Foucault News

News and resources on French thinker Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

Erdinc, M. The Subject and Governmental Action: A Foucauldian Analysis of Subjectification and the 24 Year-Old Rule in Denmark, Feminist Legal Studies, Volume 20, Issue 1, April 2012, Pages 21-38
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10691-012-9192-y

Abstract
This article discusses the effects of the 24 year-old rule in Denmark utilising Foucault’s understanding of the ‘subject’ within a governmentality framework. The 24 year-old rule is a good example of how a gendered knowledge about immigration becomes a reality that steers biopolitics, enables practices of normalisation and subjectifies immigrants in various ways. The article foregrounds the subjectivity of immigrant women through a narrative analysis of the constitution of the subject within discourses and in an asymmetrical relationship to power in governance. This analysis reveals the complexity of empirical interactions between the ideational structure of legislative measures and personal meanings expressed by immigrant subjectivities. While I illustrate certain modes of subjectification in relation to the 24 year-old rule, I emphasise the ways subjects employ certain identity strategies by resisting, reworking or contributing to the practices of normalisation.

Author keywords
Denmark; Foucault; Gender; Governmentality; Immigration; Subjectification

architects Gordana Fontana-Giusti, Foucault for Architects, Routledge, May 2013

Publisher’s page

The author is also conducting an inaugural public lecture at 6 pm on the 24th of May 2013 at the University of Kent, Canterbury, Faculty of Humanities to coincide with the publication of the book.
Pdf flyer for event

Description
From the mid-1960s onwards Michel Foucault has had a significant impact on diverse aspects of culture, knowledge and arts including architecture and its critical discourse. The implications for architecture have been wide-ranging. His archaeological and genealogical approaches to knowledge have transformed architectural history and theory, while his attitude to arts and aesthetics led to a renewed focus on the avant-garde.

Prepared by an architect, this book offers an excellent entry point into the remarkable work of Michel Foucault, and provides a focused introduction suitable for architects, urban designers, and students of architecture.

Foucault’s crucial juxtaposition of space, knowledge and power has unlocked novel spatial possibilities for thinking about design in architecture and urbanism. While the philosopher’s ultimate attention on the issues of body and sexuality has defined our understanding of the possibilities and limits of human condition and its relation to architecture.

The book concentrates on a number of historical and theoretical issues often addressed by Foucault that have been grouped under the themes of archaeology, enclosure, bodies, spatiality and aesthetics in order to examine and demonstrate their relevancy for architectural knowledge, its history and its practice.

Contents

Introduction Part 1: Positioning 1.1 Context 1.2 Resisting Boundaries 1.3 Architecture Unspoken

Part 2: Archaeology 2.1 Human Sciences, Knowledge and Architecture 2.2 Archaeology as Difference

Part 3: Enclosure 3.1 Madness 3.2 The Asylum 3.3 The Clinic 3.4 The Prison

Part 4: Bodies 4.1 The History of Sexuality 4.2 Sexuality, Knowledge and the Structure of Aesthetic Experience 4.3 Biopower 4.4 Bodies, Architecture and Cities

Part 5: Spatiality/Aesthetics 5.1 Spatiality and its Themes 5.2 Avant-Garde and the Language of Space 5.3 Deleuzian Century 5.4 Ad Finem

Seantel Anaïs, Genealogy and critical discourse analysis in conversation: texts, discourse, critique, Critical Discourse Studies, January 2013
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2012.744321

Abstract
Although genealogy is a popular methodological choice for philosophers, a number of social scientists in numerous fields have taken it up as way of studying historical texts. How one might use genealogy as a methodological approach, however, is not always clear. In this article, I argue for the combination of critical discourse analysis with a genealogical ethos of analysis, despite some differences in their respective approaches. The aim of the article is to contribute to debates around how qualitative textual research can be opened up as a site of contact, negotiation, and unification for genealogical and critical discourse analytic approaches.

Barry Stocker's avatarStockerblog

This post refers back to the last post, and particularly the post before that which is inaugurated this sequence of posts on law over legislation. The last paragraph of that first post refers to Jürgen Habermas and Michel Foucault, referring to the need to detail further what is briefly in that paragraph.

The issue is whether we can talk about law as something distinct from, and superior to, legislation. That idea has precedents in distinctions made between customary law and statute law, or between the recognised laws of a community and the commands of whoever has political power. An awareness of such distinctions, and the deep tension associated with such distinctions, goes back at least to the tragedies of Golden Age Athens. As I am discussing those Attic tragedies in a series of 9 weekly posts, which refer to my teaching, I will not go into that here. I will…

View original post 1,094 more words

ballStephen J. Ball, Foucault, Power, and Education, London: Routledge, 2012
Series: Routledge Key Ideas in Education

Description

Foucault, Power, and Education invites internationally renowned scholar Stephen J. Ball to reflect on the importance and influence of Foucault on his work in educational policy. By focusing on some of the ways Foucault has been placed in relation to educational questions or questions about education, Ball highlights the relationships between Foucault’s concepts and methods, and educational research and analysis. An introductory chapter offers a brief explanation of some of Foucault’s key concerns, while additional chapters explore ways in which Ball himself has sought to apply Foucault’s ideas in addressing contemporary educational issues.

