Foucault News

Reinvenções de Foucault (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

30 July 2017

Ana Kiffer.(org.)
Antonio Pele.(org.)
Francisco de Guimaraens.(org.)
Mauricio Rocha.(org.)
Rafael Becker.(org.)

Lamparina, 2017
ISBN 978 85 8316 050 2Cód. barras 9788583160502

Em 1973, Michel Foucault apresenta no Collège de France o Curso “A sociedade punitiva”, parte do conjunto de análises que servirão de base ao livro Vigiar e Punir, de 1975. As gravações do curso foram perdidas e apenas uma transcrição e o resumo foram conservados. Publicado em dezembro de 2013, o Curso sugere muitas questões aos leitores de Foucault e solicita a reformulação de algumas convicções correntes sobre sua obra. Variações sobre a análise da prisão, continuidades e rupturas em relação a Vigiar e Punir e esclarecimentos (ou novos enigmas) sobre a complexa relação entre Foucault e Marx são alguns dos assuntos que emergem da leitura do Curso. Em 2015, um evento acadêmico na PUC Rio teve como fio condutor a interpretação de ‘‘A sociedade punitiva’’ no horizonte da obra foucaultiana. Os trabalhos apresentados por pesquisadores argentinos e brasileiros são agora compilados e oferecidos ao público no livro Reinvenções de Foucault.

Pesquisadores participantes: Mauricio Rocha, Edgardo Castro, Ana Kiffer, Peter Pál Pelbart, Joel Birman, Susana Murillo, Francisco de Guimaraens, Angelica de Britto Pereira Pizarro, Cristina López, Antonio Pele, Fabián Ludueña Romandini, Marcelo Raffin, Rachel Nigro, Bernardo Carvalho Oliveira, Leon Farhi Neto, Andrea Moreira Streva, Eduardo Stelmann, Fernanda Ferreira Pradal, Juliana Moreira Streva, Felipe de Andrade e Souza, Clécio Lemos, Julia Naidin, Rafael Cataneo Becker, Alessandra Vannucci, Aline Caldeira Lopes, Larissa Drigo Agostinho.

Sumário

Apresentação
Mauricio Rocha

“Surveiller et punir”: entre dispositivo y veridicción
Edgardo Castro<

“Attica, Attica!”: Foucault e os 39 detentos
Eduardo Stelmann

Ilegalismos: uma categoria sobre o poder punitivo seletivo em diálogo com o marxismo?
Fernanda Ferreira Pradal

Foucault y Marx: aproximaciones a la construcción de un dispositivo de lectura
Susana Murillo

O poder de matar do Estado em Michel Foucault: uma investigação sobre o racismo
Juliana Moreira Streva

O biopoder e os direitos em Michel Foucault
Francisco de Guimaraens

O problema da norma no funcionamento do poder em “A sociedade punitiva”
Angelica de Britto Pereira Pizarro

Entre a lei e a norma
Andrea Moreira Streva

Tempo de vida e tempo de trabalho em “A sociedade punitiva” de Foucault
Felipe de Andrade e Souza

“Homo penalis” no Brasil neoliberal: entendendo o grande encarceramento a partir de Foucault
Clécio Lemos

De la guerra contra el derecho: consideraciones sobre los aportes y limitaciones del enfoque belicoso del dispositivo jurídico
Cristina López

A infâmia e o “Intolerável”: personagens da dissidência na filosofia de Foucault
Julia Naidin

Reformular “la sociedad punitiva” como crítica al capitalismo
Antonio Pele

La disciplina monástica medieval como dispositivo económico-político: una genealogía complementaria de “Vigilar y castigar”
Fabián Ludueña Romandini

O problema da resistência em Foucault: da guerra civil à dispersão?
Rafael Cataneo Becker

Las cuestiones de la verdad y la subjetividad en el proyecto “Vigilar y castigar”
Marcelo Raffin

Foucault e o “estruturalismo”: uma relação “problemática”
Rachel Nigro

Antígona e a coragem de dizer a verdade
Alessandra Vannucci

Entre o amor e a guerra: união homoafetiva e Forças Armadas no Brasil
Aline Caldeira Lopes

A própria vida como prova: perigo e experimentação na educação em Foucault
Bernardo Carvalho Oliveira

Foucault e a questão do sujeito
Joel Birman

Michel Foucault e o nomadismo intelectual
Leon Farhi Neto

O diagrama, funções e operações
Larissa Drigo Agostinho

Cadernos do corpo para o cárcere da alma
Ana Kiffer

Da dessubjetivação nomádica à subjetivação herética: Foucault, Agamben, Deleuze
Peter Pál Pelbart

CFP: The eighteenth annual meeting of the Foucault Circle (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

29 July 2017

CALL FOR PAPERS
The eighteenth annual meeting of the Foucault Circle

John Carroll University
University Heights, OH
April 6-8, 2018

We seek submissions for papers on any aspect of Foucault’s work, as well as studies, critiques, and applications of Foucauldian thinking.

