Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Where there is power, there is resistance.”
Michel Foucault · Post-structuralism · Modern · 1976
What does it mean?
Where there is power, there is resistance. Power relations do not close the field. They produce points where people push back. Resistance is not a pure outside, and not a single revolution waiting in the wings. It is plural and local, inside the network. A rival reading hears comfort: power is fine because people resist, so domination is already answered. He is describing how power operates, not issuing a pardon. Domination can be heavy while resistance exists. Another reading wants resistance to stand wholly outside power, the pure opposition he says the picture cannot have.
Did Michel Foucault really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of a sentence in The Will to Knowledge. He adds that resistance is not outside power, as if power had an exterior. Resistances are in the network. The short sentence alone is easy to sentimentalise.
Where it comes from
The History of Sexuality, volume 1
Approximate date: 1976.
How to use it
Look for the small refusal inside a rule, a rota, a benefits interview in Manchester, not only for the grand opposition outside it. He thinks that is where resistance actually lives. The small refusal can also be absorbed. Presence is not victory. The sentence does not say it is.
A mindset reading
Volume 1 of The History of Sexuality rethinks power as productive and relational, against a picture of power as only a law that says no. Sexuality is the historical case. The sentence is a hinge in that rethinking, not a slogan of hope.
Understand the philosophy
The English is the familiar translation of a sentence in The Will to Knowledge. Resistances, plural, are the point he adds. Dropping the plural is how the line becomes a poster about the human spirit.
- power
- freedom
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
Where there is power, there is resistance. Power relations do not close the field. They produce points where people push back. Resistance is not a pure outside, and not a single revolution waiting in the wings. It is plural and local, inside the network. A rival reading hears comfort: power is fine because people resist, so domination is already answered. He is describing how power operates, not issuing a pardon. Domination can be heavy while resistance exists. Another reading wants resistance to stand wholly outside power, the pure opposition he says the picture cannot have.
Did Michel Foucault really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Standard English of a sentence in The Will to Knowledge. He adds that resistance is not outside power, as if power had an exterior. Resistances are in the network. The short sentence alone is easy to sentimentalise.
Which work is it in?
The History of Sexuality, volume 1 Approximate date: 1976.