This paper reflects on the relationship between Michel Foucault's analysis of power and Portugal's social minimum policy (social insertion income) and the role of professionals who work with it. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the correlation between Michel Foucault's power analysis and the policy of social minimums, specifically the social insertion income program in Portugal, and the responsibilities of professionals working in this field.
Based on the author's conception of power, as well as the technologies of power, the aim is to reflect on the IHR as a regulatory technology, and biopolitics that states incorporate to guarantee well-being through reproduction and social regulation.
In this way, we analyse how this social policy integrates the disciplining technologies that Foucault presents: surveillance, examination, punishment/reward. The application of these disciplinary technologies takes place through the practice of the professionals who implement the policy, so the aim is to analyse whether they assume normalising power, whether they exercise micro-powers to develop a normalising action to contribute to the maintenance and/or re-establishment of a broader social order.