The Bibliography of Foucault’s shorter works in English translation has been updated. With thanks to Daniele Lorenzini for maintaining this important bibliography originally compiled by Richard Lynch in 1997.
The Bibliography of Foucault’s shorter works in English translation has been updated. With thanks to Daniele Lorenzini for maintaining this important bibliography originally compiled by Richard Lynch in 1997.
Dispositif: A Cartography
Edited by Greg Bird and Giovanbattista Tusa
Description
A groundbreaking anthology that places dispositifs (“apparatuses”) at the center of contemporary thought.
Dispositif is one of the most prevalent yet elusive terms in contemporary thought. This comprehensive anthology brings together formative, seminal, and contemporary texts and visual applications to illuminate how central dispositifs are to contemporary theory. Greg Bird and Giovanbattista Tusa’s selection and placement of critical texts invite readers to explore common themes and genealogies, different interpretations and readings, and their diverse deployments across multiple disciplines and genres by such figures as Karl Marx, Franz Kafka, Judith Butler, Martin Heidegger, Gilbert Simondon, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Jasbir Puar, Donna Haraway, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Derrida, Tiqqun, Claire Fontaine, and many others.
Dispositif: A Cartography is a true toolbox for the development of technological ecology thinking that accounts for situated knowledge. This collection provides coordinates for reorienting oneself in a permanently changing world, offering possible roadmaps for navigating these profoundly uncertain times. More than just a compilation of interventions on the dispositif, this volume acts as a guide for understanding the complex interaction between technology, philosophy, and the languages of the arts and media.
Greg Bird is Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. He is a contemporary social and political theorist. His first book, Containing Community, won the 2017 Symposium Book Award (Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy).
Giovanbattista Tusa is a philosopher and video artist based at the Nova University of Lisbon in Portugal, where he coordinates the research program X-CENTRIC FUTURES. He is a coauthor, with Alain Badiou, of The End.
Chen, Q.
Becoming Neoliberal Subjects: “Morning Routine” Vlogging and Everyday Life
(2021) 8th European Conference on Social Media, ECSM 2021, pp. 50-57.
DOI: 10.34190/ESM.21.016
Abstract
Neoliberalism, originally concerned within political field, has obtained a wide range of connotations in social sciences studies. The heavy emphasis on free and private markets has led to a shifted focus on individual responsibilities of one’s life and creations of neoliberal subjects. A video blog, shortened as vlog, is a digital form of blog that utilizes video as the medium. The past few years have witnessed the growing popularity of vlogging, as it has become one of the most commonly used method for recording everyday life. Living in a media era where our everyday experiences are very much based on social networking sites, self-presentations are very often structured by different employment of media.
This paper selects six “Morning Routine” vloggings on YouTube and attempt the answer the research question of how these morning routines vloggers perform and construct their neoliberal selves on a daily basis, employing Michel Foucault’s concepts on governmentality and biopolitics. Discourse analysis is used to investigate how these Youtubers present themselves through languages and non-verbal communications. Transcripts of six vloggings are collected as qualitative data and three themes are found after two rounds of coding. A clean space is strongly desired by these YouTubers because a clean and organized environment stimulates a clean mind which can generate more productivity on personal performance. Self-discipline is practiced through building of a healthy and fit body with physical exercise and nutritional and balanced diet. While simple and natural life philosophy is advocated when it comes to using daily care products, consumption is further strengthened through sponsorship and celebrity influence. The findings suggest that these “morning routine” activities are vivid manifestations on how these YouTubers construct their identities as neoliberal subjects as they present themselves as organized, self-disciplined and motivated subjects who are aware of personal responsibilities in making life better and achieving greater success. © 8th European Conference on Social Media, ECSM 2021.
Author Keywords
biopolitics; governmentality; neoliberal subjects; neoliberalism; technologies of self; vlogging
Index Keywords
Behavioral research, Nutrition; Biopolitic, Digital forms, Governmentality, Neoliberal subject, Neoliberalism, Science studies, Social-networking, Technology of self, Video blog, Vlogging; Social networking (online)
WORLD CONGRESS
Foucault: 40 years after
Second call for proposals
Call for proposals PDF
1. Introduction
Michel Foucault died in Paris on 25 June 1984 at the age of 57. Forty years after his death, his work has continued to attract scholars and the general public. The number of books, as well as the doctoral theses, seminars, and conferences focused on his thought around the world is immense. Due to the posthumous publication of his lectures and unpublished material, Foucault’s international impact has continued increase in the last four decades. In fact, Foucault has now become a fundamental academic reference for any research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The global impact of his work, as well as the increasing global proliferation of Foucauldian groups and networks justifies giving special significance to the forthcoming commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of his death. This is why we would like to organise a world-wide event dedicated to analysing the last four decades of intense reception of Foucault’s work but also to exploring the current repercussion of his thought. To do so, we would like to invite all researchers working on Michel Foucault’s thought to join the project of holding a World Congress in 2024 that will encompass and examine all aspects of the French philosopher’s intellectual production.
