Foucault News

Madra, Y.M., Adaman, F.
Neoliberal Reason and Its Forms: De-Politicisation Through Economisation (2013) Antipode, Article in Press.

Abstract
This paper offers a historically contextualised intellectual history of the entangled development of three competing post-war economic approaches, viz the Austrian, Chicago and post-Walrasian schools, as three forms of neoliberalism. Taking our cue from Foucault’s reading of neoliberalism as a mode of governmentality under which the social is organised through “economic incentives”, we engage with the recent discussions of neoliberal theory on three accounts: neoliberalism is read as an epistemic horizon including not only “pro-” but also “post-market” positions articulated by post-Walrasian economists who claim that market failures necessitate the design of “incentive-compatible” remedial mechanisms; the Austrian tradition is distinguished from the Chicago-style pro-marketism; and the implications of the differences among the three approaches on economic as well as socio-political life are discussed. The paper maintains that all three approaches promote the de-politicisation of the social through its economisation albeit by way of different theories and policies.

Author Keywords
Austrian School, Chicago School, post-Walrasian School; Economisation; Michel Foucault

DOI: 10.1111/anti.12065

Guta, A., Nixon, S.A., Wilson, M.G.
Resisting the seduction of “ethics creep”: Using Foucault to surface complexity and contradiction in research ethics review (2013) Social Science and Medicine, 98, pp. 301-310.

Abstract
In this paper we examine “ethics creep”, a concept developed by Haggerty (2004) to account for the increasing bureaucratization of research ethics boards and institutional review boards (REB/IRBs) and the expanding reach of ethics review. We start with an overview of the recent surge of academic interest in ethics creep and similar arguments about the prohibitive effect of ethics review. We then introduce elements of Michel Foucault’s theoretical framework which are used to inform our analysis of empirical data drawn from a multi-phase study exploring the accessibility of community-engaged research within existing ethics review structures in Canada. First, we present how ethics creep emerged both explicitly and implicitly in our data. We then present data that demonstrate how REB/IRBs are experiencing their own form of regulation. Finally, we present data that situate ethics review alongside other trends affecting the academy. Our results show that ethics review is growing in some ways while simultaneously being constrained in others. Drawing on Foucauldian theory we reframe ethics creep as a repressive hypothesis which belies the complexity of the phenomenon it purports to explain. Our discussion complicates ethics creep by proposing an understanding of REB/IRBs that locates them at the intersection of various neoliberal discourses about the role of science, ethics, and knowledge production.

Author Keywords
Canada; Discourse; Ethics creep; Ethics review; Foucault; Interviews; Neoliberalism

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.09.019