Foucault News

Emancipatory and critical language education: a plea for translingual possible selves and worlds (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

8 April 2017

Formosinho, M., Jesus, P., Reis, C.
Emancipatory and critical language education: a plea for translingual possible selves and worlds
(2016) Critical Studies in Education, pp. 1-19. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2016.1237983

Abstract
Language is the main resource for meaningful action, including the very formation of selves and psychosocial identities, shaped by practical norms, beliefs, and values. Thus, language education constitutes one of the most powerful means for both social reproduction and social production and ideological maintenance and utopian innovation. In this paper, we attempt to emphasise the invaluable psychosocial, political, economic, and cultural function of language education in order to propose a critical view of the current transition from the monolingual to a multilingual paradigm. We maintain that multilingual approaches tend to serve the neoliberal framework and reproduce its systemic inequalities. Therefore, we argue in favour of emancipatory multilingual practices that could embody a translingual pedagogy capable of promoting the development of capabilities, the recognition of otherness, and the cultivation of diversity. Rooted in critical theory, namely in Foucault’s notion of subjectification and Freire’s view of conscientisation, an emancipatory translingual pedagogy would enable and empower every learner to synthesise a contextually creative field of new semantic and pragmatic relationships. Critical language education would enhance the ethos of biophilia that fosters what we term the poetics of communality and selfhood, that is to say, the proactive commitment to expanding symbolic and existential novelty. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Author Keywords
Capabilities approach; emancipation; Foucault; Freire; globalisation; language education; Multilingualism; philosophy of education; Translingualism; utopia

Matan Oram, Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

7 April 2017

Matan Oram, Modernity and Crisis in the Thought of Michel Foucault, The Totality of Reason, Routledge, 2017

About the Book

Few studies of Foucault have examined his thought from a sustained interdisciplinary perspective. Through the interpretative prism of the concept of the‘Totality of Reason’, this book suggests an original analytical reading of Foucault’s thought.

This book addresses Foucault’s characterizations of the Enlightenment, asking whether the developmental history of the modern conception of knowledge – from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment – warrants the conclusion he draws. From the perspective of a critical evaluation of Foucault’s thesis on ‘the crisis of modernity’, the book examines whether Foucault, the philosophical and social critic, truly belongs to those intellectual trends known as a ‘deconstruction’ and ‘post-modernism’ that advocate a wholesale rejection of the project of modernity, demonstrating how a classification of this kind contributes to an impoverishment of our understanding of Foucault’s thought.

This book will attract the attention of readers interested in Foucault, and what is broadly perceived to be the ‘crisis of modernity’. It will appeal to scholars and advanced students of sociology, political philosophy and political science, psychology, philosophy, interdisciplinary studies and cultural studies.

Victoria Wasylak, Modern Dystopia: Schooltree shake up the rock opera with ‘Heterotopia’ (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

6 April 2017

Victoria Wasylak, Our Modern Dystopia: Schooltree shake up the rock opera with ‘Heterotopia’, Vanyaland: Music and Beyond, March 29, 2017

Somewhere over time, in between spoken lore and salty Facebook statuses, the rock opera was the en vogue way to recount epic stories. While the trend might have seen its peak of popularity around The Who’s eccentric Tommy, the opus still weasels its way into certain music scenes when some maestro builds enough ambition. For Lainey Schooltree, singer and keyboardist in art-rock outfit Schooltree, the desire to pen a rock opera has been ruminating inside her since she was 13. It just took some prompting from fans to get her rolling — and a Live Arts Boston grant from The Boston Foundation didn’t hurt, either.

[…]

Four years later, Schooltree debut their second album and rock opera Heterotopia this Friday (March 31) at Oberon in Harvard Square. Honing in on the metaphysical journey of main character Suzi, Heterotopia shares some common themes with the rock operas that inspired Schooltree when she was a teenager.

