How did Michel Foucault’s later work give greater attention to human freedom?

In his later work, Michel Foucault shifted his focus from the structural analysis of power-knowledge to the study of "governmentality" and ethics, which allowed him to bring human freedom into sharper focus. While his earlier genealogical studies—such as Discipline and Punish and the first volume of The History of Sexuality—exposed how individuals are shaped and dominated by social institutions, they often left little room for human agency.1

To address this, Foucault expanded his methodology to encompass "problematization," or the dynamics of human reflection and the seeking of answers. This shift enabled him to explore ethics as the "reflective practice of freedom," a domain where individuals can conceive of and test the modes of domination and subjectivation under which they live.1

Through this lens, Foucault examined how individuals are not merely passive subjects of power but are capable of governing, being, and creating themselves. His later research, particularly in the subsequent volumes of The History of Sexuality, focused on the "care of the self" and how people relate to one another, reflecting a deeper inquiry into how human capacities might be increased without simultaneously increasing oppression.12