Foucault on Power, Law, and Society - A Reappraisal

This book offers a detailed analysis and reappraisal of Michel Foucault's work on power, law, and society.
Highlighting the ambiguities, tensions, inconsistencies, and transformations in Foucault's work, the book shows how, in Foucault's later years, his ideas gradually converged toward a conception of power that was significantly different from the one that emerges from the works and courses of the mid-1970s, and which came to provide the mainstream understanding of his thought. From the vantage point of this later conception, the book is then able to reframe the tensions and inconsistencies in Foucault's thought as parts of a multiplex but coherent conceptual system. Foucault's theses on the development of techniques of power since the 18th century, and on the impact of these developments affected the structure of modern law, are then reformulated to offer a more comprehensive and more balanced appraisal of their contemporary significance.
Foucault on Power, Law and Society will appeal to theorists in law, philosophy, and political science, as well as others with interests in the perpetually influential work of Michel Foucault on power and subjectivity.

List of contents

Part I
1. Introduction: Reappraising Foucault on Power
2. A Concept of Power
3. A Conception of Power
4. The Structuring of Power
5. The Deciphering of Power
6. Power, Subjection, and Freedom
Part II
7. Directive Power
8. Disciplinary Power
9. Governmentalist Power
10. The Age of Power
11. Power and Law
12.Conclusion: Foucault on Power-Reappraised

About the author

Marco Brigaglia, Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Palermo, Italy.

Product details

• Authors: Marco Brigaglia
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 24.02.2026
• EAN: 9781032659596
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3265959-6
• No. of pages: 350
• Series: Law and Politics
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: antiquity to present day; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > General, dictionaries; Cultural Studies, PHILOSOPHY / Political, LAW / Judicial Power, Political science & theory, Political science and theory, Deconstructionism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism, Structuralism and Post-structuralism, Jurisprudence & Philosophy Of Law, Methods, theory and philosophy of law, Power;Law and Society;Michel Foucault