Foucault News

Siffrinn, N.E., McGovern, K.R.
Expanding youth participatory action research: a Foucauldian take on youth identities
(2019) International Multilingual Research Journal, 13 (3), pp. 168-180.

DOI: 10.1080/19313152.2019.1623636

Abstract
This paper explores the identity construction of multilingual and multidialectal middle school students in a semester-long youth participatory action research (YPAR) project. In particular, it moves beyond an emancipatory discourse that views youth identity development from a point of marginalization by drawing on Foucauldian notions of discourse, power, and the subject to examine the complex discursive formations that enable and constrain the continual remaking of the self. Emergent understandings show how, regardless of whether youth took up or resisted positioning as social change agents, they deftly and creatively maneuvered across networks of power/discourse to constitute themselves in ways that were useful, even if not in line with the goals of the project. Implications include the need to reframe identity work in youth participatory action research in an effort to understand the nuances and complexities that inform the constant construction and negotiation of the self in ever-shifting networks of power/discourse. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Author Keywords
Foucault; multilingualism; youth identities; YPAR

Gassner, G.
Thinking against Heritage: speculative development and emancipatory politics in the City of London
(2019) Journal of Urbanism, 12 (3), pp. 279-295.

DOI: 10.1080/17549175.2019.1576757

Abstract
What does a political conceptualisation of the relationship between urban development and heritage involve? Against the widespread idea that there is a conflict between densification and the protection of historic buildings and sites in the City of London, I show that a conservative heritage discourse promotes the construction of speculative towers. Arguing against a City that is privately owned, self-competing and socially homogeneous, I develop a democratic understanding of history that contests an essentialist reading of the city and challenges the idea that speculative developments direct attention to and visually enhance historic landmarks. Aligning historical analysis with political critique, I draw on the work of Walter Benjamin and Michel Foucault and discuss notions of “historical events” and “cultural treasures” in order to think against the prevailing speculative logic in the city. © 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
critical theory; Heritage values; London; Speculative development; Urban politics

Barnett, N.J., Griggs, S., Howarth, D.
Whatever Happened to Councillors? Problematising the Deficiency Narrative in English Local Politics
(2019) Political Studies, 67 (3), pp. 775-794.

DOI: 10.1177/0032321718807379

Abstract
Calls for councillors to change are nothing new, even from staunch defenders of local democracy. But one critical question has been sidestepped: Why have councillors been persistently constructed as a ‘problem’ for local government? This article draws upon Foucault to detect the emergence and sedimentation of an overriding problematisation of councillors. Our genealogical analysis of a range of public commissions and inquiries, policy documents and academic discourses reveals a ‘deficiency narrative’, forged during the managerialist turn in the 1960s and subsequently reframed in the 1990s and 2000s through the lens of community leadership. We show that the exclusions and methodological limits of this imaginary blinker studies of councillors, leaving an unhelpfully normative stance within local government studies. Such deficits also lead to a ‘smoothing out’ of the complexity of local politics, downplay local dynamics and political work, and miss important insights into the practices of local democracy. © The Author(s) 2019.

Author Keywords
community leadership; councillors; local government; managerialism; problematisation

Brookfield, K.
Studentified areas as contested heterotopias: Findings from Southampton
(2019) Area, 51 (2), pp. 350-359.

DOI: 10.1111/area.12458

Abstract
The ongoing “massification” of higher education in the UK has generated increased demand for student housing. Some of this demand is being met by new, purpose-built student accommodation, but much is being met through an intensification of student properties in established “student areas,” and the expansion of student housing into neighbourhoods previously unaffected by high levels of student in-migration in a process termed “studentification.” Previous research indicates that the arrival of multiple student households in established residential areas creates conflict and adversely affects the non-student population. Wishing to understand better these effects, this paper draws on focus group discussions completed with 11 diverse residents’ groups based across Southampton, an English university city, which explored attitudes towards, and experiences of, studentification. Seeking a more robust theorisation of the sociospatial impacts of, and responses to, this process, the findings are considered in relation to Foucault’s concept of “heterotopia.” Reflecting previous findings, the residents’ groups emerged as firm critics of studentification. Considered against Foucault’s concept, it appeared that the “heterotopian” qualities of studentified areas formed the points of most concern. Implications for the future of studentified areas, and for the concept of heterotopia, are explored.

Author Keywords
heterotopia; higher education; neighbourhood change; resident activism; studentification; students