Foucault News

Bonsu Samuel K. and Polsa Pia (2011). “Governmentality at the Base-of-the-Pyramid”. Journal of macromarketing, 31 (3), pp. 236-44.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146711407506

Abstract
The Base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) corporate strategy perceives market-based solutions to the problem of global poverty. The strategy is premised on the view that people in BoP markets live in fundamental lack, which can be overcome with business intervention. The merits of this idea seem obvious, but its ideological premise within contemporary capitalism is often lost on many. The purpose of the authors in this paper is to explore the ideological premise of the BoP strategy. The authors employ Foucault’s notion of “governmentality” to suggest that corporate adoption of the BoP strategy mimics a neocolonial incursion into heretofore inaccessible markets, by constituting the poor as free, self-governing individuals-modern citizens in the Western liberal sense-toward facilitating market control and exploitation for corporate ends.

Steve Urbanski, The Identity Game: Michel Foucault’s Discourse-Mediated Identity as an Effective Tool for Achieving a Narrative-Based Ethic, The Open Ethics Journal, 2011, 5, 3-9

Open access pdf

Abstract:
This article examines in hermeneutic fashion the philosophy of Michel Foucault and isolates an identity matrix that can assist humans in navigating the often numerous and conflicting narratives facing us in the 21st century and empower us to move toward a more narrative-based ethic that is beneficial to multiple stakeholders. Of particular interest is Foucault’s assertion that our identities are not fixed in a traditional sense but mediated by the many rich, dialogical discourses we encounter each day. This identity scheme is suggested in much of Foucault’s philosophy, particularly in Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, and its application to ethics has never been more important. As highly developed countries, particularly the United States, become more egocentric, ethical decision-making too often is defined via an emotivistic framework. Foucault’s thoughts on identity can enlighten us to the power each person has in determining and taking ethical action that can positively inform what this article terms a narrative-based ethic. This portion of the article is informed by philosopher Walter R. Fisher, who sees humans as “storytellers” who view the world based on an awareness of what Fisher terms narrative probability – or what constitutes a coherent story – and their constant habit of testing that story’s narrative fidelity, whether the experience rings true with other stories they know to be true in their lives.

Keywords: Culture, ethics, genealogy, identity, narrative.

Hardy, Nick (2011). “Foucault, Genealogy, Emergence: Re-Examining The Extra-Discursive”. Journal for the theory of social behaviour, 41 (1), p. 68.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.2010.00446.x

Abstract
This paper offers an alternative theorization of a well known account of restructured social relations-Foucault’s analysis of the production of “delinquency” in Discipline and Punish. The paper argues that in his later “genealogical” accounts like Discipline and Punish, Foucault does not maintain the same analytical and theoretical depth with regard to the “extra-discursive” that can be found in his earlier “archaeological” works. Furthermore, a key element of his genealogies was the concept of “emergence”, which Foucault used to denote the moment of a new “domination”. This paper argues that by inadequately theorizing the extra-discursive, Foucault cannot make a sufficiently strong enough argument with regard the formation and effect of “emergent” entities-indeed, that Foucaultian theory itself should broaden its conception of “emergence” to include other properties and entities, not only those that are part of “dominations”. By adapting critical realism to re-theorize the extra-discursive and emergence, the argument is made that Foucault’s account can be greatly strengthened. The paper concludes by critically re-examining the role of extra-discursive in producing the emergence of “delinquency” and thereby offering a richer understanding of complex social relations.