[…]

In the process of writing and recording Heterotopia, lots of high school psychology and literature lessons resurfaced as Schooltree discovered the unique challenges that come with writing a rock opera instead of a “normal” album. When crafting Heterotopia, Schooltree delved into Tolkien, Dante, Plato, and Jung to do research for the plot of the story, while the opera’s title is borrowed from philosophy Michel Foucault’s considerations of utopia and dystopia. Considering the opera’s vast influences, Schooltree describes the Heterotopia as a metaphysical fantasy with romantic and 20th century classical influences.

In our Google era, indexers are the unsung heroes of the publishing world (2017)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

5 April 2017

Sam Leith, In our Google era, indexers are the unsung heroes of the publishing world, The Guardian, Thursday 30 March 2017

[…]
Today, the Society of Indexers – the industry body for those professionals (for which, full disclosure, I have the honour to be honorary president) – turns 60 years old. It celebrates its “anniversary, diamond”. “What?” you ask. “Who?” you wonder. No surprise. Indexers are like badgers: they are seldom sighted in the wild, they do their work in the darkness, and when you see one it’s usually because they’ve been run over by an 18-wheeler.

[…]

Also, which is well worth remembering, a good index is often very funny. Those of us who take an interest in such things – and I think there should be more of us – end up hoarding favourites. Michel Foucault’s The History of Sexuality (volume two) contains the cherishable “Elephants, as example of conjugal virtue, 17”. A 1995 book on the computer contains a deliberately circular reference (normally an absolute no-no): “Loop, endless: see ‘endless loop’”; “Endless loop: see ‘loop, endless’.” JG Ballard wrote a short story called “The Index”, which was the index to an imaginary book; the late David Miller used it as the index to his anthology That Glimpse of Truth: The 100 Finest Short Stories Ever Written. And as my colleague in the society, Paula Clarke Bain, who blogs about comedy indexes, recognises, the indexes to Alan Partridge’s memoirs are at least as funny as the body text.

Embodiment and becoming in secondary drama classrooms: the effects of neoliberal education cultures on performances of self and of drama texts (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 April 2017

Lambert, K., Wright, P., Currie, J., Pascoe, R.
Embodiment and becoming in secondary drama classrooms: the effects of neoliberal education cultures on performances of self and of drama texts
(2016) Critical Studies in Education, pp. 1-19. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/17508487.2016.1238402

Abstract
This article explores the effects of neoliberalism and performative educational cultures on secondary school drama classrooms. We consider the ways Deleuze and Guattari’s schizoanalysis and Butler’s concept of gender performance enable us to chart the embodied, relational, spatial and affective energies that inhabit the often neoliberal and heterosexually striated space of the drama classroom. These post-humanist analyses are useful methodological tools for mapping the complexities of student becomings in the space context of the secondary school. We also show how Foucault’s governmentality and Ball’s theory of competitive performativity are particularly salient in the context of immanent capitalism that shapes the desires of its subjects. These frameworks, when combined, can be useful in critiquing neoliberal educational assemblages and in indicating emerging deterritorializations and lines of flight in teachers and students. © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Author Keywords
Becoming; Butler; Deleuze and Guattari; embodiment; Foucault; neoliberalism; performativity; secondary drama

The Becoming-Statistic: Information Ontologies and Computerized Adaptive Testing in Education (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

3 April 2017

Sellar, S., Thompson, G.
The Becoming-Statistic: Information Ontologies and Computerized Adaptive Testing in Education
(2016) Cultural Studies – Critical Methodologies, 16 (5), pp. 491-501.

