Foucault News

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

Special Issue: Critical Histories of the Present (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

23 September 2017

The Southern Journal of Philosophy, Special Issue: Critical Histories of the Present, September 2017, Volume 55, Issue Supplement S1. Pages 1–209

Editor’s Introduction: Critical Histories of the Present (pages 5–6)
Verena Erlenbusch

Overcoming “The Present Limits of the Necessary”: Foucault’s Conception of a Critique (pages 7–24)
Tuomo Tiisala

Comments on Tuomo Tiisala, “Overcoming ‘The Present Limits of the Necessary’: Foucault’s Conception of a Critique” (pages 25–30)
Maia Nahele Huff-Owen

“Psychoanalysis and Ethnology” Revisited: Foucault’s Historicization of History (pages 31–46)
Amy Allen

Commentary on Amy Allen’s “‘Psychoanalysis and Ethnology Revisited’: Foucault’s Historicization of History” (pages 47–50)
Jasmine Wallace

Toward Abolitionist Genealogy (pages 51–77)
Andrew Dilts

Specters of Sovereignty: Comments on Andrew Dilts’ “Toward Abolitionist Genealogy” (pages 78–85)
B. Tamsin Kimoto

The Genealogy of Abstractive Practices (pages 86–97)
Mary Beth Mader

Abstraction and the Method of Genealogy (pages 98–102)
Jordan Liz

Conceptual Analysis for Genealogical Philosophy: How to Study the History of Practices after Foucault and Wittgenstein (pages 103–121)
Colin Koopman

Comments on Colin Koopman, “Conceptual Analysis for Genealogical Philosophy: How to Study the History of Practices after Foucault and Wittgenstein” (pages 122–125)
James E. Zubko Jr.

The Morality of Corporate Persons (pages 126–148)
Ladelle McWhorter

Response to Ladelle McWhorter, “The Morality of Corporate Persons” (pages 149–152)
Shouta Brown

Foucault and Shakespeare: Ceremony, Theatre, Politics (pages 153–172)
Stuart Elden

The Modern Drama of coup d’État and Systems of Discipline: Foucault and Political Ceremony (pages 173–179)
Bilge Akbalik

When is the Time of Revolution? Critical Reflections on Political Insurgency (pages 180–199)
Kevin Olson

Polyrhythms of Revolution: A Comment on Kevin Olson’s “When is the Time of Revolution?” (pages 200–208)

Psychoanalysis and ethnology revisited: Foucault’s historicization of history (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

22 September 2017

Allen, A.
Psychoanalysis and ethnology revisited: Foucault’s historicization of history
(2017) Southern Journal of Philosophy, 55, pp. 31-46.

DOI: 10.1111/sjp.12229

Abstract
This article re-examines the closing sections of Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things in order to address the longstanding question of whether he is best understood as a philosopher or a historian. My central argument is that this question misses the crucial point of Foucault’s work, which is to historicize the notion of history (as it is traditionally understood, represented by History with a capital H), which Foucault takes to be central to the historical a priori of modernity. An examination of his historicization of History thus reveals that Foucault is neither simply a philosopher—because he conceives of philosophy in modernity as a historical enterprise— nor a historian—because his own historical approach is designed to transform the modern historical a priori from within. This analysis also sheds new light of Foucault’s relationship to psychoanalysis and his conception of critique. © 2017, University of Memphis, Department of Philosophy. All rights reserved.

Lutheran secularism as a challenge for constructive theology: A Swedish perspective, a foucauldian proposal (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

21 September 2017

Martinson, M.
Lutheran secularism as a challenge for constructive theology: A Swedish perspective, a foucauldian proposal
(2017) Dialog, 56 (3), pp. 233-243.

DOI: 10.1111/dial.12334

Abstract
In this article the Swedish Lutheran heritage is discussed in relation to its historical connections with secularism. The question is raised whether and how constructive and liberating Lutheran theology can be developed under such conditions. In order to deal with this problem, Michel Foucault’s late philosophy of truth and subjectivity is discussed. A proposition is made for a constructive theology that does not retreat from secularism but is critically involved in the secular through an emphasized confidence in God. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals and Dialog, Inc.

