Foucault News

Rik Peeters & Marc Schuilenburg, The birth of mindpolitics: understanding nudging in public health policy (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

5 December 2016

Rik Peeters & Marc Schuilenburg, The birth of mindpolitics: understanding nudging in public health policy, Social Theory & Health, 09 November 2016
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41285-016-0024-z

Abstract
This article addresses the question: ‘In what ways have nudging and other behavioural techniques entered the realm of policymaking for public health and what does that mean for the way contemporary society is governed?’ In our genealogy of Dutch public health policy, we have identified four periods: ‘rational persuasion/individual responsibility’ (‘70s), ‘welfarist emancipation’ (‘80s), ‘neo-liberal regulation’ (‘90s), and ‘management of choice’ (now). We show how a different type of technique, which we call ‘mindpolitics’, has slowly complemented the biopolitics of public hygiene and health care. We argue that to think in terms of biopolitics today means to think of its relation to a world in which public health is managed through architecture of choice and the way individuals are nudged into making better decisions.

Keywords
biopolitics, nudging, Foucault, public health, choice architecture

Text Clapping – J. Baudrillard, “Forget Foucault” (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

3 comments

4 December 2016

With thanks to Synthetic Zero for this link

Practices of Perception

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

4 December 2016

Knowledge Ecology

beeple-1 [Image: Mike Winkelmann]

In my dissertation summary, I linked the works of Evan Thompson, Pierre Hadot, Peter Sloterdijk, and Michel Foucault in terms of each philosopher’s emphasis on what we could call skillsof perception and action, each suggesting a view of philosophy as practice. In Pierre Hadot’s workWhat is Ancient Philosophy?, for example, we finda view of the history of philosophy as a history of practices of self-transformation and self-overcoming (up to and including considerations of just who the”self” is that is overcome).

Despite the implications of histitle, Hadot sees the emphasis on practice as also prevalent in modern philosophical figures, including Descartes, Kant, and Montaigne. In principle, we couldtake a practice view of anytradition of philosophical thought, as many of Hadot’s commentators have done. This is largely the same approach that Peter Sloterdijk takes. InThe Art of Philosophy,Sloterdijk introduces us to his method…

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Two premises and one general hypothesis for the analysis of the educational present (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

3 December 2016

Aquino, J.G.
Two premises and one general hypothesis for the analysis of the educational present
(2016) Educational Philosophy and Theory, pp. 1-9. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2016.1204733

Abstract
Contemporary research in the field of Foucauldian studies on education have pointed to a growing imbrication between educational practises and neoliberal ideas. The problematization of such scenario would lead to two premises, grounded on a general hypothesis for the analysis of the educational present. The first premise: nowadays, the educational or, to be more precise, educationalizing practises—since they would not deal only with the schooling effort, but also with the diffusion of a great number of pedagogical initiatives of non-formal character—consists in an efficient rationality of governing of oneself and others. The second premise is that such educationalizing movement consists not only in the expression but also in the typical modus operandi of the current governmentalization processes, which aim at a large-scale administration of the multiplicity of populations now in terms of a lifelong educatibility for the citizens. These two premises sustain the hypothesis that the present educational practises do not restrict themselves to the mere condition of reiterative apparatus of imperatives extrinsic to them, but have in fact cemented themselves as a generative locus of the veridiction/subjectivization games capable of overrunning the whole social space. © 2016 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia

Author Keywords
educationalization; Foucault; Governmentality

Ethical Leadership Development as Care of the Self: A Foucauldian Perspective (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

2 December 2016

Frank Pignatelli , “Ethical Leadership Development as Care of the Self: A Foucauldian Perspective,” Schools 12, no. 2 (Fall 2015): 198-213.
DOI: 10.1086/683214

This essay addresses the care of the self as an important aspect in the development of educational leaders. It draws upon Michel Foucault’s analysis of power and its relationship to his understanding of ethics as a practice one cultivates and takes on in the interests of leadership development. Foucault’s work in these areas is timely for graduate school educators and others who work with aspiring leaders. Leadership in schools operates within a tightly organized web of surveillance where individual personhood and agency is constantly challenged and where compliance to regulatory systems looms. Leadership educators need to embrace educational leadership as an ethical enterprise encompassing both personal and professional development. They need to be intentional in their work with their students about opening up spaces for reflection and dialogue about how care of the self informs and supports their development as leaders.

