Foucault News

CALL FOR CHAPTERS – BOOK PROJECT

TITLE
“New Perspectives on Discourse and Governmentality”

• Paul McIlvenny
• Julia Zhukova Klausen
• Laura Bang Lindegaard

at the Centre for Discourses in Transition (C-DiT), Aalborg University, Denmark

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

We seek contributions for an edited book of empirical studies that illustrate new perspectives on governmentality from the point of view of discourse studies.

Studies of governmentality inspired by Foucault’s lectures and writings have slowly accumulated a body of work across a number of disciplines, including political science, policy studies, economics and history (Dean 2010, Miller & Rose 2008, Rose 1999). As a result of the recent publication in English for the first time of some of Foucault’s annual lecture series at the Collège De France from 1977-1984 (Foucault 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011), recent debates on governmentality attempt to critically rethink Foucault’s ideas, both in relation to new areas of application (e.g. climate change, health, mobility and transnationality) and in relation to developing new theories and methods appropriate to tracking the transformations in governance, self, control, power, democracy, body, conduct, space, security, environment and citizenship taking place in contemporary societies and polities across the world (Binkley & Capetillo 2009, Bröckling et al. 2011, Nadesan 2008, Walters 2012).

It is becoming apparent that the concept of governmentality has overgrown its status as a minor element of the Foucauldian heritage and has become an interdisciplinary inquiry in its own right. However, while the body of work on governmentality crosses multiple disciplinary boundaries, it is held together by a common tendency to constantly return to Foucault’s works as a sort of ‘final destination’ for those theorising the conduct of conduct. It is in response to this inclination to treat governmentality as a set of arguments, as a social and political theory which can only be understood and articulated through a re-reading of Foucault’s references to governmentality, that some scholars are proposing that a productive direction lies in viewing governmentality as a set of analytical tools rather than a theory per se, and in producing new writings of today’s governmentality rather than new readings of it (Walters 2012). This entails that studies of new territories of power and new ’technes’ of governance should be, first and foremost, empirical and analytical examinations of the ways that the rationalities and apparatus of governmentality are at work both at the level of everyday practices, rather than just institutions of governance (Lemke 2007), and through assemblages of materialities, social arrangements, discursivities and textualities, rather than through the distinct and segregated realms of the technological and ideational (Latour 2005).

Within discourse studies, there have been only a few attempts to connect up the notion of discourse and the later work of Foucault and even fewer have attempted to connect discourse and governmentality. In the broader domain of discourse studies, a number of scholars from different fields have touched upon or pointed towards the potential of Foucault’s work. Most notably, McHoul (1986, 1996) has suggested an ethnogenealogy, Laurier & Philo (2004) have proposed an ethnoarchaeology, and Iedema (2003) has done governmentality-inspired work on discourses of post-bureaucratic organisation, but others should be mentioned as well, namely Anderson (2003), Bührmann et al. (2007), Diaz-Bone et al. (2007), Fairclough (1993, 1996, 2003), Hearn (2008), Hodges (2002, 2003), Iedema & Scheeres (2003), Miller (1997), Powers (2007), Prior (1997), Ransom (1994), Salskov-Iversen et al. (2000, 2008), Tate (2007) and Wickham & Kendall (2007). However, whereas all of these studies, to varying degrees, are concerned with the relationship between the conception of discourse and Foucault’s thought, none of them in any detail discusses and demonstrates the methodological and analytical consequences of the confluence of discourse studies with studies of governmentality, and, as a consequence, there is still an important gap to be filled if discourse studies are to take full advantage of the opportunities of current and future work within studies of governmentality.

TOPICS

Contributions to the book are expected to centre on the ‘intersection’ of discourse and governmentality. Other phenomena identified with Foucault’s later work, e.g. biopolitics, securitisation, technologies of the self, etc. are also welcomed. Contributions may focus on a broad range of areas, including but not limited to health, sport and leisure, the environment, education and schooling, family, mass media, new media, international politics, transnationality, migration, non-governmental organisations, transportation, mobilities, and social movements. Further, they could engage with the following important issues:

• Governmentalities beyond the national. For example, the discursive strategies, technologies and routines by which the conduct of an individual is increasingly governed across and beyond national territories.
• Governmentalities outside advanced liberalism. For example, anti-politics and non-governmental politics, or studies in countries or regions in the Global South.
• Various forms of resistance, protest or counter-conduct within current forms of advanced liberalism. This could include, for example, the Occupy-movement, protests in the Middle East, and studies of children who renegotiate the rules set up by caregivers or teachers.
• Various forms of securitisation within current forms of advanced liberalism.
• Relationships between different technologies (techne) and rationalities (episteme) of government (or, in other words, of regimes of practices). For example, forms of multimodal analysis of different practices and their rationalities – for instance, of the regime of automobility in everyday practices.
• Relationships between the attempt to conduct the conduct of others and the attempt to conduct the conduct of oneself. For instance, the accomplishment of governmentalities at the intersection of politicians and citizens.
• The role of computer-mediated technologies, communication infrastructures and digital media – for example, social media and individual/collective resistance to the attempts to regulate the actors’ conduct, or the new arts of governmentality (securitization, transnational governmentality, ethnification, etc.) that employ internet and digital technologies.

