Foucault and the politics of rights

Abstract

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 allforms of opposition without regard to their form or consequences