Paper submissions require an abstract of no more than 750 words. All submissions should be formatted as a “.doc” or “.docx” attachment, prepared for anonymous review, and sent via email to the attention of program committee chair Joanna Crosby (foucault.circle@ gmail.com) on or before December 14, 2017. Indicate “Foucault Circle submission” in the subject heading. Program decisions will be announced during the week of January 15, 2018.

This year’s meeting will include a discussion session on Foucault’s 1971 lecture on the work of Manet, Manet and the Object of Painting. The meeting will begin Friday afternoon with a guided tour at the Cleveland Museum of Art focusing on Manet’s work. Morning and afternoon paper sessions will be held on Saturday, followed by a business meeting and dinner. The conference will conclude with paper sessions on Sunday morning. Presenters will have approximately 40 minutes for paper presentation and discussion combined; papers should be a maximum of 3500 words (20-25 minutes reading time).

Logistical information about lodging, transportation, and other arrangements will be available after the program has been announced.

For more information about the Foucault Circle, please see our website:
http://www.foucaultcircle.org
or contact our Coordinator, Ed McGushin:
emcgushin@stonehill.edu

Funding for the 2018 meeting of the Foucault Circle is being provided by
the Don Shula Chair in Philosophy.

David Garland, What is a “history of the present”? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

28 July 2017

David Garland, ‘What is a “history of the present”? On Foucault’s genealogies and their critical preconditions’ Punishment & Society (2014) 16(4)365 – 384
https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474514541711

Abstract
In this article Michel Foucault’s method of writing a “history of the present” is explained, together with its critical objectives and its difference from conventional historiography. Foucault’s shift from a style of historical research and analysis conceived as “archaeology” to one understood as “genealogy” is also discussed, showing how the history of the present deploys genealogical inquiry and the uncovering of hidden conflicts and contexts as a means of re-valuing the value of contemporary phenomena. The article highlights the critical observations of present-day phenomena from which a history of the present begins, paying particular attention to Foucault’s concept of “dispositif” and his method of problematization. Foucault’s analyses of Bentham’s Panopticon, of the disciplinary sources of the modern prison, and of the technology of confession are discussed by way of illustration.

Gift politics: exposure and surveillance in the anthropocene (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 July 2017

Schuilenburg, M., & Peeters, R. (2017). Gift politics: exposure and surveillance in the anthropocene. Crime, Law and Social Change, 1-16.

Open access

Abstract
This article discusses the role of gift relations in the Anthropocene. We reinterpret Mauss’s original concept of the gift to understand its application and transformation in a social context that increasingly sees human behavior as a resource for the realization of governmental and corporate objectives. Contemporary gift relations focus on reciprocity through personal data instead of physical artifacts, and on promoting control and consumerism instead of forging moral and personal obligations. In our analysis, we distinguish two important elements. First, gifts are used to elicit voluntary exposure of personal data by individuals. In exchange for personal data, people are granted material or immaterial rewards. Second, gift relations have a pervasive element of surveillance that aims to influence behavior through personalized feedback or mechanisms of punishment and reward for good behavior.

Stuart Elden, Michel Foucault, ‘Homère, les récits, l’éducation, les discours’ edited by Martin Rueff in NRF (and a question) (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

28 July 2017

Progressive Geographies

medium Another piece of Foucault from the archive was published last year – Michel Foucault, ‘Homère, les récits, l’éducation, les discours‘ edited by Martin Rueff in NRF. Apparently these notes date from the drafting of The Archaeology of Knowledge.

I’ve ordered a copy of this issue, but I found the reference just by chance – I’m wondering if there is a composite list of recently published short pieces by Foucault. My own piece, ‘The Uncollected Foucault‘ appeared in Foucault Studies in 2015 (open access), and was an attempt at a comprehensive list, but it’s already eighteen months out of date. I have a Google Scholar alert but it didn’t pick this one up. There was also an interesting piece on literature and madness in Critique last year. Is anyone else keeping track of new pieces of evidence?

