes and their critics are related to a some sort of intentionality (for example, the development of capitalism); yet, he also claims that the development apparatus is more complex. According to him, policies and plans can have unintended effects and even if developmental programmes turn out to be false consciousness, they will still have a significant impact on development planners (Forsyth, 2004).
Ferguson takes the developmental apparatus as its object of study. Dwelling on unintended effects, he considers that unintended effects of the vast majority of development programmes are to transform political questions into managerial, technical ones, the so-called anti politics machine, while the unintended impacts of the CIDA sponsored programmes can reveal the hidden effects of power. While examining Fergusons The Anti Political Machine it appears that theoretical weaknesses of the Foucaultian discourse analysis has no significant impact on Fergusons argument. Foucaultian discourse analysis is mostly criticized for its relative difficulty to getting to grips with it, as there is no specific prescription concerning how the analysis should be done (Van Dijk, 1985).
Yet, Ferguson utilizes Foucaultian discourse analysis as yet another research tool and by looking critically at his work ahnd making transparent its underpinning assumption he avoids theoretical weaknesses of Foucaults analysis. It is very unlikely that Ferguson applied Foucaultian discourse analysis in some form of social or political manipulation, using his position as an expert in shaping the audiences experience.
Another charge against those utilizing Foucaultian discourse analysis in their works is their political and strategic choice concerning which texts or objects to analyse (McDonell, 1986).
The Research paper on Case Analysis Massey Ferguson
Massey Ferguson Limited an International producer of Farm machinery and diesel engine started its operations way back in 1847 and by the end of 19th century they had operations throughout 31 countries of the world. In 1978 Company had financial loss of US. $262.2 million . Massey’s Strategies: 1) Product-Market Strategy: Massey’s product line consisted of tractors, combine harvesters, balers, ...
It is also very unlikely that Ferguson held a priori assumptions in his The Anti Political Machine to encourage specific interpretation of his work, thus leading to creation of completely different ideology. In such a way, theoretical weaknesses of the Foucaultian discourse analysis had no significant influence on Fergusons The Anti Political Machine. Bibliography Escobar, A. (1994).
Encountering Development. Princeton University Press.
Ferguson, J. (1994).
The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. University of Minnesota Press. Forsyth, T. (2004).
Encyclopedia of international development.
Routledge. McDonell, D. (1986).
Theories of Discourse: An Introduction. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Stubbs, M. (1983).
Discourse Analysis: The Sociolinguistic Analysis of Natural Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Van Dijk, T. (1985).
Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: Academic..