Author Keywords
Constructive theology; Michel Foucault; Secularism; Swedish lutheranism; Truth

Document Type: Article
Source: Scopus

Bilge Akbalik, The modern drama of coup d’etat and systems of discipline: Foucault and political ceremony (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

20 September 2017

Bilge Akbalik, The modern drama of coup d’etat and systems of discipline: Foucault and political ceremony (2017) Southern Journal of Philosophy, 55, pp. 173-179.
https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12232

Abstract
The objective of my comments is to draw attention to the complex relationship between the juridico-political model of sovereignty and disciplinary power in Foucault’s work. I suggest that Elden’s reading of Foucault and Shakespeare opens up new ways to understand contemporary forms of governmentality through a genealogy of political ceremony and theatricality. More specifically, my comments seek to show that an examination of the ceremoniality of coup d’Etat in connection with what Foucault calls the “democratization of sovereignty” is potentially fruitful for examining modern forms of the government of civil society and counterconduct. © 2017, University of Memphis, Department of Philosophy. All rights reserved.

ONLINE il nuovo numero di “materiali foucaultiani” (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

19 September 2017

Click here if the facebook post below is not showing properly

“Althusser, Foucault et le codage idéologique. Notes sur le Cours de Vincennes sur la sexualité (1969)” (2107)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

19 September 2017

Click here if the facebook post below is not displaying properly

Collective subjectivations and desubjectivations in the present. Thinking with and beyond Michel Foucault (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

18 September 2017

Genealogy and Political Theory, 29 September 2017, Amsterdam

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

18 September 2017

stuartelden's avatarProgressive Geographies

Workshop: Genealogy and Political Theory, 29 September 2017, 10.00 hrs. – 17.00 hrs.
Campus Roeterseiland, building J/K, room B22 (Valckenierstraat 65-67, 1018 XE Amsterdam)

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of works of and on genealogy by political theorists and historians of political thought. However, with this proliferation comes questions about what exactly genealogy is, how to understand past work on and of genealogy (in particular by Nietzsche and Foucault), how it is connected to other forms of critical inquiry (such as ideology critique), and what its role can and should be in political theorising more broadly.

This workshop brings together scholars working on genealogy to discuss and begin to answer these questions, with a particular focus on the growing contribution of genealogy for helping us to make sense of contemporary political theory and practice.

Programme

  • 10:00 – Professor Bernard Reginster (Brown University), “Nietzsche on Truth and Genealogy”.
  • 11:10 – Coffee…

View original post 88 more words

Il “campo”, il razzismo di stato (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

18 September 2017

Il “campo”, il razzismo di stato, Archeologia Filosofica

Open access journal

Politiche di morte e governo della vita, II
Paolo Vernaglione Berardi

The last decrees imposed by national governments in EU (Italy, East Europe countries) represent the limit of governmentality. The adopted paradigm of the restrictive laws against the migrants coming from Libia, in facts breaks the international right about the rescue of the shipwreck victims. This “state of emergency” is implementing all the measures to maintain “public order” inside the cities, with evictions, ID checks, and generally production of fear. In this respect, the “racism of State” that Foucault had investigated in the mid Seventies has actually assumed the form of the “concentration camp”.

Nelle lezioni del Corso al College de France del 1976, dedicate al potere e alla guerra come matrice dei rapporti di potere, Michel Foucault introduce una nuova analitica che diverge dalle interpretazioni filosofico-politiche del potere. Mentre la teoria politica interpreta la sovranità come paradigma unico del potere, la genealogia storico-politica dei dispositivi disciplinari ci permette di vedere che non è tanto “il principe”, il sovrano, il re ad essere il luogo di costituzione e mantenimento del potere, quanto i rapporti tra gruppi classi, popolazioni nella storia dei conflitti e delle guerre. E ci fa comprendere che l’esercizio della sovranità è possibile a partire dalle distinzioni tra potere sovrano e governo. Il re regna ma non governa come il filosofo Giorgio Agamben ha dimostrato indicando la derivazione teologico-economica e non teologico-politica del potere sovrano[1].