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Workload survival guide for academics (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 July 2017

Workload survival guide for academics, Advice on how to cope with all the work and when to say no to opportunities, Times Higher Education, February 18, 2016

[Editor: This piece by Stuart Elden is part of a larger feature on current workload problems in the university]

‘I try to agree only to talks that move the writing forward, using them as deadlines for producing parts of a wider whole’

I recently spent three days at the Institut Mémoires de l’Edition Contemporaine at the Abbaye d’Ardenne, outside Caen in Normandy. This houses the archives of many French writers, publishers and institutions, including a valuable collection of papers by and relating to Michel Foucault.

The reading room is in the abbey itself; the other buildings have been converted into study-bedrooms, a refectory and conference rooms. Most people using the collections stay on site, take meals together and work in the reading room all the time it is open. There is a shared collective endeavour, a comfortable silence in working hours and a genuine interest in each other’s work in the communal spaces.

All this is at some distance from the working lives of most academics today. Teaching, preparation, marking, office hours, meetings, emails, phone calls and so on make consolidated and protected time for individual study very difficult to obtain and protect. Yet much of our most important work, perhaps especially for academics in the social sciences and humanities, happens alone, in time that cannot easily be quantified, measured or evaluated. Journal articles, chapters and books need consolidated, isolated and protected time; the slow accumulation of reading, thinking and writing, repeated and repeated.

I’m in a privileged position in general in terms of my academic role, and especially this academic year, when I am on sabbatical. But I have an ambitious plan: one book was submitted in the summer before the sabbatical began, I have another that I want to complete and a third with which I want to make good progress. So I set myself some rules to try to structure the days and make the most of the time available (these work just as well for isolated research days, or even just a few hours of writing time).

Number one is not to check email in the morning; email has a habit of setting the day’s agenda for you, instead of being but one of the tasks you need to address. I try to keep nothing in my inbox. This does not mean that every email is already answered, or the associated task completed. It means that the only ones in there are ones I have never seen. Some messages are sorted into consolidated folders – things to do in the office, things to read at some point – others are turned into tasks with scheduled dates and times. So, if nothing in my inbox is older than half a day, it can’t be that urgent. If it is, it’s the sender’s problem, not mine.

I try to keep the morning, or the whole of a shorter slot, as consolidated writing time. I set the agenda. If I’ve had a few productive hours of writing, and feel I am moving things forward, then I am better placed to deal with other tasks – review work, editorial duties, reading PhD students’ work, answering messages. I restrict social media use, usually by using a plug-in to block or limit time. I can always use my phone or iPad, but then it’s really obvious that I’m not working.

I try to agree only to talks that move the writing forward, using them as deadlines for producing parts of a wider whole. There are always exceptions, but preparing a talk can become a major diversion from a focus. The same goes for writing or editing projects – often intriguing, flattering and tempting, and I do those that I can, but they have a cost.

Certain places are also associated with productive work. The specialist archives are one; I’ve also done good work in the British Library Rare Books room in the past. But the best place is still my home study. Close the door – physical and virtual – and get back to writing.

Stuart Elden is professor of political theory and geography at the University of Warwick and author of the forthcoming Foucault’s Last Decade. He blogs at Progressive Geographies.

Lost souls? The demoralization of academic labour in the measured university (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

12 July 2017

Paul Sutton, Lost souls? The demoralization of academic labour in the measured university, Higher Education Research & Development Vol. 36 , Iss. 3,2017
DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2017.1289365

ABSTRACT
In this conceptual paper, I contend that the soul of academic labour is becoming lost in performativity. Performativity, I explain, is a form of regulation and control that deploys technical rationality and judgements to incentivize and punish academics. Indeed, performativity is central to the culture of measurement within contemporary universities. This, I contend, is demoralizing academic labour as performativity only measures and values those dimensions of academic labour that can be captured by quantitative performance indicators. To critique this process, I firstly locate performativity within a moral economy perspective. I argue that the university economy is no longer structured by the moral norm of education as a public good. It has been restructured, commodified and marketized by neo-liberal capitalism. Secondly, I explore how the reorganization of institutional practices and academic identity within the university by performativity wreaks terror in the academic’s soul. Thirdly, I critique the unsatisfying post-structural reduction of the soul to a synonym for subjectivity and offer a sociological conception of the soul as the spiritual dimension of academic labour emerging from deep, rich social relations of production. My conjecture is that the soul is the moral energy and purpose central to species-being: the peculiarly human ability to transform the socio-human world for the good of all. Finally, I suggest that within the soulless technical measure of academic labour that now dominates the university lies the possibility for developing a more soulful normative measure. My aim then is to articulate a dialectical humanist conception of the soul of academic labour in order to critique the reductive positivism of the measured university.

