"Taming the wild profusion of existing Things"? A study of foucault, power, and human/animal relationships

Environmental Ethics

Volumn 23, Issue 4, 2001, Pages 339-358

  Palmer, Clare ^a  

^a LANCASTER UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0013128356     PISSN: 01634275     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5840/enviroethics20012342     Document Type: Article

References (69)

1. See Alastair S. Gunn, "Rethinking Communities: Environmental Ethics in an Urbanized World," Environmental Ethics 20 (1998): 341-60; Roger J. H. King, "Environmental Ethics and the Built Environment," Environmental Ethics 22 (2000): 115-31.
2. See Alastair S. Gunn, "Rethinking Communities: Environmental Ethics in an Urbanized World," Environmental Ethics 20 (1998): 341-60; Roger J. H. King, "Environmental Ethics and the Built Environment," Environmental Ethics 22 (2000): 115-31.
3. See for instance. Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (London: Jonathan Cape, 1976) and Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (London: Routledge, 1984). Although their approach differs somewhat from mine, the essays of J. Baird Callicott and Mary Midgley in Eugene C. Hargrove, ed., The Animal Rights/Environmental Ethics Debate (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992) are examples of two philosophers who have developed more nuanced approaches to thinking philosophically about animals.
4. See for instance. Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (London: Jonathan Cape, 1976) and Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (London: Routledge, 1984). Although their approach differs somewhat from mine, the essays of J. Baird Callicott and Mary Midgley in Eugene C. Hargrove, ed., The Animal Rights/Environmental Ethics Debate (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992) are examples of two philosophers who have developed more nuanced approaches to thinking philosophically about animals.
5. See for instance. Peter Singer, Animal Liberation (London: Jonathan Cape, 1976) and Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights (London: Routledge, 1984). Although their approach differs somewhat from mine, the essays of J. Baird Callicott and Mary Midgley in Eugene C. Hargrove, ed., The Animal Rights/Environmental Ethics Debate (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992) are examples of two philosophers who have developed more nuanced approaches to thinking philosophically about animals.
6. Linzey Clarke and Tom Regan in Political Theory and Animal Rights (London: Pluto Press, 1990) include a number of extracts on animals in political theory very broadly construed; but very little of this material is specifically related to power, and even less is of modern origin.
7. See, for instance, Amy Peace, "Governing the Environment: The Programs and Politics of Environmental Discourse," in Clare O'Farrell, ed., The Foucault Legacy (Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology Press, 1997) and Alberto Melucci, Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989).
8. See, for instance, Amy Peace, "Governing the Environment: The Programs and Politics of Environmental Discourse," in Clare O'Farrell, ed., The Foucault Legacy (Brisbane: Queensland University of Technology Press, 1997) and Alberto Melucci, Nomads of the Present: Social Movements and Individual Needs in Contemporary Society (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989).
9. See, for instance, Isaac Balbus, "Disciplining Women," in Jonathan Arac, ed., After Foucault: Humanistic Knowledge, Postmodern Challenges (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988), p. 150, and Sandra Bartky, "Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Partriarchal Power," in Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby, Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), p. xvi.
10. See, for instance, Isaac Balbus, "Disciplining Women," in Jonathan Arac, ed., After Foucault: Humanistic Knowledge, Postmodern Challenges (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988), p. 150, and Sandra Bartky, "Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Partriarchal Power," in Irene Diamond and Lee Quinby, Feminism and Foucault: Reflections on Resistance (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1988), p. xvi.
11. See Edward Said, "Michel Foucault, 1926-1984," in Arac, After Foucault, p. 20.
12. Eric Darier, Discourses of the Environment (London: Sage, 1998), p. 6.
13. See for instance Bartky, "Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization"; Jana Sawicki, "Feminism and the Power of Foucauldian Discourse," in Arac, After Foucault, pp. 161-77; Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1989).
14. See for instance Bartky, "Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization"; Jana Sawicki, "Feminism and the Power of Foucauldian Discourse," in Arac, After Foucault, pp. 161-77; Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1989).
15. See for instance Bartky, "Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization"; Jana Sawicki, "Feminism and the Power of Foucauldian Discourse," in Arac, After Foucault, pp. 161-77; Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1989).
16. Edward Said, Orientalism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979).
17. Darier, Discourses; Josef Keulartz, Josef The Struggle for Nature (London: Routledge, 1998).
18. Darier, Discourses; Josef Keulartz, Josef The Struggle for Nature (London: Routledge, 1998).
19. Some Foucaldian work exists: see David Macauley, "Bewildering Order," in Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., The Ecological Community (London: Routledge, 1997); Kay Anderson, "Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of 'Human' Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 275-94 and "A Critical Geography of Domestication," Progress in Human Geography 21, no. 4 (1998): 463-85; Jennifer Ham, "Taming the Beast: Animality in Wedekind and Nietzsche," in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior, eds., Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History (London: Routledge, 1998); Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000).