Foucault, social movements and heterotopic horizons: rupturing the order of things (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

2 comments

1 December 2016

Angharad E. Beckett, Paul Bagguley & Tom Campbell, Foucault, social movements and heterotopic horizons: rupturing the order of things, Social Movement Studies, Pages 1-13 | Received 21 Jul 2015, Accepted 15 Jul 2016, Published online: 02 Nov 2016

doi: 10.1080/14742837.2016.1252666

In this article, we explore and develop the utility for social movement studies of Michel Foucault’s conceptualization of heterotopia. Informed by Foucault’s theorizing, we propose a heuristic typology of social movement heterotopias. Five heterotopia ‘types’ are considered: ‘contained’, ‘mobile’, ‘cloud’, ‘encounter’ and ‘rhizomic’. Each has particular attributes, but all challenge normal, routine politics. They do so by being, from the perspective of state and capital, either in the ‘wrong’ place, moving in the ‘wrong’ way, or involving the ‘wrong’ connections, affinities or organization. These are constructed-types, proposed for the purpose of description, comparison and prediction. These social movement heterotopias are different types of space that facilitate practices of resistance and transgression. We situate Foucault’s writing on heterotopia at a pivotal moment in his intellectual career, when he became increasingly concerned with how particular mechanisms for modulating the creative force of resistance/power are invented, the types of bodies they craft and the politics they make possible. We propose an interpretation of heterotopia that relates it to his later work on power, resistance and freedom, and the interplay of his ideas with those of Gilles Deleuze.

Keywords: Social movements, protest, resistance, Foucault, heterotopia

Silvio Gallo, The care of the self and biopolitics: Resistance and practices of freedom (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

30 November 2016

Silvio Gallo,
The care of the self and biopolitics: Resistance and practices of freedom
(2016) Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49(7), 691–701.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2016.1204735

Abstract
This text through the direct use to Foucault’s work and using the concepts of ‘care of the self’ and biopolitics is questioning and analyzing resistance and practices of freedom. Mainly, from the Foucault’s courses at the College de France and the methodological tools found there, here I present a discussion about Gilles Deleuze’s contributions to Foucault’s thought and I develop a dialog where I try to explain the concepts of domination, power, ethics, esthetics and the relationship of the self with himself. © 2016 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia

Author Keywords
biopolitics; Care of the self; practices of freedom; resistance

CFP: 3rd Workshop on Historical Epistemology (2016-17)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

28 November 2016

APPEL À CONTRIBUTIONS / CALL FOR PAPERS

3èmes journées d’études sur l’Épistémologie Historique
3rd Workshop on Historical Epistemology
Pour une épistémologie historique des transformations techniques
For an Historical Epistemology of Technical Transformations

18-19-20 mai 2017
Ecole doctorale de Philosophie ED 280, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Institut des sciences Juridique & Philosophique de la Sorbonne – UMR 8130
Centre de Philosophie Contemporaine de la Sorbonne, Equipe EXeCO

PDF

***

[English below]

Ces troisièmes journées d’études seront consacrées à la place des techniques dans les études d’épistémologie historique. Il s’agira d’explorer cette thématique d’un point de vue méthodologique et d’approfondir différents cas d’étude de transformations techniques et technologiques.

La question des techniques est de première importance pour l’épistémologie historique, entendue au sens large: bien qu’elle soit souvent présentée comme une histoire purement conceptuelle, l’étude de techniques y a occupé une place centrale dans l’enquête sur le déroulement concret des pratiques scientifiques. Le rapport entre sciences et techniques a été ainsi largement problématisé, en insistant souvent sur la primauté du moment technique par rapport à la systématisation théorique.