KEYWORDS: Academic labour, dialectical humanism, performativity, soul, species-being

Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

2 comments

7 July 2017

Stephen J Ball, Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast, Policy Futures in education, Volume: 14 issue: 8, page(s): 1046-1059
Article first published online: August 23, 2016;Issue published: November 1, 2016

DOI: 10.1177/1478210316664259

Abstract
A major aim of this paper is to draw attention to the insidious manner in which the deficit discourse and practices associated with neoliberal reform are de- or re-professionalising educationists through an acculturation process. In the context of Ireland, as elsewhere, the author identifies how the three ‘technologies’ of Market, Management and Performance have inconspicuously but harmfully changed the subjective experience of education at all levels. It is argued that the power of privatisation in service delivery gives rise to change in education as part of a slow burn; how management is altering social connections and power relations to less democratic and caring forms, and how performativity and accountability agendas are radically undermining the professionalism of teachers in the hunt for measures, targets, benchmarks, tests, tables, audits to feed the system in the name of improvement. The paper adopts a personal tenor exhorting all educationists to become increasingly critically reflexive, politically aware and urging them to reawaken to their real educational work – the ethical and moral project that most signed up to but which has since become lost.

La force du vrai. De Foucault à Austin (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

6 July 2017

Daniele Lorenzini, La force du vrai. De Foucault à Austin
Le bord de l’eau
Format 13×20 cm – 156 p. – 20 €
Isbn 9782356875310
Collection « diagnostics » dirigee par Fabienne brugere & Guillaume le Blanc
En librairies en juillet 2017

PDF of flyer

Cet ouvrage propose une lecture originale du projet foucaldien d’une histoire de la vérité qui vise à en mettre clairement en lumière les enjeux éthiques et politiques, grâce à l’établissement d’une confrontation entre les analyses de Foucault sur la parrêsia antique, les travaux de J.L. Austin sur l’énoncé performatif et l’étude de l’énoncé passionné par Stanley Cavell. Le problème qui est ainsi posé, en lien mais également en décalage avec les réflexions traditionnelles sur le pouvoir des mots, est celui de la force du vrai : est-il possible ou légitime d’affirmer que la vérité est une force qui s’inscrit, de manière toujours « stratégique », à l’intérieur d’un champ de bataille ? En répondant par l’affirmative, cet ouvrage entreprend d’interroger sous un angle inédit les rapports entre vérité, critique et vie au sein d’une éthique et d’une politique du dire-vrai.

Daniele Lorenzini, docteur en philosophie de l’Université Paris-Est et de l’Université « La Sapienza » de Rome, est chercheur postdoctoral au Centre Prospéro de l’Université Saint-Louis – Bruxelles. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages dont Éthique et politique de soi (Vrin, 2015), il a tout récemment établi l’édition critique de M. Foucault, Dire vrai sur soi-même (Vrin, 2017).

Getting Personal: How Biosecurity Gets Under Our Skin (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

5 July 2017

Julia Toynbee Lagoutte, Getting Personal: How Biosecurity Gets Under Our Skin, Green European Journal, vol 15, April 2017

The term security has acquired such breadth and been remoulded so often that it can start to seem meaningless. It is the mantra that will be invoked to justify human rights infringements or to start a war, but also the term that includes ‘climate’ and ‘energy’ issues. How does it encompass so much and why does it mobilise such power? A book review of Frédéric Gros’s book which outlines the mind-changing concept of biosecurity.

Looking at the word afresh is a guaranteed result of Frédéric Gros’s book Le Principe Sécurité (The Principle Security, 2012). Gros is a French philosopher, Michel Foucault expert, and author of the bestseller A Philosophy of Walking (2014). No less intellectually stimulating and philosophical for being a readable ride through history, Gros sets out a Foucauldian-style genealogy of the concept of security. He sets out what he calls its four main usages, contextualising them within their historic Western origins, and ending with biosecurity (a nascent, under-theorised Foucauldian concept that Gros defines anew).

One of the book’s most intriguing elements is how Gros conceives these four disparate senses of security to interact with each other, and how they disappear and re-emerge, modernised and updated to the situation, throughout time and space. Most salient is the way he maps out the increasing importance of biosecurity and its contradictory, potent synthesis with other senses of security to make up our current notion of security.