Foucault News

Louise Owusu-Kwarteng, ‘Whoever holds the scissors wields the power’: An auto/biographical reflection on my ‘Hairstory’ (2020) Women’s Studies International Forum, 82, art. no. 102405
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2020.102405

Abstract
This paper provides an auto/biographical account of my hair journey, with specific emphasis on my hairstyle changes, and their ‘inextricable links’ to my identity and self-presentation (Bankhead and Johnson, 2014) at different stages in my life. In doing so, reference is made to the work of Anthony Giddens (1991) Erving Goffman (1950) and Judith Butler (1990). In addition, I discuss how for Black women, ‘hair’ is also a continual source of political debates. These centre on whether particular styles (e.g relaxing (chemical straightening), and/or weave), mean we present ourselves in ways reflecting European (often hegemonic) beauty standards, rooted in longstanding negative representations of ‘tightly curled’ African hair. Conversely, are growing numbers of Black women (including me) who opt for ‘natural’ hair, choosing to present ourselves in ways which consciously reject hegemonic standards of beauty? Or are these hairstyles simply a matter of choice and/or convenience? Drawing on the work of Black Feminist researchers Teihasha Bankhead, Tabora Johnson (2014), and Cheryl Johnson (2009), I describe ‘brushes’ with these issues in Black hair salons, which impacted on my experiences in this context. Other issues, such as extraordinary lengths of time spent waiting to be seen are discussed, alongside power relationships existing between the hairstylist/salon owners and the clients, arising from these situations. In doing so Foucault’s notions of power (1984) and Freund et al’s discussion of time and power (2003) are referred to. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Index Keywords
biography, feminism, hair, political power, power relations, womens status; Europe

Thomas Ahrens, Laurence Ferry, Rihab Khalifa, Governmentality and counter-conduct: A field study of accounting amidst concurrent and competing rationales and programmes
(2020) Management Accounting Research, 48, art. no. 100686.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2020.100686

Abstract
This paper contributes to the diverse and growing stream of accounting research on Foucault’s notion of counter-conduct, which is broadly concerned with the uses of accounting in the development of alternative ways of governing. Its key problematic lies in the roles that accounting can play in the intertwining of particular practices of governing, for instance, by underpinning practices that facilitate political campaigning, making specific policy choices, and creating new administrative arrangements. We illustrate our argument with some of the ways in which Newcastle City Council (NCC) used accounting to manoeuvre between the programmes of localism, centralism, devolution, austerity, and marketisation to develop novel forms of counter-conduct in response to austerity funding cuts. We show how accounting was used to underpin a multi-facetted counter-conduct that sought to profile itself locally and nationally against austerity as a highly visible and controversial programme of government. However, accounting also served to undermine NCC’s own counter-conduct, for example, through its engagement with longer established programmes, such as marketisation, and by rationalising the council’s administrative responses of austerity cuts. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Author Keywords
Accounting; Austerity; Counter-conduct; Devolution; Governmentality; Local government; Localism; Public sector budgeting

Moreno Pestaña, J.L.
Oedipus Rex as a philosophical and political strategy
(2020) Sociological Review, 68 (5), pp. 1092-1107.
DOI: 10.1177/0038026119900117

Abstract
This article studies Michel Foucault’s interpretation of the tragedy Oedipus Rex. The analysis seeks to uncover the various intellectual strategies around his study. First, Foucault takes a position in the political debate about prisons in France in the early 1970s. Second, his analysis of the tragedy contributes to position his work in the field of the philosophical history of truth, by singularising his project and separating it from the dominant models of the history of philosophy. Third, Foucault aims to differentiate himself from the results of the historical work of the Paris School. This article analyses how Foucault depends on these interpretations and how it helps him to acquire philosophical relevance. Through the sociology of intellectual history’s perspective, the article elaborates the contributions and limits of Foucault’s perspective. © The Author(s) 2020.

Author Keywords
Michel Foucault; political philosophy; sociology of intellectuals; sociology of knowledge; sociology of philosophy