Foucault News

Political Repertoires: Tellability and Subjectivation (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

20 February 2017

Teófilo Espada-Brignoni and Frances Ruiz-Alfaro, Political Repertoires: Tellability and Subjectivation in Music as a Platform for Political Communication,Uche Onyebadi (ed.) IGI Global, 2017

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-1986-7.ch003

Abstract
Songwriting, whether creative or unoriginal, can challenge or promote the values of the dominant discourses in a particular society. Within the context of popular music, Gil Scott-Heron wrote songs that problematize official discourses about family life, the African-American experience, the government, and rappers, among other topics. Through discourse analysis, in this chapter the authors explore how songs written by Scott-Heron deal with the narrations and definitions others ascribe to the self, questioning a diversity of accounts and explanations regarding social and personal experience. Gathering ideas from Michel Foucault’s and Judith Butler’s notion of “subjectivation,” Kathy Popkin’s considerations on “tellability,” and Enrique Pichón- Rivière’s conceptualization of bonds, the authors discuss political repertoires articulated through music.

Foucault as Educator (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

19 February 2017

Ball, Stephen J., Foucault as Educator, SpringerBriefs on Key Thinkers in Education, 2017

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First concise volume adressing together Foucault’s references to the field of education
Discusses Foucault’s perspective on the relations of power that are inextricably embedded in the pedagogical processes
Describes Foucault’s genealogical method as a form of education

This book considers Foucault as educator in three main ways. First, through some consideration of what his work says about education as a social and political practice. That is, education as a form of what Allen (2014) calls benign violence – which operates through mundane, quotidian disciplinary technologies and expert knowledges which together construct a ‘pedagogical machine’. Second, through an exploration of his ‘method’ as a form of critique. That is, as a way of showing that things are ‘not as necessary as all that’, a way of addressing what is intolerable. This suggests that critique is education of a kind. Third, through a discussion of some of Foucault’s later work on subjectivity and in particular on ‘the care of the self’ or what we might call ‘a pedagogy of the self’. Each chapter introduces and discusses some relevant examples from educational settings to illustrate and enact Foucault’s analytics.

Table of contents
The Impossibility of Education
Education as Critique—‘Un-thinking’ Education
Education as the Pedagogy of the Self

About the author
Stephen J Ball is Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education at the University College London, Institute of Education. He was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2006; and is also Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; and Society of Educational Studies, and a Laureate of Kappa Delta Phi; he has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Turku (Finland), and Leicester. He is co-founder and Managing Editor of the Journal of Education Policy.

His main areas of interest are in sociologically informed education policy analysis and the relationships between education, education policy and social class. He has written 20 books and had published over 140 journal articles. Recent books: How Schools do Policy (2012), Global Education Inc. (2012), Networks, New Governance and Education (with Carolina Junemann)(2012), and Foucault, Power and Education (2013).

Genealogy and educational research (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

19 February 2017

Christensen, G.
Genealogy and educational research
(2016) International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 29 (6), pp. 763-776.

DOI: 10.1080/09518398.2016.1162871

Abstract
The aim of this paper was to demonstrate how genealogy can be used as a method for critical education research. As Foucault emphasized, genealogy is a method for identifying the way in which the individuals are subjectified through discourse. The genealogical analysis in the article defines two mayor tendencies in contemporary Danish pedagogy: individualization and structuralizing. The analyses also show an example of how the two tendencies are intermingled in the Danish law of learning plans in day care institutions. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
Howard Gardner; learning plans; Marxist pedagogy; Michel Foucault

The accountability generation: exploring an emerging leadership paradigm for beginning principals (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

18 February 2017

Heffernan, A.
The accountability generation: exploring an emerging leadership paradigm for beginning principals
(2017) Discourse, pp. 1-12. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2017.1280001

Abstract
School leaders in Queensland, Australia, are working in a rapidly shifting policy landscape, expected to work towards system-defined improvement measures involving increasingly higher external accountabilities. This article analyses a group of long-term case studies of the effects of school improvement expectations on principals since the introduction of National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) in 2008. Foucauldian theory is used to analyse the influence of performative cultures on a group of Queensland principals. A unique feature of this geographical region is the large proportion of small-school principals, the majority of whom are in the early stages of their teaching careers. Having joined the teaching profession post-NAPLAN, the influence of these accountabilities emerges as a point of difference between them and longer-established principals. The article identifies the emergence of this new leadership paradigm as an area inviting further inquiry within the field of educational leadership research, exploring the influence of rapidly shifting expectations on leadership practices. © 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Author Keywords
case study; early-career principals; Foucault; Leadership; performativity

France: Defection of the Leftist Intellectuals. Research Paper from the CIA archives (1985/ 2013)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

17 February 2017

France: Defection of the Leftist Intellectuals
More readable PDF of document

Research Paper from the CIA archives. Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/05/13
!reformation available as of 15 November 1985 was used in this report.

