Foucault News

Asli Daldal, Power and Ideology in Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci: A Comparative Analysis (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

2 August 2015

Asli Daldal, Power and Ideology in Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci: A Comparative Analysis, Review of History and Political Science, Vol 2 No 2 June 2014
Abstract
Full PDF available

Abstract
In devising their theories of power and ideology both Gramsci and Foucault make use of Machiavelli’s notion of “relations of force”. They therefore diffuse the power relations to the complex mechanisms of society. Power in Gramscian analysis resides in ideology. Or in other words, to be conscious of the complex social network-hegemonic forces-within which an individual realizes himself already generates power. Once a social group is able to modify the ensemble of these relations and make it “common sense”, it is creating a hegemonic order. The concept of power is everywhere in Foucault’s analyses as well as in his theory. Power is “omnipresent”. It comes from everywhere and is produced every moment. Similar to Gramsci, Foucault also sees power as a relation of force that only exists in action. Foucault’s basic difference from Gramsci is that the latter saw power relations in terms of binary oppositions(such as the leaders and the led, the rulers and the ruled etc.). For Foucault though, power, as well as the resistance it generates, are diffused and not localized in some points.

Michel Foucault and the philosophy of punishment (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

31 July 2015

Michel Foucault and the philosophy of punishment, Talking history, Panel discussion, 29 November 2014 Newstalk radio 106-108FM. Irish radio station

Page includes audio podcast.

The philosophy of punishment is an area of study that is relatively unaddressed and certainly does not resonate in the wider public consciousness.

The work of Michel Foucault went a long way to shedding further light on the philosophies behind discipline and punishment. This was particularly evident with his work ‘Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la Prison’ (Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison) published in 1975.

While much study had been conducted in this area prior to Foucault, with this publication, he brought the issue to the fore in the 20th century.

Foucault analysed the development of a culture that resulted in the prison system dominating the area of punishment, as society gradually moved away from the use of torture.

Foucault ultimately suggests that it is the use and subjugation of power that influences an institutions use of punishment. He rejects any notion that the development of this system had been motivated by any humanitarian ideals, or that this philosophy of punishment was initially intended as a form of rehabilitation.

While he does not suggest that this is the result of some grand master plan, he evaluates why it has developed in this manner and how this relates to society on a larger scale.

Foucault, sustainable tourism, and relationships with the environment (human and nonhuman) (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

30 July 2015

Hanna, P., Johnson, K., Stenner, P., Adams, M.
Foucault, sustainable tourism, and relationships with the environment (human and nonhuman)
(2015) GeoJournal, 80 (2), pp. 301-314.

DOI: 10.1007/s10708-014-9557-7

Abstract
Drawing on contemporary research into ethical consumption and sustainable tourism this article starts by outlining the ways in which sustainable tourism (and other forms of ethical consumption) has been understood as a means to perform class based distinctions. At this stage, it is suggested that whilst class may be one factor in understanding such a complex phenomena there might also be a need to examine the practices of sustainable tourist in a manner that takes seriously individual attempts to ‘be ethical’. Foucault’s understanding of ethics is then offered as a means through which this can be achieved. A brief account of the method used to read individuals accounts of sustainable tourism through an ethical Foucauldian lens is then presented. Following this the paper presents the analysis of interviews with sustainable tourists focusing on two key elements. Firstly, the analysis presents the emotional and reciprocal elements of interactions between sustainable tourists and the human ‘other’. Secondly the analysis examines the relationship between the sustainable tourist and non-human environments to further develop the understanding of the emotional and reciprocal elements in light of a Foucauldian ethics. In conclusion it is suggested that rather than merely representing a mode of class distinction, sustainable tourism can be understood through an appreciation of the emotional and reciprocal relationship with the other, thus taking seriously individuals attempts to engage with ethical practices. © 2014, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Author Keywords
Ethics; Foucault; Relationships to the environment; Sustainable tourism

Index Keywords
Philosophical aspects; Class-based, Ethical practices, Ethics, Foucault, Human environment, Key elements, Relationships to the environment, Sustainable tourism; Sustainable development

Arun Iyer, Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures: The Case of Heidegger and Foucault (2014)

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

29 July 2015

Arun Iyer, Towards an Epistemology of RupturesThe Case of Heidegger and Foucault., Bloomsbury, 2014

See also Review by H.A. Nethery at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews

About
By systematically uncovering and comprehensively examining the epistemological implications of Heidegger’s history of being and Foucault’s archaeology of discursive formations, Towards an Epistemology of Ruptures shows how Heidegger and Foucault significantly expand the notions of knowledge and thought. This is done by tracing their path-breaking responses to the question: What is the object of thought? The book shows how for both thinkers thought is not just the act by which the object is represented in an idea, and knowledge not just a state of the mind of the individual subject corresponding to the object. Each thinker, in his own way, argues that thought is a productive event in which the subject and the object gain their respective identity and knowledge is the opening up of a space in which the subject and object can encounter each other and in which true and false statements about an object become possible. They thereby lay the ground for a new conceptual framework for rethinking the very relationship between knowledge and its object.

