Foucault News

Lenneis, V., Pfister, G.
Health messages, middle-aged women and the pleasure of play
(2016) Annals of Leisure Research, pp. 1-20. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/11745398.2016.1207091

Abstract
Western societies glorify youth and consider middle age as the onset of deterioration. The prevalent discourses on middle-aged women focus primarily on negative developments in their lives such as increased health risks after menopause. Little is known, however, about the lived experiences of this age group. In this article, we share information about the health- and ageing-related attitudes of women aged 45–55 years who took part in a physical activity intervention in Denmark. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of disciplinary power and governmentality, we explored via 15 semi-structured interviews the women’s reasons for participation and their experiences with playing a team game. The interviews revealed that they had internalized the messages of ‘healthy ageing’ and felt guilty about their previous inactive lifestyle. However, their participation was also influenced by changing life circumstances. Now they had time to exercise and, contrary to previous experiences, they found that playing games provided pleasure. © 2016 Australia and New Zealand Association of Leisure Studies

Author Keywords
ageing; Gender; leisure time physical activity; midlife; qualitative research

Nancy Partner, Foucault’s iconic afterlife: The posthumous reach of words and things, History & Theory Volume 55, Issue 4, December 2016, Pages 35–53
https://doi.org/10.1111/hith.10827

ABSTRACT
The lasting influence of Michel Foucault’s work is both instantly recognizable in that his very name can be invoked as a noun or adjective (“Foucauldian”), as a critical stance or attitude without further elaboration, and yet his signature concepts have been flattened, stretched, exaggerated, and thinned as they have been applied by his most enthusiastic followers. Although Foucault has entered the canon of philosophers, he also became iconic, most notably with the typographic icon, power/knowledge, a (possibly unwanted) achievement of recognition and compression virtually unknown to other philosophers. In this essay, I consider the Foucault of the philosophical canon, and I trace some of the main routes of the iconic Foucault into acceptance or nonacceptance by the academic disciplines, notably history and anthropology, and numerous other unexpected venues where variants of Foucault’s ideas have found surprising homes. I also contemplate the meaning of the status of “iconicity” as it has been analyzed by sociologists, and the possibility that iconic misreadings of Foucault’s concepts have been extraordinarily “good to think with” by his critics.

Keywords:
Sahlins;power/knowledge;icon;iconic;iconicity;history;anthropology;Leviathan

Fabienne de Bilbao, Paola Bonavitacola, The abuses of a certain knowledge
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis,
First published: 5 April 2016

DOI: 10.1111/1745-8315.12493

Abstract
In the psychiatric institution, the sex act is a matter of controversy, all the more so when elderly patients with dementia are concerned. Yet, a question imposes itself: thinking beyond the biomedical model, the current governing paradigm for explaining senile dementia, what effects does the repression of the sex act have on the symptoms of the demented patient? The psychoanalytic exploration of the institutional situation described here suggests that the sexual demands of the patient suffering from dementia would not be meaningless, but would constitute a defensive modality against the return of a former threat of castration. Their repression, by means of practices that impede the libido in its search of an object, would reinforce the process of dementia by encouraging a regression toward earlier stages of development. More generally, the authors argue that unconscious dynamic processes might play a major role in the development of senile dementia. They show that psychoanalysis constitutes an essential method for the understanding of dementia and challenges the predominance of the biomedical model and its therapeutic arsenal in this context.

Keywords:
Alzheimer disease;institution;sex act;biological psychiatry;incest taboo;castration anxiety;repressive measures;regression;treatment;psychotropic drugs;morality

Lefebvre, A.
The Rights of Man and the Care of the Self
(2016) Political Theory, 44 (4), pp. 518-540.

DOI: 10.1177/0090591714556355

Abstract
In this article, I claim that Mary Wollstonecraft and Edmund Burke both conceive of the rights of man as a medium for individuals to care for and cultivate the self. Beginning with Michel Foucault’s doubts that a concern with the care of the self can be found in modern political thought, I turn to Wollstonecraft and Burke in order to show that their debate turns precisely on the question of whether the rights of man enables or disables a care of the self. For Wollstonecraft, on the one hand, the rights of man provide women with a means to overcome a destructive set of virtues—such as beauty, chastity, and modesty—that leave them spiritually destitute and deeply unhappy. For Burke, on the other hand, such rights devastate the system of manners that had previously nurtured the self’s relation to itself. Regardless of this disagreement, my key claim is that both thinkers conceive of the rights of man not just as a juridical construction but also as a comprehensive way of life. In this way, I extend Foucault’s notion of the care of the self—along with his conception of ethics, conversion, and personal cultivation—to a foundational debate in the human rights tradition. © 2014, © 2014 SAGE Publications.

Author Keywords
Burke; care of the self; Foucault; human rights; Rights of Man; Wollstonecraft

Uggla, Y., Lidskog, R.
Climate risks and forest practices: forest owners’ acceptance of advice concerning climate change
(2016) Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 31 (6), pp. 618-625.

DOI: 10.1080/02827581.2015.1134648

Abstract
Based on qualitative interviews with Swedish forest owners this study focuses on climate change, risk management and forest governance from the perspective of the forest owners. The Swedish forest governance system has undergone extensive deregulation, with the result that social norms and knowledge dissemination are seen by the state as important means of influencing forest owners’ understandings and practices. Drawing on Foucault’s concept of governmentality this study contributes knowledge on how forest owners understand and manage climate-related risk and their acceptance of advice. From the interview study, three main conclusions can be drawn: (1) forest owners’ considerations largely concern ordinary forestry activities; (2) knowledge about forest management and climate adaptation combines experiences and ideas from various sources; and (3) risk awareness and knowledge of “best practices” are not enough to ensure change in forestry practices. The results of this study show that the forest owners have to be selective and negotiate about what knowledge to consider relevant and meaningful for their own forest practice. Accordingly, local forest management can be understood as situated in a web of multifarious interests, claims, concerns and knowledges, where climate change adaptation is but one of several aspects that forest owners have to consider. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
adaptation; advisory practices; climate change; Forestry; governmentality; risk

Index Keywords
Forestry, Risk management, Risk perception, Risks, Timber; adaptation, advisory practices, Climate change adaptation, Climate related risks, Forestry practices, Governmentality, Knowledge dissemination, Qualitative interviews; Climate change