The architecture of Google’s search engines: Search engines as dispositif of knowledge production.

Abstract

In this thesis, I will analyse Google’s search engine as a Foucauldian dispositif of power/knowledge by illustrating how search engines produce knowledge to subjectivise users. I will mainly use primary literature from Foucault in combination with research studies, such as the Google Effect study, to show the impact of using search engines on knowledge. Here, I argue that Google Search as a source of knowledge acquisition has shaped the way people grasp understanding. Google Search by transforming the way people understand has subjectivised them, creating a new subjectivity. Therefore, Google Search can be compared to a dispositif of power/knowledge that exercises power by the production of knowledge, which consequently subjectivises users.