Technologies of Power, Governmentality and Olympic Discourses

A Foucauldian Analysis for Understanding the Discursive Constructions of the Olympic Ideology

Resumo

This article discusses the process of construction of Olympic discourses during the early years of the modern Olympic Movement. It focuses on documents written by the founder of the Olympic Movement, Baron Pierre de Coubertin and adopts a Foucauldian analysis for understanding the discursive construction of the Olympic discourses. Thus our approach is more concerned with the constitution of knowledges and discourses rather than with the historical approach focusing on personalities, structures and context. Core to our discussion will be the Foucauldian bio-politics and neo-liberal governmentality which refer to socio-political contexts where power is decentred and members of society play an active role in their own self-regulation and self-government. The article will consider the use of the body as a regulatory force for the discursive constructions of classist and gendered discourses of the Olympic ideology.
Keywords: Olympism; Baron Pierre de Coubertin; Governmentality; Discourse Analysis; Foucauldian analysis