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Journal of Classical Sociology
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Politics and Existence

Totems, Dispositifs and Some Striking Parallels between Durkheim and Foucault

Ronjon Paul Datta

Mount Allison University, Canada, pdatta{at}mta.ca

This article discusses theoretical parallels between Durkheim's concept of the totem and Foucault's concept of `dispositif ' (social apparatus) and draws attention to the respective attempts by these theorists, in which these concepts play a substantial role, to move beyond Kantian conceptions of reality. It is argued that both concepts refer to historically specific structures constitutive of human existence, and to politics as an irreducible feature of such structures. In particular, Durkheim provides an understanding of the truly exceptional potential of politics to constitute meaningful human existence, attaching `words and things'. Hence, his discussion of religion is not simply about reproducing relations of domination. Comparing the concepts of totem and dispositif can aid in developing a richer conception of the contingent manner in which the existential structure of social life is formed by the effects of `politics'. In this light, Durkheim offers a plausible resolution to a lacuna in Foucault by providing an account of the causal force of politics in constituting collective existence. Foucault's attention to contingent causality does similar work to remedy an obscurantist expressivism which subtends Durkheim's account of totem-creation.

Key Words: collective effervescence • dispositif • Foucault • politics • sacred • totem

Journal of Classical Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 2, 283-305 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1468795X08088875
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