20. Some Foucaldian work exists: see David Macauley, "Bewildering Order," in Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., The Ecological Community (London: Routledge, 1997); Kay Anderson, "Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of 'Human' Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 275-94 and "A Critical Geography of Domestication," Progress in Human Geography 21, no. 4 (1998): 463-85; Jennifer Ham, "Taming the Beast: Animality in Wedekind and Nietzsche," in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior, eds., Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History (London: Routledge, 1998); Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000).
21. Some Foucaldian work exists: see David Macauley, "Bewildering Order," in Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., The Ecological Community (London: Routledge, 1997); Kay Anderson, "Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of 'Human' Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 275-94 and "A Critical Geography of Domestication," Progress in Human Geography 21, no. 4 (1998): 463-85; Jennifer Ham, "Taming the Beast: Animality in Wedekind and Nietzsche," in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior, eds., Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History (London: Routledge, 1998); Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000).
22. Some Foucaldian work exists: see David Macauley, "Bewildering Order," in Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., The Ecological Community (London: Routledge, 1997); Kay Anderson, "Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of 'Human' Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 275-94 and "A Critical Geography of Domestication," Progress in Human Geography 21, no. 4 (1998): 463-85; Jennifer Ham, "Taming the Beast: Animality in Wedekind and Nietzsche," in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior, eds., Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History (London: Routledge, 1998); Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000).
23. Some Foucaldian work exists: see David Macauley, "Bewildering Order," in Roger S. Gottlieb, ed., The Ecological Community (London: Routledge, 1997); Kay Anderson, "Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of 'Human' Geography," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 20 (1995): 275-94 and "A Critical Geography of Domestication," Progress in Human Geography 21, no. 4 (1998): 463-85; Jennifer Ham, "Taming the Beast: Animality in Wedekind and Nietzsche," in Jennifer Ham and Matthew Senior, eds., Animal Acts: Configuring the Human in Western History (London: Routledge, 1998); Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000).
24. Stephen Lukes, ed., Power (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986).
25. Robert Dahl, "On Power," in Lukes, Power, p. 40.
26. Bertrand Russell, "The Forms of Power," in Lukes, Power, p. 20.
27. Sawicki, "Feminism and the Power of Foucauldian Discourse," p. 164.
28. Foucault makes this distinction in several places, although in slightly different terms. See Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Hubert L. Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 221; and Michel Foucault, "The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom," in James Bernauer and David Rasmussen, eds., The Final Foucault (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988), p. 3.
29. Foucault makes this distinction in several places, although in slightly different terms. See Michel Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Hubert L. Dreyfus and Paul Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 221; and Michel Foucault, "The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom," in James Bernauer and David Rasmussen, eds., The Final Foucault (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1988), p. 3.
30. Michel Foucault, "Two Lectures," in Michel Foucault, Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, ed. Colin Gordon (Brighton: Harvester Press, 1980), p. 99.
31. Ibid., p. 93.
32. Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 184.
33. Foucault, "Two Lectures" and "The Confession of the Flesh," both in Foucault, Power/ Knowledge, pp. 97, 197; and Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 224.
34. Foucault, "Two Lectures" and "The Confession of the Flesh," both in Foucault, Power/ Knowledge, pp. 97, 197; and Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 224.
35. Foucault, 'The Subject and Power," in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 211.
36. See, for instance, Nancy Hartsock, "Foucault on Power: A Theory for Women?" in Linda Nicholson, Feminism/Postmodernism (London: Routledge 1990), p. 169.
37. This characterization of power may be a distinctively modern one - in earlier eras, for instance, Foucault argues that power was exercised primarily by the monarch (e.g., in the public spectacle of execution). This is not to say, presumably, that one could not have analyzed some social practices during these earlier periods by using Foucault's instruments/tools.
38. Foucault, "Prison Talk," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 54.
39. Foucault, "Questions on Geography," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 65.
40. Fraser, Unruly Practices, p. 26; Foucault, "Prison Talk," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 37.
41. Fraser, Unruly Practices, p. 26; Foucault, "Prison Talk," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 37.
42. George Myerson and Yvonne Rydin, The Language of Environment: A New Rhetoric (London: UCL Press, 1997), p. 1.