DOI: 10.1177/1532708616655770

Abstract
This article examines how computerized adaptive testing functions in relation to learning in control societies. We first document the transition from static and discrete forms of statistical work that characterized Foucault’s disciplinary societies into the continuous, predictive analytics that have emerged as the powerful form of statistical work in Deleuze’s control societies. We then explore the function of information science ontologies in adaptive testing and learning applications from the perspective of Deleuze’s philosophical ontology. Working between these two conceptions of ontology enables us to open a critical space in which to posit the need for an alternative ontology of number in education. Focusing on the case of Pearson, the world’s largest edu-business, we consider how the “datafication” of education is presenting opportunities to exploit information assemblages for profit. The primary focus of analysis is Pearson’s Next Generation Assessment agenda, which focuses on the development and implementation of computerized adaptive testing within a broader digital learning environment. Next Generation Assessment is theorized as an information assemblage that functions according to an axiomatic modeling of numerical data enabling the production and communication of information throughout proliferating data infrastructures in education. We argue that the shift from “becoming a statistic” in disciplinary society to “the becoming-statistic” in control society is facilitating the development of digital learning platforms that risk limiting the conditions for learning in the creative sense of this term. © 2016 SAGE Publications.

Author Keywords
CAT; control society; data; Deleuze; information; ontology

Archive: La « French Theory » du spectateur (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

2 April 2017

Quentin Molinier, La « French Theory » du spectateur, Nonfiction.fr, 2015

Compte rendu: Christian Ruby, Spectateur et politique. D’une conception crépusculaire à une conception affirmative de la culture ?, La Lettre Volée, 2014

Résumé : Qu’est-ce qu’être spectateur aujourd’hui ? Et quel est son rôle, son destin politique ? L’auteur montre en quoi les réflexions de Gilles Deleuze, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Marie-José Mondzain et Jacques Rancière peuvent nous aider à dépasser la vision désenchantée et nostalgique qu’un certain nombre d’intellectuels continuent d’entretenir à l’égard d’une figure éminente et centrale de la société du spectacle.

En ces temps de festivités cannoises, il n’est pas inutile de se demander qui sont les vrais « acteurs » de l’industrie cinématographique d’aujourd’hui. A savoir les spectateurs ! Sans eux, sans ces arpenteurs intrépides des salles obscures, ni film ni recette et encore mois d’investissements, de débats, paillettes, critiques, polémiques, journalistes survitaminés, stars endimanchées, tapis-rougisées… Bref, pas de spectacle (dans tous les sens du terme) sans spectateurs. Et tant pis pour le truisme, si du même coup on se donne les moyens d’apprécier les qualités spécifiques du spectateur, ce personnage incontournable de la grande fable culturelle moderne, dont chacun de nous adopte un jour ou l’autre, avec plus ou moins d’assiduité, les traits et les postures.

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Temporary environments (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

1 April 2017

Amelia Melbourne-Hayward, Temporary environments | Architecture Now, 22 August 2016

Illusory Space, oil on canvas, 2012. Image: Jillian Whitmore

Young New Zealand artist Jillian Whitmore explores the intersection between art and architecture with her translucent watercolours. Whitmore will be exhibiting a solo exhibition titled Juncture at the Fine Arts Whanganui Gallery, opening Friday 26 August 2016.

Here, she speaks with Amelia Melbourne-Hayward about her upcoming exhibition, spatial theory and the ideas of temporality within her beautiful works.

[…]
My first encounter with spatial theory was with French anthropologist Marc Auge’s work. He discusses the super-modernity of our urban societies and the ‘non-places’ we inhabit everyday but take little notice of.

I later became influenced by Michel Foucault’s ‘Heterotopia’, architect Lebbeus Woods’ ‘New Spaces’ and urban sociologist Ray Oldenberg’s ‘Third Spaces’. These all had intriguing definitions and ideas of space within the urban environment, and they encouraged me to think deeper about the space we inhabit, how we interact with it and what it might one day become. My art practice fell deeper into a world of spatial theory and I discovered a passion for architecture and futurism.

Multimedia artist feels free as he gets back to basics (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

31 March 2017

Multimedia artist feels free as he gets back to basics
By Lin Qi, China Daily/Asia News Network Thursday, September 1, 2016

Art graduates are now increasingly opting to create installations, videos and other mixed-media pieces. But You Jin is different. The artist, who majored in multimedia art, is focusing on painting — a subject that he has been fascinated with since his teens.

