[Week 12: Nov 18] C2. Discourse analysis

1.Michel Foucault (1926-1984)
1.1. Reflection upon the Enlightenment and rational subject
1.2. Critique of historical evolution: history is characterized by discontinuity
1.3. Beyond structuralism: Structures are in dispersion
1.4. Knowledge: Archaeology （考古學）and genealogy（系譜學）
1.5. Power/knowledge
1.6. Foucaultian question:
Under what conditions did a category (madness, patient's body, criminal, ... ...) come to be the object of modern knowledge and institutional regulation?

2.Discourse
2.1.Discourse（論述／對詰）:
A group of statements that belong to a single system of formation.
2.2. Statement as functions rather than structural elements
Statement "cuts across a domain of structures and possible unities, and... .. reveals them, with concrete contents, in time and space."
Example: Biological statement- “Breast-feeding is the (animal) nature of woman”
Gender stereotype- "Women are born to play the role of nurturing human.”
Political statement- ”Woman and her breast are symbol of nation and people”



2.3.Discursive formation(論述構成):The dispersal process of statements and their regularities

2.4.Discourse analysis(論述分析): Study of the conditions of discursive formation

2.4.1. Defining the objects
2.4.2. Constructing the subject position
2.4.3. Focusing discourse as practice
2.4.4. Exploring the relationship between discourses
2.4.5. Identifying unities of discourse　
2.4.6. Identifying power relationships

2.4.5. Example: Edward Said's "Orientalism"
-Object: The Arabians and their countries were seen as "the Orient"
-Subject position: the knowing subject of the West
-Academic study, colonialism and imperialism
-Oriental studies and imperialist discourses
-Culture and power

3.Institution
3.1. His works:
-The Order of Things: The emergence of modern human sciences
-Madness and Civilization (Histoire de la Folie): How were mad people confined to institutions of mental hospital? (e.g. psychiatry)
-The Birth of the Clinic: How did patients' body become an object under the medical gaze?
-Discipline and Punishment: Why should wrongdoers be punished by disciplinary institution?

3.2.Power
-Power in relations
-Power is positive or productive: Enabling something to happen
-Power is micro-mechanisms
-Power is impersonal and institutional

4. Example I: "Youth problem"

4.1. Question: Under what conditions did "hiding youth" become a kind of social problem?

4.2. Defining object: From rebellious or "anti-social" youth (the 1960s)-->"hiding" youth

4.2. Subject positions
The 1960s: Colonial government, educator, ...
The 2000s: Social worker, educator, family...

4.3. Discourse as practice
The 1960s: The birth of professional "youth services" and social workers
The 2000s: The transformation in the sector of social services
-The flexibility and pressure of "one-line budget"
- Social services become more and more piecemeal, short-term and project-based
Examples:
香港基督教服務處「有網能量」青年導航及發展中心
香港青年協會「香港青年創業計劃」
扶貧委員會「歷奇試驗計劃」

4.4. Relationship between discourses
The 1960s: Colonial political discourse of social management and social-psychological pathology (social workers)
The 2000s:
-Discourse on Family as a unit of social control
-Discourses perpetuated by techno-phobia
-Managerial discourse on youth employment (Associate Degree, Youth Pre-employment Training Program, ... .. )
-The connections between discourses around the world
”隱蔽青年”(Hong Kong)--”引籠少年”（Hikikomori, Japan）--NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training)

References for analysis:
"隱蔽青年" in Wikipedia
誰算是隱蔽青年？當社會充滿矛盾時
隱蔽青年是全球問題

References
邵家臻／你隱閉，我隱樣
文化精英暢論隱蔽青年
許寶強／為何要針對青少年？
釐清隱蔽青年的問題
葉蔭聰／「隱蔽」的香港

4.4. A new mode of institutional complex and power
-Social services sector:
From a highly government subsidized sector to a multiple and expanded network of social control
-Power:
From professional gaze upon youth in public-->multiple gazes upon youth's life styles or ways of life
Integration of youth into labor force and formal education-->Developing multiple disciplinary institutions