Foucault News

The Critique and Politics of Identity: On the Affinities between Critical Theory and Poststructuralism. A Conversation with Bernard E. Harcourt and Martin Saar conducted by Sarah Bianchi (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

7 July 2022

The Critique and Politics of Identity: On the Affinities between Critical Theory and Poststructuralism. A Conversation with Bernard E. Harcourt and Martin Saar conducted by Sarah Bianchi, Coils of the Serpent. A Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power, Issue 10, 2022, pp. 110-130.

We know what Michel Foucault, the leading poststructuralist thinker, said about early Critical Theory: “Perhaps if I had read those works earlier, I would have saved useful time, surely”. Much has already been written about the relation between poststructuralism and Critical Theory, well-known are the objections advanced in particular by the second and third generation of the Frankfurt School against poststructuralism, especially against its alleged relativism. The aim here, however, is to explore the potential affinities and their relevance today. To this end, it is instructive to have a conversation with two key thinkers in the field, Martin Saar and Bernard E. Harcourt. Martin Saar holds the chair for social philosophy at Goethe-University in Frankfurt and Bernard E. Harcourt is the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Professor of Political Sciences at Columbia University in New York. Critical Theory and poststructuralism play a key role in both of their work.
[…]

Hewitt, M. How Does a Foucauldian Genealogical Approach Enhance the Study of Long-Term Care through a Critical Disability Lens? (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

6 July 2022

Hewitt, M.
How Does a Foucauldian Genealogical Approach Enhance the Study of Long-Term Care through a Critical Disability Lens?
(2022) Societies, 12 (3), art. no. 73

DOI: 10.3390/soc12030073

Abstract
Younger disabled adults in long-term care, particularly those with physical disabilities and chronic illnesses, receive care that does not fit their needs. This article looks at whether a Foucauldian genealogical approach would enhance a study that focuses on the societal values that have allowed this situation to persist. It looks at the historical and cultural contingencies of genealogy, and its ability to explore the complex power relations at play, in normalization and biopower. It concludes that there is a place for this approach–one that can be adapted from the 1970s approach of Foucault to fit power dynamics and positioning in care in the 2020s. © 2022 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Author Keywords
disability; Foucault; genealogy; long-term care

Borah, R.R., Bhuvaneswari, G., Hussain, M.M. When Worlds Collide: Using films to Understand the Heterotopic Overlaps of Multiple Worlds (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 July 2022

Borah, R.R., Bhuvaneswari, G., Hussain, M.M.
When Worlds Collide: Using films to Understand the Heterotopic Overlaps of Multiple Worlds
(2022) ECS Transactions, 107 (1), pp. 2363-2370.

DOI: 10.1149/10701.2363ecst

Abstract
Heterotopia is an idea as put forward by Michel Foucault, from the notion of place and non-place as disruptive elements. This article explores the fascination with Foucault’s brief and sketchy idea of heterotopia in the context of cinema. We examine how the elements of heterotopias are most productively understood through the narrative of popular cinema as quintessential traits of film industry across the globe. Films like Caparhnaum, Fahrenheit 451, Interstellar, Stalker (1979), Avatar, Gulabo Sitabo(Hindi) and many more are examples of heterotopic films. These films stimulated utopian as well as dystopian affects in their audiences. The notion of heterotopia has been extensively deployed in media studies. In this paper, we discuss Caparhnaum and Fahrenheit 451 as a richly heterotopic films in which cinema worked with spaces within spaces. Using the heterotopic dichotomy the authors examine filmmaking as it reconstructs the simulated spaces. The authors also want to underscore, in cinema, what the space consists of, who occupies it, and in what ways. © The Electrochemical Society

Barry, L. Epidemic and Insurance: Two Forms of Solidarity (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

3 July 2022

Barry, L.
Epidemic and Insurance: Two Forms of Solidarity
(2022) Theory, Culture and Society

DOI: 10.1177/02632764221087932

Abstract
Despite their common core in statistics, insurance and epidemiology propel two different forms of solidarity. In insurance, the collective is a source of protection, thanks to the pooling of risks; in epidemics by contrast, the group remains the source of danger for the individual. The aim of this paper is to highlight the conceptions of community and solidarity at play in epidemics in contradistinction to insurance, with a focus on the shift introduced by big data and algorithms. Paradoxically, while the new technologies and epidemiology share a common view on the relation between the individual and the collective, tracing apps were not widely adopted in the Covid-19 crisis. This reluctance to use current technologies for the sake of epidemic containments highlights, beyond legitimate interrogations, a confusion between two imaginaries of the social: insurance solidarity where the interdependence is a source of rights, and epidemic solidarity that imposes duties. © The Author(s) 2022.