Table Of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations of Frequently Cited Texts
Introduction
1. Heidegger’s Reformulation of the Essence of Thought (I): From the Transcendental Power of the Imagination to the Ontological Power of Thought
2. Heidegger’s Reformulation of the Essence of Thought (II): On the Relationship between Thought and Being
3. Heidegger’s Reformulation of the Essence of Knowledge: From Husserl’s Transcendental Idealism to Heidegger’s Historical Ontology
4. Foucault’s Reformulation of the Essence of Thought in The Order of Things
5. Foucault’s Reformulation of the Essence of Knowledge: From Husserlian Phenomenology to Foucauldian Archaeology
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Reviews
“Epistemology as traditionally conceived seeks to determine the nature of knowledge and justification. Its point of departure is Plato’s critique of the relativism of Protagoras, who according to Plato erred by accepting Heraclitus’ construal of being as becoming. Truth, knowledge, and justification must be grounded in timeless entities of some sort. Arun Iyer shows how Heidegger and Foucault reverse this Platonic argument. For them, truth, knowledge, and justification are irreducibly historical. Iyer’s elaboration of their views is subtle, original, and thought-provoking.” – Andrew Cutrofello, Professor of Philosophy, Loyola University Chicago, USA

“This book makes it clear how one can develop a strictly epistemological approach to thinkers as complex as Husserl, Heidegger, and Foucault, and how one can draw basic consequences from their thoughts for a theory of knowledge that admits of breaks, ruptures, and discontinuously emerging epistemic formations. Moreover, it shows how a historical thinking in philosophy can be elaborated without having recourse to any aprioristic philosophy of history. Finally, it provides a lucid analysis of the historical conditions human knowledge finds itself submitted to. For all of these reasons, it is a highly remarkable contribution to contemporary continental European philosophy.” – Laszlo Tengelyi, of Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Germany.

Michalinos Zembylas, ‘Pedagogy of discomfort’ and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

28 July 2015

Michalinos Zembylas,
‘Pedagogy of discomfort’ and its ethical implications: the tensions of ethical violence in social justice education
(2015) Ethics and Education, 10(2), 163–174.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17449642.2015.1039274

Abstract
This essay considers the ethical implications of engaging in a pedagogy of discomfort, using as a point of departure Butler’s reflections on ethical violence and norms. The author shows how this attempt is full of tensions that cannot, if ever, be easily resolved. To address these tensions, the author first offers a brief overview of the notion of pedagogy of discomfort and discusses its relevance with Foucault’s idea of ‘ethic of discomfort’ and the promise of ‘safe classroom.’ Then, he focuses on Butler’s account of ethical violence and norms to show how the subject’s constitution and regulation are inextricably linked to violence in several ways. In the final part of the paper, the author turns more specifically to the ways in which a pedagogy of discomfort might entail ethical violence, suggesting how the turn to a nonviolent ethics might become possible or whether the ethical resonances of that challenge will always entail a degree of ambivalence. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Author Keywords
ethical norms; ethical violence; Judith Butler; pedagogy of discomfort; social justice education

Examining uncertainty and trust among irrigators and regulatory bodies in the Murray-Darling Basin (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

27 July 2015

Bryant, L., George, J.
Examining uncertainty and trust among irrigators and regulatory bodies in the Murray-Darling Basin
(2015) International Journal of Water Resources Development, 14 p. Article in Press.

DOI: 10.1080/07900627.2015.1028584

Abstract
Due to changing climate and water legislation in South Australia, Australia’s oldest water trust, the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT), and the community it serves have faced unprecedented changes in water allocations. Using participatory research methods, this article examines irrigators’ perceptions of risk, uncertainty and trust in relation to changing water legislation and drought. The social, cultural and regulatory relationship between irrigators and the RIT and the conditions in which trust is given are also explored. Foucault’s understanding of power provides the analytical context in which we examine how power and knowledge are constituted, negotiated and reconstructed at the local level to shape trust between individuals and the RIT. © 2015 Taylor & Francis

Author Keywords
drought; Murray-Darling Basin; regulation; rural community; trust

Index Keywords
Drought, Risk perception; Analytical context, Murray-Darling Basin, Participatory research, Perceptions of risks, regulation, Regulatory relationships, Rural community, trust; Laws and legislation

Foucault’s Punitive Society: Visual Tactics of Marking as a History of the Present (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

25 July 2015

Phil Carney, Foucault’s Punitive Society: Visual Tactics of Marking as a History of the Present, British Journal of Criminology (2015) 55 (2): 231-247. First published online: January 7, 2015

doi: 10.1093/bjc/azu105

Abstract
Applying a form of genealogical method rooted in Nietzsche’s use of history, this article seeks an understanding of ‘marking’ punishments in our own mass-mediated culture. First, Foucault’s analysis of the punitive tactic of marking in his 1973 course, The Punitive Society, will be considered. Second, his concept of ‘virtual marking’ will be extended and applied to the case of the pitture infamanti in the early renaissance. Third, I will use these insights in a genealogical spirit in order to examine the rise of virtual marking in modernity. We will discover that Foucault was mistaken to tether marking punishments so closely to sovereign power. Instead, with certain antecedents in ancient Rome, virtual marking emerged in a largely ‘bourgeois’ society during the early renaissance and re-emerges in our own society of mass, photographic spectacle.

