The Making of the Global Subject: Discourse, Power and Subjection

Abstract

This paper examines the rules of discursive formation about globalization, i.e., how knowledge about globalization is produced, the mechanisms facilitating the production of this particular form of knowledge and how it is used to normalize the global subjects. Through a Foucauldian discourse analysis and interpretation of knowledge, power and the subject, it is indicated that the existing knowledge about globalization is a product of power relationships. The exercise of power produces the global subject who then becomes the object for further subjection. It is suggested that insofar as the language (or knowledge) of globalization renders it possible to classify subjects along a continuum (e.g., developed and underdeveloped societies) it also legitimizes the exercise of power along this order of classification. Through this interpretation, the paper explains how the global subject and the exercise of power are enacted and sustained.