Scope note
Intellectuals have traditionally played an influential role in French political life. Even though they have seldom sought a direct part in formulating policy, they have conditioned the atmosphere in which politics are conducted and have frequently served as important shape s of the political and ideological trends that generate French policy. Recognizing that their influence on policy making is difficult to measure, his paper focuses on the changing attitudes of French intellectuals and gauges the probable impact on the political environment in which policy is made.

[…] With one or two exceptions, important intellectuals-such as anthropologist Michel Foucault-refused positions in Mitterrand’s government.

See Gabriel Rockhill’s commentary on this in The Philosophical Salon, 28 February 2017.

With thanks to DMF for this news!

Critical analysis of textbooks: knowledge-generating logics and the emerging image of ‘global economic contexts’ (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

17 February 2017

Thoma, M.
Critical analysis of textbooks: knowledge-generating logics and the emerging image of ‘global economic contexts’
(2017) Critical Studies in Education, 58 (1), pp. 19-35.

DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2015.1111248

Abstract
This paper presents an approach to the critical analysis of textbook knowledge, which, working from a discourse theory perspective (based on the work of Foucault), refers to the performative nature of language. The critical potential of the approach derives from an analysis of knowledge-generating logics, which produce particular images of reality in the textual material. This kind of criticism creates space for didactic reflection in which something ‘other’ can be systematically highlighted. The approach is described by means of an example, an analysis of Austrian textbooks on business administration, looking specifically at the knowledge they contain about global economic contexts. © 2015 Taylor & Francis.

Author Keywords
discourse analysis; discourse theory; Foucault; global citizenship education; post-structuralism; textbook analysis

Foucault à Münsterlingen. À l’origine de l’Histoire de la folie (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

17 February 2017

Foucault à Münsterlingen. À l’origine de l’Histoire de la folie
Jean-François Bert & Elisabetta Basso (ed.)
Avec des photographies de Jacqueline Verdeaux, Éditions de l’EHESS

En 1954, Michel Foucault participe à une fête des fous à l’asile psychiatrique suisse de Münsterlingen, dont il reste des photos, inédites. Étrange cérémonie, survivance d’un rituel hérité directement du Moyen Âge, qui marqua le jeune philosophe en train d’élaborer une nouvelle manière de parler de la folie et de son histoire.

Cette visite de Michel Foucault en mars 1954 à l’asile psychiatrique suisse de Münsterlingen le jour d’un carnaval des fous nous apprend beaucoup à la fois sur le jeune philosophe – l’année 1954 est riche en événements pour lui –, mais aussi sur ce rituel qui a perduré jusqu’au milieu du xxe siècle. Photos, archives, textes éclairent ce moment trop souvent négligé par les spécialistes de Michel Foucault. Ce début des années 1950 est pourtant marqué par l’entrée de Foucault dans les asiles et par sa passion pour les innovations qui touchent la psychologie clinique.

C’est la germaniste Jacqueline Verdeaux, munie d’un Leika, qui photographie. Ces images laissent entrevoir l’étrange sensation qu’a pu ressentir Foucault lors de ce jour improbable où les fous « jouent » aux fous. Une sensation d’autant plus étrange que l’asile cantonal est, avec la clinique universitaire du Burghölzli de Zürich, l’une des plaques tournantes de la psychiatrie suisse.

Ce livre, qui aborde une période inexplorée, et non abordée dans La Pléiade à paraître, nous pousse à renverser les perspectives familières concernant Michel Foucault.