CHAPTER CONTRIBUTIONS

Given our concern with interdisciplinarity, we are looking forward to contributions that satisfy the following criteria:

• Contributions must engage with Foucault’s work on governmentality and the studies of governmentality that have emerged in fields such as international studies, environmental studies, political science, public policy and organisation studies.
• Contributions must have a substantial component of empirical analysis using approaches, old and new, that come under the broad umbrella of discourse studies, including critical discourse analysis, membership categorisation analysis, conversation analysis, mediated discourse analysis, nexus analysis, prefigurative discourse studies, genre analysis, social semiotics, critical applied linguistics and positive discourse analysis.
• Contributions should engage with issues of scale and the interconnectedness of, on the one hand, the rationalities, technologies, programmes and materialities of governmentality and, on the other, the textualities, interactionalities and discursivities that circulate in practices of the conduct of conduct.
• Contributions may present a new or invigorated perspective on governmentality or go beyond established governmentality debates.
• Contributions may show how the conceptual innovations of intellectual thought and the subtleties of thinking about governmentality (eg. genealogy, historical ontology, powers of freedom, etc.) have an impact on the development of innovative approaches in discourse studies.
• Potential authors are invited to submit a title and extended abstract (no more than 750 words) by April 15^th 2013 to <discgov[AT]lists.hum.aau.dk>. Please also send a brief bio statement.
• The proposals should outline their perspective on Foucault and governmentality, the methodology used, the nature and extent of the empirical data, and preliminary explanations of interests, phenomena, analytic directions, and possible value and implications (see advice above).
• The co-editors will decide on a selection of abstracts and invite those authors to submit a full paper (8-10 000 words) for consideration to be included in the collection. The full papers will be peer reviewed and revised before submission of a draft volume to the publisher. Further revisions may be necessary in order to secure acceptance by the publisher.
• It is planned that after submission of the full paper, authors will be invited to a seminar in Autumn 2013 dedicated to presentations, sharing data and improving the coherence and quality of the volume. Funding for the local arrangements and accommodation are being pursued.
• Any enquires can be addressed to the co-editors at the address: <discgov[AT]lists.hum.aau.dk>.
• Abstract (750 words): 15^th April 2013
• Full paper (8-10 000 words): 1^st September 2013
• Revised paper: 1^st January 2014
• Submission of manuscript to publisher: 1^st March 2014
• Publication date: late 2014/early 2015

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Potential authors are invited to submit a title and extended abstract (no more than 750 words) by April 15^th 2013 to <discgov[AT]lists.hum.aau.dk>. Please also send a brief bio statement.
• The proposals should outline their perspective on Foucault and governmentality, the methodology used, the nature and extent of the empirical data, and preliminary explanations of interests, phenomena, analytic directions, and possible value and implications (see advice above).
• The co-editors will decide on a selection of abstracts and invite those authors to submit a full paper (8-10 000 words) for consideration to be included in the collection. The full papers will be peer reviewed and revised before submission of a draft volume to the publisher. Further revisions may be necessary in order to secure acceptance by the publisher.
• It is planned that after submission of the full paper, authors will be invited to a seminar in Autumn 2013 dedicated to presentations, sharing data and improving the coherence and quality of the volume. Funding for the local arrangements and accommodation are being pursued.
• Any enquires can be addressed to the co-editors at the address: <discgov[AT]lists.hum.aau.dk>.

SCHEDULE

• Abstract (750 words): 15^th April 2013
• Full paper (8-10 000 words): 1^st September 2013
• Revised paper: 1^st January 2014
• Submission of manuscript to publisher: 1^st March 2014
• Publication date: late 2014/early 2015

REFERENCES

Anderson, Niels Åkerstrøm (2003). Discursive Analytical Strategies: Understanding Foucault, Koselleck, Laclau, Luhmann. Bristol: The Policy Press.

Binkley, Sam & Capetillo, Jorge (Eds.) (2009). A Foucault for the 21st Century: Governmentality, Biopolitics and Discipline in the New Millennium. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.

Bröckling, Ulrich, Krasmann, Susanne & Lemke, Thomas (Eds.) (2011). Governmentality: Current Issues and Future Challenges. Abingdon: Routledge.

