Relations of power in Michel Foucault: Theoretical reflections

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical essay based on reflections about the relations of power in some of Michel Foucault's works. The authors examined the context of Foucault's life and the different forms of power, bypassing the forms of force and discipline. The methodological procedure consisted of a bibliographic research of the events considered by the author in their time, history and space. Given Foucault's triangle (power - right - truth) and the passages in which he refers to the state apparatus, this article compares the society triad (state - market - civil society) to Foucault's triangle. The article shows that power can be found everywhere, causing actions that sometimes are in the field of law or in the field of truth. Power must be understood as a floating relationship, not the privilege of one institution or person, while knowledge is found in a relationship of form and content.