In this intensely personal and reflective text, Ball offers an interpretation of his Foucault—That is, his own particular reading of the Foucauldian toolbox. Ideal for courses in education policy and education studies, this valuable teaching resource is essential reading for any education scholar looking for a starting point into the literature and ideas of Foucault.

Source Variazioni foucaultiane

CAPA_foucault

Marcos Nalli, Sonia Regina Vargas Mansano, Michel Foucault em múltiplas perspectivas, Eduel, 2013

Acaba de ser publicada, pela EDUEL, a coletânea “Michel Foucault em múltiplas perspectivas”. Contando com a colaboração de autores que estudam a obra de Michel Foucault, esta coletânea analisou questões emergentes na atualidade, percorrendo perspectivas distintas. Tais pesquisadores buscaram problematizar alguns aspectos da vida contemporânea e as interrogações que ela coloca em curso. Com Foucault, aprendemos que a produção de conhecimento, bem como o sentido histórico do vivido é perspectivo, “ele olha de um determinado ângulo, com o propósito deliberado de apreciar”.

Assim, acolhendo o desafio de produzir um “saber perspectivo”, inspiração nietzscheana que sempre foi tão cara a Foucault, aceitamos os riscos de tomar em análise questões, impasses, acontecimentos, diálogos e conceitos que, guardando sua dimensão complexa e atual, não admitem certezas ou convicções. Talvez, o objetivo seja mesmo escapar das armadilhas das respostas prontas e multiplicar tanto os problemas quanto os ângulos de análise. Pode-se dizer, então, que o liame dos textos desta coletânea foi tecido pelo vínculo que nos liga ao autor que lhe “emprestou” o nome, bem como à atualidade dos temas por ele analisados. Nesse sentido, em cada capítulo o leitor encontrará um ensaio sobre “temas menores” que, de diferentes maneiras, nos atravessam e convocam e problematizar a vida na atualidade.

A coletânea foi dividida em dois eixos: “Interfaces e Polêmicas” e “Temas e Questões”. No primeiro eixo, os textos buscam estabelecer os mais diversos paralelos que o pensamento foucaultiano permite. Em seguida, os estudos recorrem àqueles teóricos com os quais Foucault dialogou de modo contundente e que contribuíram para a própria formação do pensamento do filósofo.

A organização da obra foi realizada por dois professores da Universidade Estadual de Londrina: Marcos Nalli é doutor em filosofia pela UNICAMP e pós-Doutor pelo Centre de Recherche Historique – École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales CRH-EHESS – Paris (2008). É autor do livro “Foucault e a Fenomenologia”, publicado pela Editora Loyola em 2006. Atua no Departamento de Filosofia / UEL. Sonia Regina Vargas Mansano é doutora em Psicologia Clínica, com Pós-doutorado em Psicologia Clínica pela PUC/SP (2011). É autora dos livros “Vida e Profissão: cartografando trajetórias” (2003) e “Sorria, você está sendo controlado” (2009), ambos publicados pela Editora Summus. Atua no Departamento de Psicologia Social e Institucional / UEL. Os autores são professores e/ou alunos de pós-graduação que se dedicam ao estudo da obra de Michel Foucault.

Desejamos, com esta coletânea, atingir um público variado e ligado a diferentes áreas de conhecimento como Filosofia, Psicologia, Sociologia, Literatura e Artes. Trata-se, portanto, de um material que poderá ser utilizado tanto nos trabalhos acadêmicos e de pesquisa realizados em graduação e pós-graduação, quanto ser explorado por um público de leitores que esteja minimamente familiarizado ou interessado em conhecer a obra do filósofo por meio destes comentadores. Espera-se, com isso, não apenas difundir os conceitos e ideias de um pensador comprometido com a análise dos modos de existência na contemporaneidade, mas também atrair leitores que acolham o desafio de levar tais conhecimentos para outras áreas, fazendo da obra deste filósofo o que ela já é para este grupo de autores: uma referência conceitual para analisar criticamente os caminhos que seguimos na construção da vida em sociedade.

rpow21.v006.i01.coverClaire Blencowe, Biopolitical authority, objectivity and the groundwork of modern citizenship
Journal of Political Power
Volume 6, Issue 1, 2013
Special Issue: Special Issue on Authority
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2158379X.2013.774968

Abstract
Authority is a powerful concept for coming to terms with the diversity of power. This article reframes the concept of ‘authority’ and articulates its continued relevance in a context of radical contingency and biopolitics. It argues that authority is essentially objectivist. Biopolitics is conceived as a historical process of constituting biological life and economic forces as objectivity. The paper addresses the question of whether biological-type relations destroy or foster capacities for politics. Arguing against Arendt’s diagnosis of the fate of authority in modernity, the article maintains that biological knowledges and economism create new groundworks of politics, citizenship and authority. This suggests that politics is instigated not simply through breaking given aesthetic orders (dissensus), but also through aesthetic productions of objectivity.

