Dispositive
As a dispositive (from French dispositif , measure, device, plan of action; in international law: position paper of an institution) one understands in sociology , following Michel Foucault, a totality of certain conceptually comprehensible preliminary decisions within which the discourses and social interactions can unfold which are expressed in pragmatically relevant aspects of the recording, description and design of the living environment of a society.
“What I am trying to pin down under [… disposition] is firstly a decidedly heterogeneous ensemble that encompasses discourses, institutions, architectural facilities, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral or philanthropic tenets, in short: what is said as well as what is not said includes. So much for the elements of the dispositive. The dispositive itself is the network that can be linked between these elements. Secondly, with the dispositive I would like to make the nature of the connection clear [...] In short, between these elements, whether discursive or not, there is a game of position changes and functional changes [...] Third, I understand by dispositive a kind of - let's say - Formation whose main function at any given historical point in time was to respond to a state of emergency ( urgence ). The dispositive thus has a predominantly strategic function. "
Foucault developed the term in the context of his discourse analysis , comparable to the concept of a historical a priori . The basic assumption is that behavior, in order to be perceived as a social act , must comply with the rules of the dispositive, especially as negative or abnormal behavior.
He regards the historical facts enumerated by Foucault as “elements” of the overall dispositive, which represents a historical unit: Its validity is limited in space and time and is linked to the fact that its rules are followed and its institutions are used. Individual elements can also be part of several dispositive and be inherited by a new dispositive, because "The dispositive is the network that is linked between these elements." ( Foucault, Dispositive der Macht ) This network can be understood as a decision-making grid that the Generates and regulates the beliefs of the people involved in the sense of the sociology of knowledge .
Gilles Deleuze proposes an expanded concept of the dispositive that follows Foucault and that puts the dynamism and eventfulness within dispositive in the foreground.
Dispositive, discourse and reality
Foucault analyzed dispositifs primarily under the aspect of the distribution of power and in their role as instruments of domination, speaking in particular of the security dispositif and the sexuality dispositif . The decisive factor here is not which elements make up the dispositive, but how the elements determine the everyday discourses and practices that produce objects and social facts that either reproduce the old dispositive or produce a new one.
According to Foucault, discourses “systematically“ form ”the objects of which they speak or act. They provide beliefs according to which reality is shaped by transporting certain forms and contents of beliefs and problems from the past into the present with authority. Discourses fundamentally shape our thinking, feeling, willing and acting. The discourse not only classifies and evaluates the objects, but also decides what actually comes into question as an object, i.e. In other words, the reality that can be experienced can only be shown in discourse theory in forms that are valid in discourse. The dispositive represents the interweaving of the discursive elements, i. H. that which is considered thinkable and sayable at a certain time in a certain society, with social practices and objects that are important for these practices.
example
The idea of dispositifs can be explained using the example of archaeological artefacts : objects whose use and purpose are no longer known to us puzzles us. What was item X used for? Who could - and was allowed - to use it? How many times has the object been changed before it has reached its final shape? How many discursive practices had to be followed before an agreement was reached to design the subject in one way and not another? There was a time when it was evident - important or even essential for survival. Today he doesn't tell us anything anymore. Talking back then about its purpose, its involvement in a certain system of thought and the conception of the world is missing today - this discourse has died down. With him, the particular theory of man's position in the world, in the context of which the object was relevant, disappeared. That which has been forgotten and what we associate with it today, in its entirety, forms the dispositive X or an overall dispositive "archaeological artefacts".
literature
- Giorgio Agamben : What is a dispositive? Diaphanes-Verlag, Zurich / Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-03-734042-4 .
- Andrea D. Bührmann, Werner Schneider: From Discourse to Dispositive. An introduction to dispositive analysis. transcript-Verlag, Bielefeld 2008.
- Gilles Deleuze : What is a dispositive? In: François Ewald, Bernhard Waldenfels (ed.): Games of Truth. Michel Foucault's thinking. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1991, pp. 153-162.
- Michel Foucault : Dispositive of Power. About sexuality, knowledge and truth. Merve, Berlin 1978, ISBN 3-920986-96-2 . (New edition 2000)
- Michel Foucault: Archeology of Knowledge . 3rd edition, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1988.
- Tanja Gnosa: In the dispositive. On the reciprocal genesis of knowledge, power and media. Transcript, Bielefeld 2018, ISBN 978-3-8376-4591-0 .
- Carsten Lenk: The dispositive as a theoretical paradigm of media research. Considerations on an integrative history of use of broadcasting. In: Rundfunk und Geschichte , Issue 22 (1996), pp. 5–17.
- Siegfried Jäger: Dispositive. In: Marcus S. Kleiner (Ed.): Michel Foucault. An introduction to his thinking. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2001, pp. 72–89.
- Siegfried Jäger: Critical Discourse Analysis. An introduction. 2004, ISBN 3-89771-732-8 .
- Constanze Spieß, Lukasz Kumiega, Philipp Dreesen: Media discourse analysis . Discourses - dispositives - media - power. (= Theory and practice of discourse research. ) VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden o. J.
- Britta Hoffarth, Lukasz Kumiega, Joannah Caborn-Wengler Space-Education-Politics. Inquiring positioning of the dispositive concept. (= Theory and practice of discourse research. ) VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Wiesbaden 2011.
Web links
- Siegfried Jäger: Theoretical and methodological aspects of a critical discourse and dispositive analysis . September 25, 2006.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michel Foucault: Dispositive of power. About sexuality, knowledge and truth . Merve, Berlin, 1978 (new edition 2000), ISBN 3-920986-96-2 , p. 119 f
- ↑ Gilles Deleuze: What is a dispositive? In: François Ewald / Bernhard Waldenfels (ed.): Games of Truth. Michel Foucault's thinking. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1991, pp. 153-162
- ↑ Michel Foucault: Archeology of Knowledge, Frankfurt am Main 1981, p. 74