Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Tuomo Tiisala, Power and Freedom in the Space of Reasons Elaborating Foucault’s Pragmatism, Routledge, 2024 Open access Description This book argues that the received view of the distinction between freedom and power must be rejected because it rests on an untenable account of the discursive cognition that endows individuals with the capacity for autonomy and …

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Winsky, N. and Onusseit, C. (2025), The Rickshaw as In-Between: Heterotopias and Social Participation in Aging. Population, Space and Place, 31: e70068. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.70068 ABSTRACT As the population aged 65 and older significantly increases, understanding the dynamics within nursing homes becomes crucial. Residents often face loneliness upon entering these facilities, experiencing a disconnection from their previous …

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Call for papers: Psychoanalysis in Transition: New Queer Approaches in 21st-Century France Northeast Modern Language Association Convention 2026-03-05 to 2026-03-08 Gannon University Erie, Pennsylvania. USA Since the 1970s, LGBTQ+ Francophone authors and scholars have produced an expansive critique of psychoanalytic practices and thought. Despite their differing views, Guy Hocquenghem, Michel Foucault, Monique Wittig, Didier Eribon, …

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Maddalena Cerrato, Michel Foucault’s Practical Philosophy. A Critique of Subjectivation Processes, SUNY Series in Contemporary French Thought, De Gruyter Brill, 2025 Interview with author on New Books site, 2 September 2025 About this book Offers a wholistic approach to Michel Foucault’s thought introducing the idea of practical philosophy as an original interpretative framework. Michel Foucault’s …

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Allsobrook, C. (2025). The Structural Violence of Imperial Trusteeship in Postcolonial Governmentality. African Studies, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2025.2536036 ABSTRACT The article considers how structural violence in African polities has displaced sovereign agency and responsibility for its harmful effects by extending imperial practices of trusteeship in postcolonial governmentality. It explains how, with liberation, decolonisation and political independence, imperial …

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CALL FOR PAPERS The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Foucault Circle University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana April 3-5, 2026 We seek submissions for papers on any aspect of Foucault’s work, as well as studies, critiques, and applications of Foucauldian thinking. This conference also celebrates the centennial of Foucault’s birth, so we also welcome …

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Mu, Y., & Vásquez, C. (2025). “Waste-sorting is the new fashion”: waste, power, and the semiotic landscape. Social Semiotics, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2025.2543085 ABSTRACT This study examines how the Chinese government uses multiple semiotic resources, in both online and offline contexts, to (re)shape citizens’ behaviors and construct knowledge about wastesorting under the recent national waste-sorting policy. Informed …

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Le Blanc, G. (2025). Let Live or Let Die: Stranger to the Nation. Translated by Kaitlin Sager. In: Elhariry, Y., Keller-Privat, I., Tamalet Talbayev, E. (eds) Re-Membering Hospitality in the Mediterranean. Mediterranean Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-84043-2_9 Abstract This chapter explores Michel Foucault’s analysis of biopolitics and its application to contemporary migration and refugee issues. …

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Frank Fischer, Critical Policy Inquiry. Interpreting Knowledge and Arguments. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2024 Presenting a critical approach to the study of public policy and policy analysis, this book offers a postpositivist foundation that challenges empiricist and technocratic approaches to policy studies. Critical Policy Inquiry draws on Jürgen Habermas’s work on communicative action and deliberation, Michel …

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