Method as Ruse: Foucault and Research Method

Abstract

, ari~, th.e existe?ce of a? independent reality provides a point of comparison and ar~Jlr?tlon against. which contradictory statements about the reality can be adJudicated. By uSlDg ~e .appropriate procedures, one should be able to develo and rcfi~e laws of ~s~latlonand causal laws which are isomorphic with realit/ While the reahst vle~ of social scien~e posits a distance between the knowe~ an~ the k.nown, .Foucau.lts (1979) analySIS of the application of discipline in the prison revcals Immediately that the neutral. objective relation between the k?ower ?nd the kno~n assumed by the realist model rests on devices such as hlerarc~lc~1 .observatlon, the panoptican, and the examination. The neutrality and objectIVity assumed is created by these asymmetric devices Thus th not neutC?1. .S!mi~arl~, Emerson (1988) exposes this use of pc;wer reiati:~sa: creatc objecll~lty m hIS analysis of the emergence of self-consciousness in field w~rk. Colomal regim~ in which much early field work was conducted was budt on the power relatIOn between the colonial rulers and the native population The power ?~ the ruler guaranteed access to and cooperation from the natives: Thus, co~dlllons could be manipulated to test hypotheses. The power and cultu~1 differences be~ween the colonial researcher and the natives provided the exteno~, detached. sU~Jc:cts necessalj' for the construction of the appearance of n~utrahty a?d objectIVIty. Yet, thiS again. is hardly a neutral situation In a I dlff~rent velD, Dunc~n (I ~84) notes that most methods of measurement' in the \ reah~t model of sOC:lal sCience have their social roots in methods of voting ! levYI~g taxes, va!ulDg goods, labeling social ranks, bestowing honors, and r drawlDg lots. ~galD, al! ?f.these are rooted in nonneutral. asymmetric relations. r .. A second hne of cn~lcls~ of the.realist model can be drawn from Foucault's) crluque of the foundauonahst notIon of an independent. knowable reality.