43. Sheldon Wolin, "On the Theory and Practice of Power," in Arac, After Foucault, p. 181.
44. Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 217 (emphasis added).
45. One might, of course, want to question Foucault's own "dividing practice" here between capacities and power relations; by doing so (and being "less faithful" to Foucault, one would not need to follow the kind of argument trajectory I take).
46. Michel Foucault, "Governmentality," in Graham Burehell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller, eds., The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (Sussex: Harvester, 1991), p. 220.
47. Barry Hindess, Discourses of Power: From Hobbes to Foucault (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 151.
48. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990), pp. 66-67.
49. Ibid.
50. Foucault, "The History of Sexuality," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 186.
51. Foucault, "The Subject and Power," in Dreyfus and Rabinow, Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, p. 221.
52. There may be, however, metaphorical or poetic ways of talking about plants resisting.
53. If we follow this line of argument, it is worth noting that we should not assume these relationships to be all one way (the humans as having power; the animals as reactive) because animal behaviors can, of course, affect human behaviors; humans may interiorize elements of their relationships with animals and change their behavior accordingly; and humans may have many and unpredictable reactions to animal behaviors.
54. Chris Philo, "Animals, Geography and the City," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13 (1995): 655-81. He offers other reasons too: partly because questions are raised as to whether "it is appropriate to conceive of transgression or resistance occurring in a situation where the parties involved . . . seemingly cannot even begin to share the same systems of (political) meaning"; and partly because the use of such language risks being anthropocentric (by reading inappropriate concepts into the nonhuman world).
55. "An Introduction," in Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert, eds., Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of Human-Animal Relations (London: Routledge, 2000), p. 13.
56. Chris Wilbert, "Anti-This, Against-That: Resistances along a Human-Non-Human Axis," in Joanne Sharp et al., eds., Entanglements of Power: Geographies of Domination/Resistance (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 238-54. Tim Ingold, in "What is an Animal?" in Tim Ingold, ed., What is an Animal? (London: Unwin Hyman, 1994), argues that animals can be autonomous agents and can "act back" in response to human behaviors toward them; they are on occasion able to anticipate or predict human behavior and act in the light of this anticipation.
57. Chris Wilbert, "Anti-This, Against-That: Resistances along a Human-Non-Human Axis," in Joanne Sharp et al., eds., Entanglements of Power: Geographies of Domination/Resistance (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 238-54. Tim Ingold, in "What is an Animal?" in Tim Ingold, ed., What is an Animal? (London: Unwin Hyman, 1994), argues that animals can be autonomous agents and can "act back" in response to human behaviors toward them; they are on occasion able to anticipate or predict human behavior and act in the light of this anticipation.
58. Paul Patton, "Taylor and Foucault on Power and Freedom," Political Studies 37 (1989): 271. In one of his more puzzling later comments on power, Foucault does insist that power is intentional - but that it is also non-subjective; however, there is not enough space to discuss this issue further here.
59. Yet, this comparison raises the problem of pastorality: that idea that such regimes are acting for the common good. Where animals are concerned, whilst some regimes may putatively at least operate for the good of the animal population (such as for instance, programs of vaccination or sterilization), most (such as in agriculture or the experimental laboratory) work for the good of the human population rather than the animal population. So it is hard for such regimes to describe themselves as pastoral from the perspective of animals (though there have doubtless been some attempts to do so).
60. Foucault, "Two Lectures," in Foucault, Power/Knowledge, p. 99.
61. Some work already exists on power relations involved in particular discourses about animals, particularly classificatory discourses; see for instance Harriet Ritvo's The Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987) - although Ritvo does not explicitly mention Foucault.
62. Alec McHoul and Wendy Grace, A Foucault Primer: Discourse, Power and the Subject (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1993), p. 77.
63. Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1979), p. 178.
64. See, for instance, Foucault's own work on the displaying of mad-like animals in menageries in Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason (New York: Vintage, 1973) and Kay Anderson's suggestion ("Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo") that the project of "domesticating" savage natives was modelled on the project of domesticating animals.
65. See Paul Taylor's idea of "deception with intent to harm," in Paul Taylor, Respect for Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).
66. Michel Foucault, "Space, Knowledge and Power," in Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader (Harmondsworth: Penguin 1984), p. 253.
67. Terminology drawn from Elizabeth Grosz, Space, Time and Perversion (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 38.
68. See, for instance, Paul Rutherford, "Policing Nature: Ecology, Natural Science and Biopolitics," in O'Farrell, ed., Foucault: The Legacy.
69. See, for example, papers in Karen Warren, ed., Ecological Feminism (London: Routledge, 1994).