Michel Foucault's concept of power radically departs from traditional understandings that view power as a top-down, repressive force held by a sovereign or state. Instead, Foucault argues that power is diffuse, relational, productive, and operates at micro-levels throughout society. It is not merely about prohibition or repression but actively produces knowledge, discourses, subjectivities, and forms of truth.

For Foucault, power is not something one possesses but rather a strategy, a network of relations that permeates all social interactions. He emphasizes 'disciplinary power,' which operates through institutions like prisons, schools, hospitals, and factories, shaping individuals into docile and useful bodies. This power works through surveillance, normalization, and examination, creating self-regulating subjects. Knowledge and power are inextricably linked; 'power/knowledge' signifies that knowledge is never neutral but always embedded in power relations, and power is always exercised through specific forms of knowledge. Foucault's analysis reveals how power structures our understanding of ourselves and the world, making it a pervasive and constitutive element of social life.