Power to change: a Foucauldian analysis of the Irish direct provision system

In April 2000 the Irish state implemented a policy of direct provision and dispersal through which the state provides accommodation, food and other basic requirements for asylum seekers and their families while their applications for asylum are being processed. Initially conceived of as a temporary measure, the Irish direct provision system has come in for much criticism for the poor quality of accommodation and food it provides, for removing the right to work from asylum seekers, for preventing integration, for being an unsuitable environment to raise children, for the adverse effects living within the system can have on an individual’s mental health and for the prolonged periods asylum seekers are required to remain within the system while their applications are processed. This study constitutes an investigation of the direct provision system according to the testimonies of those who live within it. It employs an action research based methodology which prioritises the perspectives and experiences of its participants. The key areas investigated include: how the direct provision system operates, the various relationships that permit the system to operate in this manner, how the system impacted upon participants, how participants subverted, exceeded and ultimately shaped the system themselves and how the system might be transformed in the future. The study employs the ideas of French philosopher Michel Foucault, an advocate of the power of ‘raw’ and ‘local’ knowledges, and his theorisations of power, conduct, discipline, governance, bio-politics and subjection in order to interpret the direct provision system as described by those closest to it. It reveals that direct provision is an intensely disciplinary and subject forming system, but also highlights the indomitable nature of those who live within it and their capacity to assert their autonomy and effect change.