Redrawing Foucault's Social Ontology

Abstract

I propose that Foucault's works, since he wrote Discipline and Punish , rely on an implicit meta-theory that is compatible with the fundamentals of critical realism. To this end I examine the status of truth, methodology and social ontology used by Foucault. If this thesis is correct, then a critical realist reading of Michel Foucault would avoid some of the pitfalls that have been attributed to his works—such as constructivism, determinism, localism, and reductionism. Moreover, this understanding of Foucault's works would also offer novel and challenging perspectives for researchers adopting a Foucauldian and/or critical realist study of organizations.