Author Keywords
epidemics; insurance; Michel Foucault; Roberto Esposito; solidarity; tracing apps

Document Type: Article
Publication Stage: Article in Press
Source: Scopus

Zhang, H., Powell, D. Governing Olympic education: Technologies of policy announcements and outsourcing (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 July 2022

Zhang, H., Powell, D.
Governing Olympic education: Technologies of policy announcements and outsourcing
(2022) International Review for the Sociology of Sport

DOI: 10.1177/10126902221101993

Abstract
The Chinese government views the Olympic Games as a critical platform to present national pride on a global scale. Olympic education also has an important role to play for China, as it is a requirement for any Olympic host country. In the context or preparations for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, this original ethnographic research examines the governance of Olympic education, with a focus on how relationships between China’s government and a range of stakeholders (e.g. private sectors, academics, and individual teachers) ‘worked’ to shape the implementation of Olympic education in two Beijing primary schools. Utilising Foucault’s notion of governmentality, we demonstrate that Olympic education was a significant tactic for Chinese government to realise their ambition of the great rejuvenation of China. Here, the state employed two technologies of government: policy announcements and outsourcing. In tension with common assumptions about China – and Chinese education – being purely authoritarian, our research illuminates how hybrid socialist-neoliberal rationalities worked to shape Olympic education in schools. © The Author(s) 2022.

Author Keywords
2022 Winter Olympics; governmentality; hybrid socialist-neoliberal rationality; Olympic education; outsourcing; policy

Index Keywords
article, China, education, government, human, human experiment, rejuvenation, tension, winter

Psychology as Apparatus. An Interview with Sam Binkley Interviewed by Derek Hook (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

1 July 2022

Psychology as Apparatus
An Interview with Sam Binkley Interviewed by Derek Hook
Chapter In
Neoliberalism, Ethics and the Social Responsibility of Psychology. Dialogues at the Edge
Edited By Heather Macdonald, Sara Carabbio-Thopsey, David M. Goodman, Routledge, 2022

ABSTRACT
In this interview, Sam Binkley, using Michel Foucault’s (2008) constructivist view of neoliberalism. He outlines how subjectivity gets produced in the contemporary context of neoliberal logic with a particular emphasis on the discursive effects. Binkley and Hook discuss how selves are constructed in a cultural/political moment—particularly in the era of populism and nationalism. Towards the end of the interview Binkley reflects on how racism evokes shame on an ontological level that leads to the exposure of an overdetermined whiteness.

Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity. Eds. Sandra Boehringer, Daniele Lorenzini (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

30 June 2022

Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity, Edited By Sandra Boehringer, Daniele Lorenzini, Routledge, 2022

Book Description
Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity, published for the first time in English, takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring how the work of Michel Foucault has influenced studies of ancient Greece and Rome.

Foucault’s The History of Sexuality has had a profound and lasting impact across the humanities and social sciences. In the two volumes dedicated to pagan antiquity, Foucault provided scholars with new questions for addressing ancient Greek and Roman societies, and an original epistemological framework for thinking about eroticism and about the processes by which individuals are led to recognize themselves as the subjects of their desires. Now, decades later, the scholars in this volume explore Foucault’s role in shaping and reorienting discussions of antiquity in the fields of philosophy, gender studies, and psychoanalysis, among others.

A multidisciplinary exploration of Foucault’s work and its relationship to our understanding of ancient Greco-Roman societies, Foucault, Sexuality, Antiquity will be of interest to students and scholars in classical studies, philosophy, gender studies, and ancient history.

