capillary power

is where power relationships are distributed between a great many points just like in the circulation of blood through fine branching blood vessels.

Foucault's notion of 'capilary power' is one where power relationships are distributed between a great many points, just like in the circulation of blood through fine branching blood vessels. The idea that Bourdieu sought to document in his research was that elites do not proceed through fixed pathways to power but utilize dispersed networks of all kinds, such as school, leisure and family, to name a few. Thus, what is important when thinking about power and class is that some people are able to access networks that others cannot, to the detriment of their careers, status and opportunities to develop all sorts of 'capital'. Bourdieu then adopted a network-sensitive methodology that set the scene for much of the social network analysis of power that goes on today.

is power that reaches into individuals so deeply that it makes them who they are.

They stress his sensitivity to the fluctuating network of power relations, his development of the 'capillary' conception of power-- a micro-power which permeates all social strata producing and thus constraining subjectivity' (Gordon 1999:397)'Key to this theory is what Foucault calls capilary power, power that reaches into individuals so deeply that it makes them who they are.''Capillary power suggests something else as well in Foucault's project, the way in which power migrates form the margins of society ot the center, like blood returning to the heart. It is this that differentiates his account of power from that of Max Weber, for whom power cascades from top to bottom. (Alford 2000).

is power migrating, like veins, from the margins of society to the center, like blood returning to the heart.

is a micro-power which permeates all social strata producing and thus constraining subjectivity.

subjectivity

is a margin-to-center account of power that challenges Max Weber's top-to-bottom cascading conception of power.


is power in respect to its capacity to circulate throughout a society

capillary power, n.Definitions

capillary power