Discuss how Foucault's concepts of power,discourse,and discipline lead to the process of normalization,and discuss the consequences of this process.

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The Answer is According to Foucault,power is not a thing possessed by one individual over another.Rather,he views power relations as being created within social relationships.As such,power relationships are multidirectional,can be found everywhere,and are always at work.Power relations,then,can produce particular forms of behaviour.Power is also linked with knowledge.Truths and facts come together in systems that Foucault refers to as discourses,which guide how we think,act,and speak about a particular thing or issue,as well as determine who is authorized to speak.Moreover,discourses not only tell us what the world is,but also what the world ought to be like.Foucault uses the term discipline to mean how we come to be motivated to produce these particular realities.Power operates by producing some behaviours while discouraging others.Such disciplinary power is exemplified by the normalizing judgment-a type of internalized (self-policing)coercion that divides,classifies,and controls through regulation.The consequences of this process is that power,discourse,and discipline together create normalization,a social process by which some practices and ways of living are marked as "normal" and others are marked as "abnormal".Normalization,then,is a method of standardizing,of creating the standards by which we live in our society.Those that are considered abnormal,or live by different standards,find themselves having to resist these structures of power.

Discuss How Foucault's Concepts of Power,discourse,and Discipline Lead to the Process