A cet égard, ces journées permettront de discuter des recherches en cours sur différentes transformations techniques et technologiques dans les domaines les plus variées: sciences médicales et biologiques, sociales, physiques ou tout autre champ disciplinaire où les chercheurs se sont servis de la “boîte à outils” de l’épistémologie historique. Nous attendons donc un ensemble de contributions caractérisées par des approches différentes, capables d’aborder le sujet proposé dans sa généralité, notamment selon les axes définis dans les deux sections suivantes:

I. Les épistémologues historiques face aux techniques L’épistémologie française a repensé les techniques avec une certaine précocité par rapport à la philosophie des sciences anglo-saxonne, qui, jusqu’aux années 1980, est restée liée au programme post-positiviste de la priorité de la théorie sur l’observation et l’expérimentation. Bachelard, Koyré, Canguilhem, Foucault, dans leurs analyses de la connaissance scientifique, ont assignée des rôles spécifiques aux techniques. C’est Hacking qui, dans la phase contemporaine et anglophone de l’épistémologie historique, a contribué à rétablir la centralité du “style du laboratoire” et des manières d’intervenir dans le monde par rapport aux manières de le concevoir. Dans son sillage, d’autres auteurs, comme L. Daston, P. Galison et H.-J. Rheinberger ont accordé une grande attention à l’histoire matérielle et au rôle que les instruments et les appareils jouent dans la production du savoir scientifique. Qu’a changé la prise en compte des techniques? Comment cette prise en compte a-t-elle elle-même pu évoluer au fil des temps?

II. Histoire des techniques, histoire des concepts Au niveau méthodologique, nous souhaiterions également recevoir des contributions traitant des conceptions du rapport entre techniques et théorie dans l’histoire des sciences et, plus généralement, sur le rôle des techniques dans le processus de développement scientifique. De ce point de vue, une attention particulière sera donné aux interventions qui proposent de discuter l’originalité de l’épistémologie historique vis-à-vis d’autres approches méthodologiques d’étude des sciences, notamment les nombreuses études sociales des sciences et des technologies (STS), mais aussi par rapport à d’autres traditions de pensée philosophiques qui ont traité la même question, comme la phénoménologie (Husserl, Merleau-Ponty), l’anthropologie philosophique (Gehlen, Marquard), l’herméneutique (Nancy), la philosophie sociale (Ellul), etc.

Les propositions d’interventions (500 mots, plus une présentation courte du candidat) sont à nous faire parvenir, avant le 3 février 2017 (date de réponse le 27 février), en format word ou pdf à epistemologiehistorique@gmail.com. Les deux langues de la rencontre seront le français et l’anglais.

[English]

The 3rd Edition of this Workshop is dedicated to the role of techniques within the field of Historical Epistemology (HEP). This topic will be developed from a methodological point of view and different case studies involving technical and technological transformations will be taken into account.

The problem of techniques is a crucial matter for HEP, broadly understood: although it is chiefly understood as a conceptual history, HEP has systematically drawn from the study of techniques for inquiring about the concrete development of scientific practices. Moreover, the connection between sciences and techniques has been widely discussed by many, if not all, of the practitioners of HEP, often with the result of highlighting the primacy of the technical, experimental and productive moments over the theoretical and speculative ones.

With this in mind, the workshop will involve discussion of on-going researches about different technical and technological transformations in many different fields: the medical and the social sciences, biology, physics and other disciplines in which the researchers have borrowed from HEP’s toolbox. We expect contributions from different approaches in order to address the proposed topic in its generality, in particular according to the two following axes:

I. Historical epistemologists facing techniques Compared to Anglo-Saxon philosophy of science, which, until the 1980s, had maintained a strong link to a post-positivist programme granting primacy to theories over observation and experimentation, French epistemology reassessed the role of techniques with a certain precocity. In their analyses of scientific knowledge, Bachelard, Koyré, Canguilhem and Foucault assigned to techniques a particular role. In the contemporary moment of HEP it is I. Hacking who has decisively contributed to reestablish the centrality of the “laboratory style” and of the ways to intervene in the world with respect to the ways to conceive it. In his wake, other authors, like L. Daston, P. Galison and H.-J. Rheinberger have given full attention to the material history and to the role instruments and apparatuses play in the production of scientific knowledge. What did the taking into account of techniques change? How did this consideration itself evolve over time?

