Power-knowledge
In
The relationship between power and knowledge has been always a central theme in the social sciences.[2]
Foucault's conception
Foucault was an
Foucault incorporated mutuality into his neologism power-knowledge, the most important part of which is the hyphen that links the two aspects of the integrated concept together (and alludes to their inherent inextricability).
In his later works, Foucault suggests that power-knowledge was later replaced in the modern world, with the term governmentality which points to a specific mentality of governance.
Subsequent developments
While in most of the 20th century the term ‘knowledge’ has been closely associated with power, in the last decades ‘information’ has become a central term as well.[5] With the growing use of big-data, information is increasingly seen as the means to generate useful knowledge and power.
One of the recently developed model, known as the
According to this understanding, knowledge is never neutral, as it determines force relations. The notion of power-knowledge is therefore likely to be employed in critical, normative contexts. One example of the implications of power-knowledge is Google’s monopoly of knowledge, its PageRank algorithm, and its inevitable commercial and cultural biases around the world, which are based on the volume and control principles. A recent study shows, for example, the commercial implications of Google Images algorithm, as all search results for the term 'beauty' in different languages predominantly yield images of young white women.[2]
See also
- Knowledge is power
References
- )
- ^ S2CID 203088993.
- ISBN 978-0-521-11921-4
- ISBN 978-1-84465-234-1
- OCLC 654641948.