Key words

visual criminology
spectacle
culture
punishment
Foucault

Foucault and Human Rights: Seeking the Renewal of Human Rights Education

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

24 July 2015

Michalinos Zembylas, Foucault and Human Rights: Seeking the Renewal of Human Rights Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, Article first published online: 30 JUN 2015

DOI: 10.1111/1467-9752.12148

Abstract
This article takes up Foucault’s politics of human rights and suggests that it may constitute a point of departure for the renewal of HRE, not only because it rejects the moral superiority of humanism—the grounding for the dominant liberal framework of international human rights—but also because it makes visible the complexities of human rights as illimitable and as strategic tools for new political struggles. Enriching human rights critiques has important implications for HRE, precisely because these critiques prevent the dominance of unreflexive and unproductive forms of HRE that lead toward a declarationalist, conservative and uncritical approach. It is argued that Foucault’s critical affirmation of human rights—that is, an approach which is neither a full embrace nor a total rejection—provides a critique that can be disruptive to the conventional HRE approach and creates openings that might renew HRE, both politically and pedagogically.

The paradox of the ‘under-performing professor’

Clare O'Farrell

1 comment

23 July 2015

This is the society of control outlined by Deleuze (1990). Foucauldian (sequential) disciplinary regimes (Morrish, 2011) give way to ones in which, just as one hurdle is surmounted, another, higher one presents itself, with the end point always at the far horizon. We find this reflected in management documents on performance review with a lexicon of journeys, milestones and checkpoints, but the individual is never allowed to arrive at the promised reward. Gatekeeping measures such as the imposition of perpetual training, perpetual review of publications or multiple-staged applications for promotion, must be endured, even to participate.

Academic Irregularities

This post has been inspired by an apparent declaration of hostilities towards professors in a number of universities. The weapon of choice has been performance management, and some aspects of audit culture have been liberated from their usual role of absorbing academics’ time to becoming instruments of punishment.

In universities we have seen a deprofessionalization of academic staff which has manifest itself in a number of ways. In, many areas, disciplinary groups have been broken up and atomized across the university, in response to management‘s fear of ‘silos’. In others, productive interdisciplinary groups have been disrupted by reorganizations which have obstructed innovation. In at least one famous case, an entire centre was vandalized (Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham in 2002) because its members refused to surrender to the neoliberal commandment that research must be a competitive and self-important process.

The one thing that academics were…

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Alex Lee, Formalized Epistemes: Foucault’s Incomplete Order of History (2015)

Clare O'Farrell

no comments

23 July 2015

Alex Lee, Formalized Epistemes: Foucault’s Incomplete Order of History, Entropy January 9, 2015

Review of The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences by Michel Foucault

Update October 2025: Link is to the archived page on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine

To answer why do things make sense, in The Order of Things: An Archeology of the Human Sciences, Foucault starts by drawing historical periods of sense making. Because he cannot account for why change has happened to determine how our sense making operates, he instead presents a view that historically-speaking sense making comes in stages.

This trajectory is threefold: in the sixteenth century and before we had resemblance as the episteme of knowing. This past heuristic did not distinguish as strictly between valid and invalid modes as our current epoch of sense making might. For example, today astrology isn’t considered valid but modern scientific formulation is. For the previous the seventeenth century, Foucault writes:

The world is covered with signs that must be deciphered, and those signs, which reveal resemblances and affinities, are themselves no more than forms of similitude. To know must therefore be to interpret: to find a way from the visible mark to that which is being said by it and which, without that mark, would lie like unspoken speech, dormant within things.

This is another way of saying that before the Classical era, knowledge was the ability to name and relate signs to one another heuristically. Likewise, our knowledge about manipulating the material world was through access to those named marks. As Foucault adds “This is why the plants that represent the head, or the eyes, or the heart, or the liver, will possess an efficacity in regard to that organ; this is why the animals themselves will react to the marks that designate them.” This is an understanding of the world in terms of the names of things, or what we might dismiss as interacting with the world through wordplay. We can draw a parallel with how the secret Agent Sterling Archer in the animated TV show “Archer” resolves his conflicts through wordplay with other characters. The application of discursive meaning on the material world reflects the violent process of discourse alignment through his aggressive puns, and seemingly non-sequitur connections, which are always revealed to have an interior logic that is respectful to the reality of the Other (be this other a steak, or a wild ocelot, or a gigantic St. Bernard). Often, Archer’s wordplay slides between his fulfillment of his desires, and as a kind of justification to his mother or to mother figures (the men around him also all answer to mother figures, or at least other women in the office). Nonetheless, violence and disobedience coexist in his ability to get what he wants. In other words, minimally justifying his spy actions from his domineering mother is simultaneous with his hermeneutics. In pre-Classical applications of knowledge, this is akin to Archer being a sorcerer, to needing to say all the magic words to change material and social situations to hide his indiscretions.

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