2. Methodology
The global impact of Foucault’s work has reached such an extent that it would be impossible to bring together in one place the different groups working on his philosophy. Therefore, we propose to organise a World Congress that will be held in different venues without losing a sense of unity in terms of format and themes. To make this possible, we propose to constitute an International Scientific Committee (ISC), which will receive the activity proposals from different institutions/groups. These proposals will be considered based on a set of general criteria which will establish the minimum conditions to be met. Once the proposal has been accepted, the organisers of the specific event will receive the World Congress logo, which will include the name of the city where the activity in question takes place. Information about all activities will be gathered on and disseminated through the World Congress website and social networks. This will give an extraordinary visibility to all the events. Each local activity will become part of an unprecedented global initiative which will both highlight the relevance that Michel Foucault’s thought has attained and contribute to widening the audience of readers and researchers on a global scale.
3. Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
– Activities should focus on Foucault’s thought and be inspired by the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of his death;
– The ISC will make sure that the topics of the activities do not overlap;
– Activities should be scheduled to be carried out throughout 2024. However, activities should take place between May and June 2024 if possible;
– Activities may be organised as seminars, workshops, colloquia, or conferences, which could be held in one day or more. One-person activities are excluded;
– Online streaming of each activity is highly recommended. Event videos will be gathered on the World Congress website;
– Each activity accepted by the ISC should use the World Congress logo (at the top of this document) for promotional purposes. The name of the city in which the event in question takes place will be included on the side of the logo as shown in the example to the right;
– Coordination of different activities that take place in the same venue is recommended. Such coordination should not affect the topic or the diversity of the participants.
– Activities at different venues in the same country are allowed.
4. International Scientific Committee Members
Rodrigo Castro (Spain – Coordinator)
Daniele Lorenzini (USA)
Edgardo Castro (Argentina)
Clare O’Farrell (Australia)
Ernani Chaves (Brazil)
Santiago Castro-Gómez (Colombia)
Adán Salinas (Chile)
Sverre Raffnsøe (Denmark)
Bernard Harcourt (USA)
Frédéric Gros (France)
Philippe Sabot (France)
Elisabetta Basso (Italy)
Yasuyuki Shinkai (Japan)
Alberto Constante (Mexico)
Jesús Ayala-Colqui (Peru)
Mateusz Ozimek (Poland)
Eugenia Vilela (Portugal)
Vanessa Lemm (UK)
Achille Mbembe (South Africa)
5. Submission of proposals
Proposals for activities should be sent to: foucault40after@gmail.com to the Coordinator of the International Scientific Committee: Prof. Rodrigo Castro. Information about activities should include:
a) The title of the activity
b) A short description (5 lines)
c) The city and country in which the activity is to be held
d) The dates on which the activity is to be carried out
e) The name of the coordinator or person in charge of the activity and their e-mail address.
The deadline for submission of proposals is 2nd of February 2024. Decisions on proposals will be communicated by the end of February 2024. Information on accepted activities will be available on the World Congress website.
Richard Shusterman, Philosophy and the Art of Writing, Routledge, 2022
Philosophy and literature enjoy a close, complex relationship. Elucidating the connections between these two fields, this book examines the ways philosophy deploys literary means to advance its practice, particularly as a way of life that extends beyond literary forms and words into physical deeds, nonlinguistic expression, and subjective moods and feelings.
Exploring thinkers from Socrates and Confucius to Foucault and Simone de Beauvoir, Richard Shusterman probes the question of what roles literature could play in a vision of philosophy as something essentially lived rather than merely written. To develop this vision of philosophy that incorporates literature but seeks to go beyond the verbal to realize the embodied fullness of life and capture its inexpressible dimensions, Shusterman gives particular attention to authors who straddle the literature/philosophical divide: from Augustine and Montaigne through Wordsworth and Kierkegaard to T.S. Eliot, Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, and Bertrand Russell. The book concludes with a chapter on the Chinese art of writing with its mixture of poetry, calligraphy, and painting.
Philosophy and the Art of Writing should interest students and researchers in literary theory and philosophy. It also opens the practice of philosophy to people who are not professionals in the writing of philosophy or literary theory.
