Genealogy (Method)

Genealogy is a critical method for tracing how concepts and practices emerge through historical contingencies rather than from a single origin. In a Foucauldian sense, it analyzes institutions, discourses, and power relations that make a concept possible at a given time.

Key features

• focuses on discontinuities, breaks, and shifts in meaning
• treats concepts as historically situated rather than timeless
• links ideas to institutions, expertise, and authority
• emphasizes how power shapes what can be known or said

Related figures

• Michel Foucault
• Friedrich Nietzsche (as a genealogical influence)