Michel Foucault: À l’épreuve du pouvoir. Édité par Edouard Jolly, Philippe Sabot, Septentrion Presses Universitaires, mai 2013

Description
Tout au long de son œuvre, Michel Foucault n’a cessé d’interroger les formes et les dispositifs de pouvoir qui définissent, dans nos sociétés modernes, les modalités du contrôle social et de la production normative des individualités déviantes (le fou, le criminel, le pervers). Parallèlement à ce travail d’analyse et de diagnostic de notre présent, il s’est attaché à développer une réflexion critique concernant les conditions pratiques et les enjeux politiques d’une résistance active à l’emprise du pouvoir et des normes sur la vie des sujets. « Là où il y a pouvoir, il y a résistance », écrit-il dans La Volonté de savoir.
Les études qui composent le présent ouvrage interrogent à nouveaux frais cette articulation entre pouvoir et résistance, qui forme le cœur de la pensée politique et de la démarche critique de Michel Foucault. Elles permettent ainsi d’apporter un éclairage original sur l’hypothèse du « bio-pouvoir ». Mais elles visent surtout à inscrire la problématique biopolitique dans un cadre plus large qui permet de faire apparaître l’ancrage philosophique et l’actualité de la pensée de Michel Foucault.
La confrontation des enjeux critiques et politiques de cette pensée à celles de Kant, de Heidegger, de Deleuze, d’Agamben, de Negri, de Butler et de Walzer conduit alors à renouveler l’approche des relations entre pouvoir et résistance, en montrant que ces relations concernent toujours des enjeux vitaux, subjectifs et pratiques qui forment le socle de la mobilisation et de la lutte contre l’intolérable.

Support Livre broché
Nb de pages 160 p.

ISBN-10 2757404563
ISBN-13 978-2-7574-0456-0
GTIN13 (EAN13) 9782757404560

Call for sponsorship to buy Michel Foucault’s archives

Paris, 8 May 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

The Ministry of Culture sent out a call for sponsorship to French companies in order to purchase the archives of Michel Foucault.

The archives of the French philosopher consist of 37,000 hand-written or typed documents. The Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) stated its intention to acquire these documents, ranked as a national treasure, a year ago.

The call for sponsorship concerns €3.5m. Supporting the purchase of a national treasure for the State will allow indebted companies with company taxes to benifit from a reduction of up to 90% within 50% of the sum due.

The national treasure title is a way of protection in order to avoid goods holding a major historical, artistic and archeological value for the country from being exported. The BNF often uses this procedure to enrich its collection. That is how in 2009 it bought the archives of Guy Debord, while Yale University showed its interest in the purchase as well.

Appel au mécénat d’entreprise pour l’acquisition des archives de Michel Foucault

Paris, le 8 mai 2013, Art Media Agency (AMA).

Le ministère de la Culture Français lance un appel aux entreprises soumises à l’impôt sur les sociétés, afin d’acquérir les archives de Michel Foucault.

Les archives du philosophe français comportent près de 37.000 documents manuscrits ou dactylographiés. La Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF) a déclaré son intention de se porter acquéreur de ce document, classé trésor national depuis un an.

L’appel porte sur un montant de 3,5 millions d’euros. Le mécénat d’entreprise permet aux entreprises redevables de l’impôt sur les sociétés de bénéficier d’une réduction de cet impôt de 90% dans la limite de 50% du montant de l’impôt dû si elles participent à l’achat d’un trésor national pour l’Etat.

La qualification de trésor national est une mesure de protection qui permet l’interdiction de sortie du territoire de biens présentant un intérêt majeur pour l’histoire, l’art et l’archéologie. La BNF utilise fréquemment ce procédé pour enrichir ses collections. Elle a de cette manière pu acquérir les archives de Guy Debord en 2009, alors que l’université de Yale s’était montrée intéressée et avait formulé une offre d’achat.

Rob Iliffe, “Self-experiment, Sex, and the Care of the Self”

This is a lecture on the life and practices of the self of Isaac Newton.

With thanks to Dirk Felleman for this link