Table of Contents

1. To Problematize Sexuality: Foucault, the Ancients, and Us
Sandra Boehringer and Daniele Lorenzini
Translated by Meryl Altman

2. The Use of Pleasure and Care of the Self: Genealogy of a Text
Frédéric Gros
Translated by Meryl Altman

3. To Refuse Universals: A Foucauldian History of Ancient Sexuality, History in the Present Tense
Sandra Boehringer
Translated by Meryl Altman

4. Perversion in Antiquity? Foucault, Seneca, and Psychiatric Reasoning
Kirk Ormand

5. “The Sexual Scene Concerns a Single Character”
Jean Allouch
Translated by Kirsten Ellerby

6. Subject of Desire and Subject of Discourse in Foucault: Sexuality and the Erotic Relations of Greek Women and Men
Claude Calame
Translated by Meryl Altman

7. Ancient Sexuality and the Principle of Activity: Foucauldian Paradoxes About Pederasty
Olivier Renaut
Translated by Meryl Altman

8. Desire As the “Historical Transcendental” of the History of Sexuality
Daniele Lorenzini
Translated by Meryl Altman

9. Body of Pleasure, Body of Desire: Augustine’s Theory of Marriage as Reread by Michel Foucault
Arianna Sforzini
Translated by Meryl Altman

10. From Hermeneutics to Strategics: Gender, Sexualities, Norms, and Psychoanalysis
Thamy Ayouch
Translated by Kirsten Ellerby

Mark Coeckelbergh, Self-Improvement. Technologies of the Soul in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

29 June 2022

Mark Coeckelbergh, Self-Improvement. Technologies of the Soul in the Age of Artificial Intelligence, Columbia University Press, 2022

We are obsessed with self-improvement; it’s a billion-dollar industry. But apps, workshops, speakers, retreats, and life hacks have not made us happier. Obsessed with the endless task of perfecting ourselves, we have become restless, anxious, and desperate. We are improving ourselves to death. The culture of self-improvement stems from philosophical classics, perfectionist religions, and a ruthless strain of capitalism—but today, new technologies shape what it means to improve the self. The old humanist culture has given way to artificial intelligence, social media, and big data: powerful tools that do not only inform us but also measure, compare, and perhaps change us forever.

This book shows how self-improvement culture became so toxic—and why we need both a new concept of the self and a mission of social change in order to escape it. Mark Coeckelbergh delves into the history of the ideas that shaped this culture, critically analyzes the role of technology, and explores surprising paths out of the self-improvement trap. Digital detox is no longer a viable option and advice based on ancient wisdom sounds like yet more self-help memes: The only way out is to transform our social and technological environment. Coeckelbergh advocates new “narrative technologies” that help us tell different and better stories about ourselves. However, he cautions, there is no shortcut that avoids the ancient philosophical quest to know yourself, or the obligation to cultivate the good life and the good society.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mark Coeckelbergh is professor of philosophy of media and technology at the University of Vienna. His many books include AI Ethics (2020) and Introduction to Philosophy of Technology (2019).

Twyford, E.J. Crisis accountability and aged “care” during COVID-19 (2022)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 June 2022

Twyford, E.J.
Crisis accountability and aged “care” during COVID-19
(2022) Meditari Accountancy Research

DOI: 10.1108/MEDAR-05-2021-1296

Abstract
Purpose: This study aims to fill the gaps in mandated reports with social accounts to provide more inclusive accountability during a crisis using the illustrative example of Anglicare’s Newmarch House during a deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a close-reading method to analyse Anglicare’s annual review, reports, board meeting minutes and Royal Commission into Aged Care submissions. Informed by Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, the study collocates alternate “social accounts” in the form of investigative journalism, newspaper articles and media commentary on the events that transpired at Newmarch House to unveil a more nuanced and human-centric rendering of the ramifications of a public health/aged care crisis.

Findings: COVID-19 exacerbated pre-existing issues within the aged care sector, exemplified by Newmarch House. The privileging of financial concerns and lack of care, leadership and accountability contributed to residents’ physical, emotional and psychological distress. The biopolitical policy pursued by powerful actors let die vulnerable individuals while simultaneously making live more productive citizens and “the economy”.

