Jeremy Tauzer, 2026. “The Art of Constructing Foucauldian Scissors: Review of Foucault’s Technologies: Another Way of Cutting Reality, by Kaspar Villadsen, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2024, 352 Pp., £119/$155 (Hardcover), ISBN 9780198819400.” Journal of Political Power, August, 1–8.
https://doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2026.2700387
1.Introduction
Kaspar Villadsen’s Foucault’s Technologies: Another Way of Cutting Reality is a highly thoroughly researched survey of a collection of topics surrounding Foucault’s technological language. Villadsen notes that Foucault uses a number of terms related to ‘technology’, such as ‘diagram’, ‘technique’, ‘dispositif’ and ‘fabrication’; however, large portions of the book are concerned with the meaning and usefulness of the term ‘dispositif’. The reader should keep in mind that this ‘technological’ terminology is used by Foucault in ways which the book discusses in depth, and that such terms should not be interpreted in a standard or popular way.
I start by offering a chapter-by-chapter summary of Foucault’s Technologies, before offer ing some critical remarks. The book is quite dense and contains numerous meaningful digressions into issues raised by secondary sources – my summary will skip over many of these thoughtful digressions.
