1. SMALL ACTS OF CUNNING: Disciplinary Practices in Contemporary Life.
- Author
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Staples, William G.
- Subjects
- *
CAPITALISM , *ECONOMIC structure , *LIFESTYLES , *PUNISHMENT , *POLITICAL doctrines - Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to offer a genealogy of some of the disciplinary practices that constitute the everyday life of contemporary postmodern America. I argue that we are witnessing the emergence of a new economy of illegalities, and with it, an increased tension between exceptional punishment and generalized surveillance. This physics of power is constituted, in part. through a new political technology of the body that directs a gaze of accountability on an individuals "life-style" and is often premised on regulating, probing or, measuring the body's functions, processes, characteristics or movements. In this way, the body is being used as a central clement in the localization of contemporary power. All this. I believe, is made possible by the historical moment of law twentieth-century capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 1994
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