ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to be an elaboration of some of the facets of John Fiske's thinking which continue to serve as a model for others to emulate. It explores Fiske's engagement with the work of Michel Foucault, particularly around power, knowledge, bodies, and pleasures. As seen in Power Plays Power Works, Fiske discusses the problematic nature of directly importing European theory into the American context. He reminds us to be sensitive to the socio historical political-economic conditions within which these theories emerged, and they cannot be directly mapped on to the American context with all of its differences. For Fiske, one must always approach social life from a multi-methodological perspective whether textual, theoretical, empirical with an ethnographer's eye for detail, nuance, and texture. Intellectual labor, driven by conflictual social theory, can be put to the service of social change. Conflictual approaches unearth the contradictions in society and expose their mechanisms which generate inequalities.