[…]
You, who has exhibited at home and abroad, is now set to present a solo show titled “The View of Heterotopos,” on Friday at the Alternative Space Loop gallery in Seoul, South Korea. The gallery has been promoting avant-garde and experimental art since it was set up in 1999.

The Seoul exhibition, which will run through Oct. 2 and be followed by another show in Hong Kong, celebrates You’s development as a painter over the past three years.

[…]
The exhibition’s title is derived from French philosopher Michel Foucault’s idea of “heterotopias,” through which he says that people require imagination to comprehend a physical space. According to Foucault, different spaces and time zones coexist to form a new world.

At the exhibition, Foucault’s concept has been brought to life through You’s brushwork.

Pierre Macherey, Subjectivité et normativité chez Canguilhem et Foucault (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

29 March 2017

Pierre Macherey, Subjectivité et normativité chez Canguilhem et Foucault

Exposé présenté le 1 juin 2016 dans le cadre d’une journée d’études sur « Michel Foucault et la subjectivation » (Université Paris-Est Créteil)

Lorsque Canguilhem a eu connaissance du premier grand ouvrage de Foucault, Histoire de la folie, sur lequel il a eu à rédiger, en tant que rapporteur de thèse, un rapport, il en a immédiatement souligné le caractère novateur et l’importance, bien au-delà des limites imparties à un travail spécialisé concernant l’histoire de la psychiatrie ; quelques années plus tard, il faisait paraître, dans la collection Galien qu’il dirigeait aux PUF, Naissance de la clinique, l’ouvrage de Foucault qui, sans doute, l’a le plus intéressé parce que son sujet le concernait au plus près, et auquel il s’est souvent référé dans ses propres travaux, sur laquelle s’achève Le normal et le pathologique, Canguilhem signale que « en des pages admirables, émouvantes, de la Naissance de la clinique, Michel Foucault a montré comment Bichat a fait « pivoter le regard médical sur lui-même » pour demander à la mort compte de la vie » (Le normal et le pathologique, Paris, PUF/Quadrige, 1988, p. 215). Cette conversion du regard, qu’il appelle aussi « éversion », est celle que Canguilhem a lui-même essayé de pratiquer. Les deux livres de Foucault, Histoire de la folie (1961) et Naissance de la clinique (1963) sont donnés en référence dans le Supplément à la bibliographie de la nouvelle édition, en 1966, de La connaissance de la vie, ce qui souligne l’importance que Canguilhem leur accordait. ; enfin, lorsque Les Mots et les choses a été mis en circulation, il lui a consacré, sous le titre « Mort de l’homme ou épuisement du Cogito ? », une importante étude parue en 1967 dans Critique, où, prenant sa défense contre ses objecteurs ou ses censeurs, – on était alors en pleine querelle de l’humanisme –, il saluait la « lucidité » de la démarche de Foucault, à propos de laquelle il allait jusqu’à suggérer en conclusion qu’elle pourrait jouer à l’égard des sciences humaines un rôle comparable à celui joué par la Critique de la raison pure pour les sciences de la nature. Par ailleurs, l’un des derniers écrits dont Foucault ait autorisé la publication est la reprise d’une présentation générale de la démarche de Canguilhem, qui avait été rédigée en 1978 au moment où celui-ci était traduit aux États-Unis : ce texte, intitulé dans sa version définitive « La vie : l’expérience et la science », est sans doute l’un des plus importants et des plus pertinents commentaires qui aient été consacrés à la pensée de celui que, dans la conversation, Foucault appelait à l’occasion, sans ironie aucune, et alors qu’il était avare de ce type d’épanchement, « notre vieux maître ». On peut donc dire que Canguilhem et Foucault se sont, au sens fort du terme, reconnus, et même pour une part reconnus l’un dans l’autre à travers le partage d’intérêts et de valeurs réflexives communes : est passée entre eux une relation intellectuelle forte dont on peut supposer qu’elle a joué un rôle non négligeable dans le développement de leurs pensées respectives.

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