Pastoral power as penal resistance

Whereas Michel Foucault’s writings are an important mainstay in penology, his involvement in the Groupe d’Information sur les Prisons (GIP) is generally given less consideration by criminologists outside France. Recently though, some scholars have revisited Foucault’s affiliation with the GIP in an effort to interpret the nature of his activism by turning attention to Foucault’s published work as it intersects his political engagements. The project here suggests that analyses of Foucault’s participation in the GIP have the potential to benefit even further by tapping into another source of intellectual pursuit, namely his lectures at the College de France. The article uses Foucault’s teachings on pastoral power as a device to decipher his own influence in the campaign to confront unjust conditions in French prisons. Overall, the critique aims to situate Foucault’s thoughts on the pastoral into his personal commitment to challenge prison regimes; by doing so, the discussion moves toward a deeper understanding of penal resistance.