II. History of techniques, history of concepts On the methodological level, we welcome proposals dealing with the relationship between techniques and theories within the history of science and, more generally, on the role techniques have in the processes of scientific development. Under this light, particular attention will be given to those interventions which will envisage to discuss the originality of HEP with respect to other epistemological approaches within science studies, i.e. the science, technology and society studies (STS), but also the relation to other philosophical traditions which have dealt with the same questions, such as phenomenology (Husserl, Merleau-Ponty), anthropology (Gehlen, Marquard), hermeneutics (Nancy), social philosophy (Ellul), etc.

Proposals (500 words plus a short presentation of the candidate) must be sent by February 3rd, 2017 (notification of acceptance or refusal by February 27th), in word or pdf formats, to epistemologiehistorique@gmail.com. The languages of the workshop will be French and English.

Dates importantes / Important dates
Limite de proposition d’interventions / Application deadline: February 3rd 2017
Réponse / Notification of acceptance: February 27th 2017
Remise de textes / Text submission: May 6th 2017
Journées d’études / Workshop days: May 18-19-20 2017

Comité scientifique / Scientific committee
Christian BONNET, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Jean-François BRAUNSTEIN, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Arnold I. DAVIDSON, University of Chicago.
Pierre WAGNER, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Comité d’organisation / Organizing committee
Ivan MOYA DIEZ, Laurent LOISON, Matteo VAGELLI (coordinateurs)
Tiago ALMEIDA, Marcos CAMOLEZI, Wenbo LIANG, Gabriele VISSIO

Weighing Words: On the Governmentality of Free Speech (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

26 November 2016

Nasir, M.A.
Weighing Words: On the Governmentality of Free Speech
(2016) Social and Legal Studies, 25 (1), pp. 69-92.

DOI: 10.1177/0964663915586472

Abstract
This article takes issue with those accounts of the right to freedom of expression that find a zero-sum game between power and freedom. It argues that by marking expression as a legal problematic, the right to freedom of expression regulates the force of an expression, and by doing so governs the (expressing qua juridical) subjects. When the question thus turns onto the subject, the subjects are required to be ‘free in specific ways’ in order to exercise their freedoms in an apt manner. In order to argue out these points, this article analyzes the case law of the right to freedom of expression from the theoretical lens of governmentality. The discussion begins by a reading of a set of cases brought before European Court of Human Rights: Sürek v. Turkey. Later, the dynamics of power and subjectivity are commented upon, by discussing the ways through which expressions merit a legally protected status. Finally, the article focuses on the complex interdependencies the right to freedom of expression form between an expressing subject and its juridical capacities on one hand, and between expressivity and the guarantor of this right on the other. © 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.

Author Keywords
European human rights law; Foucault; governmentality; subjectivity; the right to freedom of expression

Selfies and Self-Writing: Writing: Cue Card Confessions as Social Media Technologies of the Self (2016)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

24 November 2016

Hall, K.
Selfies and Self-Writing: Writing: Cue Card Confessions as Social Media Technologies of the Self
(2016) Television and New Media, 17 (3), pp. 228-242.

DOI: 10.1177/1527476415591221

Abstract
This article explores the aesthetic genealogy of the cue card confession social media trope, where producers create a self-portrait or vlog featuring handwritten cards to relate an autobiographical narrative. Returning to Michel Foucault’s theories of self-writing as a confessional discourse of the self that creates a correspondence of ethical perception between the writer and reader by way of contemporary theorizations of the demand for authenticity and consumability in social media, I argue that the cue card confessions constitute an important mode of self-writing that uses the visual spectacle of the body and the discursive demands of confessional discourse to invoke mediated witnessing as a mode of ethical engagement. © The Author(s) 2015.

Author Keywords
authenticity; discourse theory; media ethics; new media theory; social media; visual culture