Power and Resistance: Linking Gramsci and Foucault

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of the Michel Foucault's theory of power and of the work of several commentators who have argued that Foucault makes resistance either impossible or pointless. It examines whether an affirmative reading of Foucault's theory of power is possible. The chapter argues that while affirmative interpretations of Foucault are correct in maintaining that Foucault's theory of power can be read in ways that promote resistance. It explains Antonio Gramsci's theory of hegemony and point out some of the important similarities and differences between it and Foucault's theory of power. The similarities between their theories will help to establish how Gramsci's theory of resistance might be adapted in order to respond to the forms of power Foucault describes. The chapter shows that Gramsci's theory of the political party raises potential solutions to the limitations of Foucauldian theories of resistance by recasting the agent of resistance as a collective, rather than an individual.