Dividing Practices

Dividing Practices Definition

Dividing practices are the ways in which populations are classified and categorized so as to create groups that are segregated from the rest of society — lepers and criminals being classic examples.

Foucault’s Argument

The concept comes from Michel Foucault, who argued that although such categories claim a scientific basis, they have more to do with the exercise of biopower — the regulation and management of populations — than with genuine scientific knowledge. The apparently neutral act of classification is, on this view, a technique of power that marks certain groups out for separation and control.