Research limitations/implications: Organisations express their accountability by using financial information provided by accounting, even during circumstances with more prevailing humanistic concerns. A transformational shift in how we define, view and teach accounting is required to recognise accounting as a social and moral practice that should instead prioritise human dignity and care for the betterment of our world.

Originality/value: This paper contributes to the limited literature on aged care, extending particularly into the impact of COVID-19 while contributing to the literature concerned with crisis accountability. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is also the first to examine a form of biopolitics centred on making live something other than persons – the economy. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Author Keywords
Aged care; Biopolitics; COVID-19; Crisis accountability; Death; Social accounts

Barnett, C.R. The key of knowledge (2021)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

27 June 2022

Barnett, C.R.
The key of knowledge
(2021) Text (Australia), 25 (Special Issue 61)

DOI: 10.52086/001C.23497

Abstract
Keys are used to gain access, knowledge, and power but what happens when these everyday items are transformed into supernatural objects? Do they, in turn, become a source of knowledge and power? Charles Perrault played with this concept by portraying a key as a magical lie detector in his infamous ‘Bluebeard’ fairy tale (1695). In this story, the husband is portrayed as a serial killer who uses the lure of forbidden knowledge to manipulate his wife and instigate a series of events to justify her murder. This structuring of crime and punishment within the framework of marriage makes this fairy tale unique. The scholarship attached to Bluebeard’s key includes an examination of this object as a metaphor for female sexual curiosity and infidelity (Bettelheim, 1991, p. 301), and a means of accessing feminine consciousness (Estes, 2017, p. 40).

In his 1796 English translation of the French text, R.S. Gent writes that the ‘key was a Fairy’ (p. 28). Gent’s words stirred my imagination; What if the key had been a woman, magically entrapped as a key? Would she tell a different story? This creative interrogation explores the gendered violence and power structures in Perrault’s ‘Bluebeard’ narrative. ‘The key of knowledge’ uses a socio-historical, Foucauldian framework and creative writing research methodology to examine Perrault’s ‘Bluebeard’ as a discourse of disciplinary punishment. Due to her curiosity and disobedience to patriarchal law, Bluebeard’s wife has been linked to Eve and Pandora (Tatar, 2004, p. 3). This creative interrogation explores the personal cost of female autonomy in relation to the accruement of knowledge in ‘The Fall’ (the biblical story of Adam and Eve), and Perrault’s ‘Bluebeard’. It does this by using creative fiction to deconstruct Eve’s story in relation to the ‘Bluebeard’ narrative and subvert the constructions of negative femininity portrayed in these pre-existing stories.

The comparative narrative structuring invites readers to question the dominant gender ideologies that have evolved over time in relation to Eve and Bluebeard’s wife. Through the writing process, Eve’s voice emerged and she became the key of knowledge. A literary/poetic-prose style is used throughout the Eve narrative. The use of first-person narration creates a strong, mature feminine voice. This styling creates a foil for Bluebeard’s young wife, Genevieve, and the historical romance conventions embedded in the Bluebeard scenes. These sections were written using a hybrid literary/historical romance/fairy tale writing style. Genevieve is portrayed as a victim of domestic abuse through third person, multi-character focalisation. Her vulnerability, and transition from besotted bride to disillusioned wife, challenges the ‘happily ever after’ fairy tale trope traditionally constructed in historical romance fiction and fairy tale retellings.

Collectively, these narrative techniques highlight the fragility of feminine power and autonomy within patriarchal societies. ‘The key of knowledge’ offers an alternative socio-historical, Foucauldian interpretation of the ‘Bluebeard’ fairy tale. This story adds to ‘Bluebeard’ scholarship and to our understanding of how creative writing facilitates the research process. It further contributes to feminist scholarship related to fairy tale revisioning. ‘The key of knowledge’ is an extract from Silence the Key, the creative component of my Creative Writing PhD thesis. This greater body of work uses a socio-historical, Foucauldian lens to examine Perrault’s 1695 fairy tales as discourses of disciplinary punishment and adds to the emerging genre of Australian literary fairy tales. © 2021, Australasian Association of Writing Programs. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords
Bluebeard; disciplinary punishment; fairy tale reversions; Foucault; Perrault