Yes, you can absolutely say that “dispositif” (裝置) is a key concept—perhaps even the key word—of genealogical methodology, especially in the work of Michel Foucault, who developed genealogy into a mature critical practice.
Let’s unpack why dispositif is so central to genealogy:
1. What Is a Dispositif?
Foucault defines dispositif (translated as “apparatus” or “deployment”) as:
“A thoroughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical propositions, and moral norms… The dispositif is the network that can be established between these elements.”
(Foucault, “The Confession of the Flesh”)
In other words, a dispositif is:
• A web of discursive and non-discursive elements
• That produces, organizes, and manages power, knowledge, and subjectivity
• In response to a certain historical urgency or problematization
2. Why It’s Central to Genealogy
a. Genealogy studies how dispositifs emerge
• Genealogy doesn’t look for origins but for the formation of dispositifs: how particular networks of discourse, practices, institutions, and affects crystallize around problems (e.g. madness, sexuality, criminality, population).
• These are contingent, historically specific, and power-saturated formations.
b. Dispositif ≠ simple discourse
• Foucault’s genealogy isn’t discourse analysis alone—it’s about the relations between discourse and the material world (surveillance, institutions, architecture, bodily discipline, etc.)
• The dispositif is how power/knowledge gets materialized.
c. Dispositifs produce subjectivities
• They don’t just regulate behavior—they produce who we are allowed to be: mad/sane, normal/deviant, productive/unproductive.
• Thus genealogy studies the historical formation of subjectivity through dispositifs.
3. Examples of Dispositifs (Analyzable Through Genealogy)
|
Dispositif |
Historical Problem |
Subjectivity Produced |
|
Prison (in Discipline and Punish) |
Managing bodies, reforming criminals |
The “docile” and self-surveilling subject |
|
Sexuality (in The History of Sexuality) |
Regulating population, medicalizing desire |
The confessional, self-analyzing subject |
|
Madness (in Madness and Civilization) |
Separating reason from unreason |
The pathological subject |
|
Security (in Security, Territory, Population) |
Governing populations, risk management |
The subject of biopolitics |
4. Dispositif as Strategic
Foucault insists that the dispositif is always strategic—it responds to a particular urgency in a given time and place. This is crucial for genealogical critique:
A dispositif is a response, not an essence.
A construct, not a given.
Genealogy reveals:
• Why this dispositif emerged
• How it organizes knowledge and practice
• What subjectivities and exclusions it produces
• And how it could have been otherwise
5. Related Concepts (but not the same)
|
Concept |
Relation to Dispositif |
|
Episteme |
The historical conditions of possibility for discourse; broader than a single dispositif |
|
Power/Knowledge |
What dispositifs deploy—power and knowledge are inseparable in their operation |
|
Subjectivation |
The process by which dispositifs create and interpellate subjects |
|
Governmentality |
A macro-level dispositif: the art of governing beyond the state (economy, self, population) |
Conclusion:
Yes, you can confidently say:
“Dispositif is the operational core of genealogical methodology.”
It names the strategic configuration of discourse, power, practice, and subjectivity that genealogy seeks to uncover, historicize, and potentially displace.
Would you like me to show how a dispositif (e.g. the therapy dispositif, the nationalist dispositif, or the Confucian dispositif) can be mapped and analyzed genealogically?
