In the philosophy of Michel Foucault, a dispositif or dispositive[1] is any of the various institutional, physical, and administrative mechanisms and knowledge structures which enhance and maintain the exercise of power within the social body.
The links between these elements are said to be heterogeneous since knowledge, practices, techniques, and institutions are established and reestablished in every age.
The German linguist Siegfried Jäger defines Foucault's dispositif as The Danish philosopher Raffnsøe "advances the 'dispositive' (le dispositif) as a key conception in Foucault's work" and "a resourceful approach to the study of contemporary societal problems.
"[5] According to Raffnsøe, "the dispositionally prescriptive level is a crucial aspect of social reality in organizational life, since it has a determining effect on what is taken for granted and considered real.
[6] The Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben traces the trajectory of dispositif to Aristotle's oikonomia—the effective management of the household and the early Church Fathers' attempt to save the concept of the Trinity from the allegation of polytheism, as the triplicity of the God is his oikonomia.