Foucault's Dispositif and the City

Michel Foucault was concerned with the role of urban planning in `bio-politics'. Only a few authors, however, emphasize the crucial role of the dispositif in his thinking about space and discipline. This article emphasizes the dispositif ensemble as exemplary to understanding urban planning and to one of Foucault's main themes: the constitution of disciplinarian forces through relations of power, knowledge and space. The article explores the dispositif both categorically and in its common use, and indicates Foucault's understanding of dispositif by looking at his writings on `the healthy city' and the Panopticon.