.Power and Urban Space: Exploring the concepts of Dispositif and Abject

Subject Areas : Urban Sociological Studies

Sajjad Mesgarzadeh ¹ , Hosein Banifatemeh ²

1 - Department of Law and Social Science, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
2 - Department of Sociology, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran (corresponding Author)

Received: 2021-03-07 Accepted : 2021-03-07 Published : 2020-08-22

Keywords: Power, Space, city, dispositif, abject,

Abstract :

. Power is a spatial phenomenon. Therefore, power must be constantly analyzed in relation to a particular place and to its changes over time. The city is an accessible and important space to explore the relationship between space and power. Cities have been important places for the study of political power since the second half of the twentieth century because both explicitly and implicitly, they reflect the establishment of a broad social and political order. Foucault was one of the first scholars to consider cities, as of the beginning of the 17th century, as a place of control and adaptation. In Foucault's analysis, space is a mediator and technique of power, and urban planning and architecture are considered as a normalizing device that produces a disciplinary space for the purposeful regulation of daily life. To illustrate this mediating role, Foucault introduces the concept of Dispositif. This article, first explored the concepts of Dispositif in order to show how power and its factors exert pressure within and through the spaces in which they are settled. Then, in order to provide a complete picture of the relationship between power and urban space, the concept of Abject is examined. This concept completes Foucault's disciplinary approach, especially in explaining the existence and stabilization of the marginal and poor spaces of cities. Through an examination of Kristev’s views on the concept Abject,  this article  intends to show that something beyond disciplinary power is involved in shaping the body and space.

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