Foucault and the Politics of Resistance

It is impossible to comprehend Michel Foucault's politics without fully understanding his concept of resistance. It was developed in three distinct stages, beginning with a focus on difference in the 1960s, passing through an emphasis on revolutionary agitation in the years 1970s, and finally developing into a broader notion of diffuse, localized resistance to power in his later work. Contrary to the claims of those who assert that Foucault's notion of a ubiquitous and insidious power paralyzes, his notion of resistance supports a wide range of political action. The problem with his politics is elsewhere: his refusal to define any limits to resistance means endorsing all forms of opposition without regard to their form or consequences.