Foucault News

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

Editor: An introductory quotation from Foucault, followed by reflections on the current coronavirus Covid 19 crisis by contemporary thinkers. I have just included the passage from Foucault here. Please follow the link to the journal site for the contemporary debate Coronavirus and philosophers M. Foucault, G. Agamben, J.L. Nancy, R. Esposito, S. Benvenuto, D. Dwivedi, …

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Mark Davis, Niamh Stephenson, Paul Flowers, Compliant, complacent or panicked? Investigating the problematisation of the Australian general public in pandemic influenza control, Social Science & Medicine, Volume 72, Issue 6, 2011, pp. 912-918 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.01.016 Abstract This article examines how pandemic influenza control policies interpellate the public. We analyse Australian pandemic control documents and key informant …

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Bernard-Henri Lévy, Michel Foucault y el coronavirus: vigilar y castigar, El Español, 6 marzo, 2020 Solo circulan los intendentes, los sindicalistas, los soldados de la guardia”. O: “Cada uno se aferra a su casa, se mueve lo menos posible, viaja poco”. O: “Un espacio cerrado, delimitado, vigilado en todos sus lados, donde los individuos están …

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Andrew Dobson, Kezia Barker, Sarah L. Taylor (eds) Biosecurity: The Socio-Politics of Invasive Species and Infectious Diseases, Routledge, 2013 Description Biosecurity is the assessment and management of potentially dangerous infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive (alien) species, living modified organisms, and biological weapons. It is a holistic concept of direct relevance to the sustainability of agriculture, …

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Laena Maunula, “The pandemic subject: Canadian pandemic plans and communicating with the public about an influenza pandemic.” Healthcare policy/Politiques de santé vol. 9, Spec Issue (2013): 14-25. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24289936/ Open access Abstract In this paper, I examine the goals for pandemic public communication as outlined in two Canadian plans for pandemic planning and infection control. I …

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Alan McKinlay (2009) Foucault, plague, Defoe, Culture and Organization, 15:2, 167-184 https://doi.org/10.1080/14759550902925336 Abstract For Foucault, the experience of plague is a vital moment in the development of new techniques of power and ways of thinking about the social world. Plague compels city or state authorities to take extreme measures to control disease. Quarantine, of the …

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Gislason, M.K. (2013), West Nile virus: the production of a public health pandemic. Sociology of Health & Illness, 35: 188-199. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01535.x open access Abstract The West Nile virus (WNV), as it was presented in the texts and discourses on the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) website during its initial emergence, was an effect of …

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Thacker, Eugene. “The Shadows of Atheology: Epidemics, Power and Life after Foucault.” Theory, Culture & Society 26, no. 6 (November 2009): 134–52. doi:10.1177/0263276409347698. Abstract This essay examines a hidden link in biopolitical thinking after Foucault — the relation between biology and theology. The result is a turn away from the dichotomy of life/death and towards …

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Stephen L. Roberts (2019). Big Data, Algorithmic Governmentality and the Regulation of Pandemic Risk. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 10(1), 94-115. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2019.6 Abstract This article investigates the rise of algorithmic disease surveillance systems as novel technologies of risk analysis utilised to regulate pandemic outbreaks in an era of big data. Critically, the article demonstrates how …

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Davis, Mark. “”Is it Going to be Real?” Narrative and Media on a Pandemic.” Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research [Online], 18.1 (2017): n. pag. Web. 2 Feb. 2020 DOI: 10.17169/fqs-18.1.2768 Open access Abstract: In this article, I examine the narrative-media nexus as it relates to pandemics. Communications feature in global public health …

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