continua a leggere

La metafisica del boia
recensione: Kyle Harper, From Shame to Sin: the Christiane Transformation of Sexual Morality in Late Antiquity

Alessandro Baccarin

Nell’Atene e nella Corinto del IV secolo d.C., quando il cristianesimo è ormai religione di stato e degli imperatori, gli opifici delle due città greche producevano alacremente lucerne decorate con esplicite immagini erotiche. Queste immagini appartenevano ad un repertorio iconografico secolare, parte integrante di un ornamentale talmente abituale e tradizionale da risultare invisibile agli occhi dei pii abitanti del tardo impero romano… (pdf)

Il pensiero ad oriente
recensione: François Jullien, Entrare in un pensiero. Sui “possibili” dello spirito

Giuseppe D’Acunto

Giunto a una fase avanzata del suo lavoro di filosofo e di sinologo, Jullien con questo libro ritiene sia arrivato, per lui, il momento per porsi la questione in cui si riassume la motivazione che ha animato la sua intera impresa scientifica: questione il cui ricorso è giustificato anche in sede speculativa, se è vero che il problema del cominciamento può essere accostato solo a cammino già iniziato e retrospettivamente. La strategia che egli intende seguire non è, però, quella di partire – cartesianamente – dal dubbio.

Denise Mifsud, Foucault and School Leadership Research. Bridging Theory and Method (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

17 September 2017

Denise Mifsud, Foucault and School Leadership Research. Bridging Theory and Method, Bloomsbury Academic, 2017

Foucault and School Leadership Research illustrates the application of Foucauldian theory to an educational leadership research context, thus staging the ways a researcher negotiates the methodological tensions and contradictions in the conduct of qualitative inquiry within education research.

The book draws on an empirical study of a multi-site school collaborative that investigates relations of power within the unfolding network among the various leadership hierarchies in school governance. The book is anchored around a narrative dramatization that the author, Denise Mifsud, crafts from her data, using the dramatic play as a medium to present her research findings so as to show rather than just tell readers about network leadership dynamics. Mifsud’s innovative use of dramatization to communicate her findings and analysis serves to problematize the representation of qualitative research, as well as to incorporate researcher interpretation and explicate the intertwining nature of theory and methodology. Through the use of Foucauldian theory, mainly his notions of webs of power, discipline, governmentality, discourse, and subjectification, the research narrative critiques and problematizes traditional understandings of educational leadership.

The book focuses on and demonstrates the challenging enterprise of the art of theory application in method by outlining the epistemological, operational and analytical challenges encountered: the application of Foucauldian concepts in education research contexts; the adaptation of methodological and theoretical concerns; in addition to showing how the quality of research outcomes is shaped by social theory.

Table of contents

1. Introduction: Setting the Stage for the Research Narrative
2. Foucauldian Props for Data Interpretation and Representation I
3. Foucauldian Props for Data Interpretation and Representation II
4. Data Analysis Choices and the Crisis of Representation
5. Data Analysis Choices and the Fictional Representation of Narrative
6. Raising the Curtain on Sunnyside College
7. The Performance of Collegiality
8. The Fluidity in the Emerging Relations of Power
9. The Unfolding of Leadership Distribution
10. Bringing Down the Curtain?
11. Presenting Conclusions and Theorisations: The Quasi-Final Stage
References
Index

Reviews

“There are now many books about Foucault. This book uses Foucault and takes on the spirit and style of his method to explore the practice of institutional leadership. Drawing on Foucault’s interest in absurdist drama, Mifsud’s study examines some of the dramas of institutional life. In doing so she throws down a challenge to the orthodoxes of qualitative method.” 
–  Stephen J. Ball FBA, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education, UCL Institute of Education, UK

Blog at WordPress.com.