The Network on/of Power Relationships: What Can Be Seen through Michel Foucault’s Lens?
The Network on/of Power Relationships: What Can Be Seen through Michel Foucault’s Lens?

Summary/Abstract: The objective of this paper is to examine two issues related both to Michel Foucault’s philosophy of power and to Sidney Lumet’s movie, Network; here interpreted through Foucauldian categories. The first problem concerns answering the question about the integrity of Foucault’s oeuvre on power. The second one refers to the tension between two individualizing strategies: first, individualization by power, and second, the autonomous creation of self-identity by the use of the technologies of the self, present within the context of the philosopher’s debate over power. We use Network as a framework for developing our argumentative line in both discussions. “From Foucault to Network” is not the only interpretative direction adopted in this paper. What we would like to achieve is to make of the article itself a kind of network where the conclusions we arrive at after having watched the film help us to better understand the philosopher’s theory; thus, the direction “from Network to Foucault” is justified as well.

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