Foucault News

Mary McGill, The Visibility Trap, Sexism, Surveillance & Social Media, New Island. 2021

A feminist guide to navigating self-representation on social media

Social media is a new type of public space that has revolutionised the way women express themselves, placing the power of representation in female hands like no technology before. But this increased visibility looks both ways, with the gazed upon also gazing back through platforms designed for judgement and surveillance.

A man-made tool, social media is now deeply entwined with women’s lives in an always-on culture where new and intrusive forms of comparison, shaming and watchfulness are completely normalised and women’s bodies, minds and emotions are picked apart. While many are acutely aware of this ‘visibility trap’, taking ownership of it remains a minefield.

In The Visibility Trap, Mary McGill blends feminism, media studies and lived experiences to explore the contradictions and dangers of online visibility for women, asking how we can build better, safer digital spaces for all. From current research to real-life testimonies, via the Kardashian Industrial Complex (KIC) to image-based sexual abuse — ‘revenge porn’ — and its belated criminalisation, she offers urgent and welcome insights into using social media more consciously, powerfully and positively. This is a must-read for anyone who loves or hates social media; for the guardians of future social media users and for anyone else who is still half-on, half-off this most twenty-first century of obsessions.

DR MARY MCGILL is a digital culture researcher and journalist. A former broadcaster, she is a regular media contributor in Ireland and the UK. Her work has appeared in a range of print, digital and broadcast titles in Ireland, the UK and the US including Broadly, BBC, British Vogue, VICE, Refinery29, The Pool, Sunday Business Post, Irish Independent, Irish Times, TV3 and RTÉ. From 2015 to 2020 she was a Hardiman Scholar at the National University of Ireland, Galway, where her doctoral study explored gender, surveillance and selfie-practices. Her 2016 TEDX Talk, ‘Young women, narcissism and the selfie phenomenon’, has been viewed almost 300,000 times.

Mahbub Rashid, Physical Space and Spatiality in Muslim Societies: Notes on the Social Production of Cities, University of Michigan Press, 2021

Mahbub Rashid embarks on a fascinating journey through urban space in all of its physical and social aspects, using the theories of Foucault, Bourdieu, Lefebvre, and others to explore how consumer capitalism, colonialism, and power disparity consciously shape cities. Using two Muslim cities as case studies, Algiers (Ottoman/French) and Zanzibar (Ottoman/British), Rashid shows how Western perceptions can only view Muslim cities through the lens of colonization—a lens that distorts both physical and social space. Is it possible, he asks, to find a useable urban past in a timeline broken by colonization? He concludes that political economy may be less relevant in premodern cities, that local variation is central to the understanding of power, that cities engage more actively in social reproduction than in production, that the manipulation of space is the exercise of power, that all urban space is a conscious construct and is therefore not inevitable, and that consumer capitalism is taking over everyday life. Ultimately, we reconstruct a present from a fragmented past through local struggles against the homogenizing power of abstract space.

Barnes, Naomi, Bedford, Alison (Eds.), Unlocking Social Theory with Popular Culture, Remixing Theoretical Influencers, Springer, 2021

This book demonstrates how pop culture examples can be used to demystify complex social theory. It provides tangible, metaphorical examples that shows how it is possible to “do philosophy” rather than subscribe to a theorist by showing that each theorist intersects and overlaps with others.

The book is embedded in the literary theory that tapping into background knowledge is a key step in helping people engage with new and difficult texts. It also acknowledges the important role of popular culture in developing comprehension.

Using a choose your own adventure structure, this book not only shows students of social theory how various theories can be applied but also reveals the multitude of possible pathways theory provides for comprehending society.

Naomi Barnes is a Lecturer in Literacy at Queensland University of technology. Her research is in digital rhetoric the relationships humans have with each other on online, particularly in social media. She uses the socio-cultural theories and philosophical traditions which help us better understand how technology has changed the way we communicate. Naomi has published academic papers that use cyborgs, chthonic monsters and Frankenstein for theory building.

With a background in secondary English and History education, Alison Bedford was awarded her doctorate in English Literature in 2019 and now works both in the secondary and tertiary sectors. Alison’s thesis applied Foucault’s theory of ‘founders of discursivity’ to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to argue that Shelley established the moral space that the genre of science fiction now occupies. Her research interests include science fiction as a genre and its social function; secondary History curriculum and pedagogy, and popular culture.

Table of contents (16 chapters)

Remixing Influencers: Academics Reading and Writing About Philosophy and Pop Culture
Barnes, Naomi (et al.)

Westworld
Thomas, Matthew Krehl Edward (et al.)

The Circle of Hegemony
Prosser, Howard

Where the Truth Lies: Peirce Through the Lens of
Ferguson, Joseph (et al.)

Playing Language Games with BB8
Grant, Rhiannon

The Years and Years of Late Modernity: Ulrich Beck and Risk Society
Barnes, Naomi

Orange is the New Other
Bedford, Alison (et al.)

‘Down Here, It’s Our Time’: Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems and
Quickfall, Aimee

Choose Your Driver: How
Johnson, Karl

5 Ways Hogwarts Helps Us Understand Foucault’s ‘Docile Bodies’
Firth, Katherine

Power, Knowledge and Palpatine
Norman, Pat

A Thousand Gateaux: Rethinking Deleuze and Guattari Through
Sidebottom, Kay

“You Pass Butter”: The Messages of Media and Technology in
Holland, Travis

Ordinary Care in Extraordinary Worlds: Murakami and Decentered Care in
Valentine, Riley Clare

Distribution of the Sensible in Besźel and Ul Qoma: Reading Rancière Alongside Miéville’s
Záhora, Jakub

Coming of Age: Towards a Theory of Critical Editorship
Barnes, Naomi