Bührmann, Andrea D., Diaz-Bone, Rainer, et al. (2007). Editorial FQS 8(2): From Michel Foucault’s Theory of Discourse to Empirical Discourse Research. Forum Qualitative Social Research 8(2). [Online]. Available: <http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/&gt;.

Dean, Mitchell (2010). Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Society (2nd edition). London: Sage.

Diaz-Bone, Rainer, Bührmann, Andrea D., et al. (2007). The Field of Foucaultian Discourse Analysis: Structures, Developments and Perspectives. Forum Qualitative Social Research 8(2). [Online]. Available: <http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/&gt;.

Fairclough, Norman (1993). Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity press.

Fairclough, Norman (1996). Technologisation of Discourse. In Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen Rosa & Coulthard, Malcolm (Eds.), Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, London: Routledge.

Fairclough, Norman (2003). Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge.

Foucault, Michel (2007). Security, Territory and Population (Lectures at the College De France 1977-78). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Foucault, Michel (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics (Lectures at the College De France, 1978-1979). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Foucault, Michel (2010). The Government of Self and Others (Lectures at the College De France, 1982-1983). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Foucault, Michel (2011). The Courage of Truth (The Government of Self and Others II: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1983-1984). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hearn, Mark (2008). Developing a Critical Discourse: Michel Foucault and the Cult of Solidarity. Critical Discourse Studies 5(1): 21-34.

Hodges, Ian (2002). Moving Beyond Words: Therapeutic Discourse and Ethical Problematization. Discourse Studies 4(4): 455-479.

Hodges, Ian (2003). Assembling the Soul: Self and Media Consumption in Alternative Spirituality. International Journal of Critical Psychology 8: 34-54.

Iedema, Rick (2003). Discourses of Post-Bureaucratic Organization. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Iedema, Rick & Scheeres, Hermine (2003). From Doing Work to Talking Work: Renegotiating Knowing, Doing, and Identity. Applied Linguistics 24(3): 316-337.

Latour, Bruno (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Laurier, Eric & Philo, Chris (2004). Ethnoarchaeology and Undefined Investigations. Environment and Planning A 36(3): 421-436.

Lemke, Thomas (2007). An Indigestable Meal? Foucault, Governmentality and State Theory. Distinktion: Scandianvian Journal of Social Theory 15: 43-64.

McHoul, Alec (1986). The Getting of Sexuality: Foucault, Garfinkel and the Analysis of Sexual Discourse. Theory, Culture & Society 3(2): 65-79.

McHoul, Alec (1996). Semiotic Investigations: Towards an Effective Semiotics. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Miller, Gale (1997). Building Bridges: The Possibility of Analytic Dialogue Between Ethnography, Conversation Analysis and Foucault. In Silverman, David (Ed.), Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, London: Sage.

Miller, Peter & Rose, Nikolas (2008). Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social and Personal Life. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Nadesan, Majia Holmer (2008). Governmentality, Biopower, and Everyday Life. Abingdon: Routledge.

Powers, Penny (2007). The Philosophical Foundations of Foucaultian Discourse Analysis. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 1(2): 18-34.

Prior, Lindsay (1997). Following in Foucault’s Footsteps: Text and Context in Qualitative Research. In Silverman, David (Ed.), Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, London: Sage.

Ransom, Janet (1994). Feminism, Difference and Discourse: The Limits of Discursive Analysis for Feminism. In Ramazanoglu, Caroline (Ed.), Up Against Foucault: Explorations of Some Tensions between Foucault and Feminism, London: Routledge.

Rose, Nikolas (1999). Powers of Freedom: Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Salskov-Iversen, Dorte, Hansen, Hans Krause & Bislev, Sven (2000). Governmentality, Globalization and Local Practice: Transformations of a Hegemonic Discourse. Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 25(2): 183-222.

Salskov-Iversen, Dorte, Hansen, Hans Krause & Bislev, Sven (2008). The Governmentality of Globalizing Managerial Discourses. The Case of New Public Management in Local Government Practices. In Chakrabarty, Bidyut & Bhattaccharya, Mohit (Eds.), The Governance Discourse. A Reader, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Tate, Shirley Anne (2007). Foucault, Bakhtin, Ethnomethodology: Accounting for Hybridity in Talk-in-Interaction. Forum Qualitative Social Research 8(2). [Online]. Available: <http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/&gt;.

Walters, William (2012). Governmentality: Critical Encounters. Abingdon: Routledge.

Wickham, Gary & Kendall, Gavin (2007). Critical Discourse Analysis, Description, Explanation, Causes: Foucault’s Inspiration Versus Weber’s Perspiration. Forum Qualitative Social Research 8(2). [Online]. Available: <http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/&gt;.