Power Constituted Quote by Judith Butler
““We need instead to ask, what possibilities of mobilization are produced on the basis of existing configurations of discourse and power? What are the possibilities of reworking that very matrix of power by which we are constituted, of reconstituting the legacy of that constitution, and of working against each other process of regulation that can destabilize existing power regimes? For if the subject is constituted by power, that power does not cease at the moment the subject is constituted, for that subject is never fully constituted, but is subjected and produced time and again. That subject is neither a ground nor a product, but the permanent possibility of a certain resignifying process, one which gets detoured and stalled through other mechanisms of power, but which is power's own possibility of being reworked. It is not enough to say that the subject is invariably engaged in a political field; that phenomenological phrasing misses the point that the subject is an accomplishment regulated and produced in advance. And is as such fully political; indeed, perhaps most political as the point in which it is claimed to be prior to politics itself. To perform this kind of Foucaultian critique of the subject is not to do away with the subject or to pronounce it's death, but merely to claim that certain versions of the subject are politically insidious.””
About This Quote
Source Essay: “The Subject and Power” (2012)
Power continuously shapes and reshapes subjects; subjects are never fully formed but always in flux.
In simple terms: People are constantly formed by power structures.
Question and challenge power’s influence on identity.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- activism
- policy analysis
- educational curricula
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can individuals resist being fully defined by power?
- What mechanisms allow subjects to rework power?
Power structures can be resistant to change.