Table des matières

« Retour à Münsterlingen »
par Jean-François Bert

La « gentille dame Largactil », la « méchante dame Geigy » : la clinique psychiatrique de Münsterlingen vers 1954
Magaly Tornay, traduction de Yann Dahhaoui

Foucault et le Rorschach
Jean-François Bert & Elisabetta Basso

Foucault et le Carnaval
Emmanuel Désveaux

Foucault à Lille, 1952-1955 : entre philosophie et psychologie
Philippe Sabot

Fiches préparatoires de Michel Foucault sur l’histoire de la psychiatrie
Jean-François Bert & Elisabetta Basso

Première lecture de Traum und Existenz
Transcription Jean-François Bert, présentation Elisabetta Basso

Le rêve et de l’existence, histoire d’une traduction
Elisabetta Basso

Correspondance Foucault-Binswanger
Traduction de René Wetzel, présentation par Elisabeth Basso

De quelques sources de Maladie mentale et personnalité. Réflexologie pavlovienne et critique sociale
Luca Paltrinieri

Foucault et le savoir psychologique : retour sur deux articles rédigés en 1954
Jean-François Bert

La fête des fous de Michel Foucault
Yann Dahhaoui

Unissons-nous, soyons fous ! ». Fête des fous, carnaval et Mad Pride : Continuités, ruptures et perspectives
René Wetzel

With thanks to Stuart Elden for this news

The politics of pleasure: an ethnographic examination exploring the dominance of the multi-activity sport-based physical education model (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

16 February 2017

Gerdin, G., Pringle, R.
The politics of pleasure: an ethnographic examination exploring the dominance of the multi-activity sport-based physical education model
(2017) Sport, Education and Society, 22 (2), pp. 194-213.

DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2015.1019448

Abstract
Kirk warns that physical education (PE) exists in a precarious situation as the dominance of the multi-activity sport-techniques model, and its associated problems, threatens the long-term educational survival of PE. Yet he also notes that although the model is problematic it is highly resistant to change. In this paper, we draw on the results of a year-long visual ethnography at an all-boys secondary school in Aotearoa New Zealand to examine the workings of power that legitimate this model of PE. Our findings illustrate that the school conflates PE and sport, to position PE as an appropriate masculine endeavour and valued source of enjoyment, as it articulates with good health, social development and competitiveness. We argue that student experiences of pleasure within PE—as co-constitutive with discourses of fitness, health, sport and masculinity—(re)produce the multi-activity sport-based form of PE as educationally appropriate and socioculturally relevant, thus making the model somewhat resistant to change. We stress that our study should not be read as a vindication of this PE model. © 2015 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
Foucault; Masculinity; Physical education; Pleasure; Politics; Sport

Pouvoir constituant betrayed: a model of abjection in power relations (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

16 February 2017

Murphy, Michael P. A. 2017. “Pouvoir constituant betrayed: a model of abjection in power relations” Journal of Political Power (Ahead of Print): 1-9.
DOI: 10.1080/2158379X.2017.1287471

Abstract
Examination of the limit serves as a powerful tool for revealing the hidden characteristics of concepts, and also their relationship with other concepts. This article follows the processes of sovereign exceptionalism from Marx to the capitalist estrangement of labour from Marx to their limit figures. The paper builds on comparisons between the proletarian and the homo sacer; however, the focal point is not on the figures themselves, but their importance in understanding the effect of biopolitics on power relations. Building on the concept of pouvoir constituant as discussed by Carl Schmitt, this paper addresses the ways in which different types of constituent power form structures that can then be used against the constituents themselves. The limit figures suggest a process of abjection is co-created in the establishment of power structures, and that overcoming this process requires a conscious dis-agreement with the politics of policing.

Bruno Latour, Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern (2004)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

15 February 2017

Bruno Latour, Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern, Critical Inquiry 30 (Winter 2004)

Full PDF

Wars. So many wars. Wars outside and wars inside. Cultural wars, science wars, and wars against terrorism. Wars against poverty and wars against the poor. Wars against ignorance and wars out of ignorance. My question is simple: Should we be at war, too, we, the scholars, the intellectuals? Is it really our duty to add fresh ruins to fields of ruins? Is it really the task of the humanities to add deconstruction to destruction? More iconoclasm to iconoclasm? What has become of the critical spirit? Has it run out of steam?

[…] What has become of critique when DARPA uses for its Total Information Awareness project the Baconian slogan Scientia est potentia? Didn’t I read that somewhere in Michel Foucault? Has knowledge-slash-power been co-opted of late by the National Security Agency? Has Discipline and Punish become the bedtime reading of Mr. Ridge?