Valentina Antoniol, “Society Must Be Defended. Society Must Be Attacked: Foucault as a Critic of Schmitt” Public lecture, 25 May 2023.
Holt, R., Wiedner, R.
Technology, Maturity, and Craft: Making Vinyl Records in the Digital Age
(2023) Business Ethics Quarterly, 33 (3), pp. 532-564.
DOI: 10.1017/beq.2022.26
Abstract
Drawing from Michel Foucault’s reading of Immanuel Kant’s essay What is Enlightenment?, and specifically his definition of ascesis, we associate maturity with a capacity for, and interest in, forming the self. On the basis of an empirical study of making vinyl records following the successful commercialization of digital media, we identify micro-disciplinary techniques of self-forming that emerge as enthusiasts steadily learn the craft of vinyl record manufacturing. It is, we argue, through technology, rather than against it, that organizational immaturity can be resisted. Craftwork involves testing and transforming, rather than just acquiring, traditional skills. Maturity involves an ongoing struggle of selectively and reflectively engaging with technologies via attempts to be the subject of one’s own subjection. The former contributes to the latter. © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Society for Business Ethics.
Author Keywords
analogue; ascesis; craft; digital; Foucault; Heidegger; technology; vinyl
Editor: I have recently developed an interest in fountain pens and was wondering if anybody knew what brand of fountain pen Foucault used? He may have used a biro (like Ian Fleming) but most writers at the time he was writing would have used fountain pens.
From the biographies and from those currently working in the archives we know he wrote by hand and that his writing is no easy matter to decypher. He had a secretary who was expert in decyphering his writing and typing up his work for publication.
For those of you curious about the writing instruments used by other philosophers and Martin Heidegger in particular, there is an interesting discussion on the Fountain Pen Network concerning Heidegger’s writing instruments and a most informative article by Richard Polt titled ‘Heidegger’s Typewriter’ published in 2022. (With thanks to Stuart Elden for both these references.)
If you have any information, feel free to leave a comment on this post or to email me directly.
Baker, E.-R.
The Third Reich of Dreams: Resisting fascism through the oneiric unconscious
(2023) In Emily-Rose Baker and Diane Otosaka (eds) Dreams and Atrocity: The Oneiric in Representations of Trauma, Manchester University Press, 2023, pp. 120-138.
DOI: 10.7765/9781526158086.00015
Abstract
Between 1933 and 1939, Berlin-based Jewish journalist Charlotte Beradt undertook a clandestine project to collect the nightmares of the German nation, which were eventually published in 1966 under the title The Third Reich of Dreams. Demonstrating the deep psychological reach of the Third Reich, which penetrated even the unconscious minds of its subjects during sleep, this extensive archive boasts over three-hundred dreams of German citizens, both Jews and gentiles, yet has received little critical attention since its publication over fifty years ago. This chapter critically examines the political potency and collective nature of dreams of Nazi fascism in Beradt’s archive alongside an analysis of Arthur Miller’s play Broken Glass (1994), in which a Jewish woman living in 1938 New York is inexplicably paralysed by reports of antisemitic violence in the Third Reich. By uniting these real and fictional episodes of the collective interwar unconscious, this chapter demonstrates the ability of dreams and other psychic modes to not only reflect but respond to the otherwise latent fears of the collective interwar imaginary as a reaction against the ways in which totalitarianism seeks to colonise the psyche. Bringing Michel Foucault’s early work on the dream as constitutive of the imagination into dialogue with Cathy Caruth’s notion of the ‘life drive’ central to traumatic dreams, I build on Sharon Sliwinski’s convincing notion of dreaming as an expressly political act to elucidate the decolonising logic harnessed by dreams. © Manchester University Press 2023.
Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A.
Is employee technological “ill-being” missing from corporate responsibility? The Foucauldian ethics of ubiquitous IT uses in organizations
(2022) In Kirsten Martin, Katie Shilton, Jeffery Smith (eds.)Business and the Ethical Implications of Technology, Springer, 2022, pp. 33-55.
DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04202-y
Abstract
The ethical issues introduced by excessive uses of ubiquitous information technology (IT) at work have received little attention, from either practitioners or ethics scholars. This article suggests the concept of technological ill-being and explores the ethical issues arising from such ill-being, according to the individual and collective responsibilities associated with their negative effects. This article turns to the philosopher Michel Foucault and proposes a renewed approach of the relationship among IT, ethics, and responsibility, based on the concepts of practical rationality, awareness, and self-engagement. This article reports a case study of an international automotive company actively engaged in both corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ubiquitous IT deployment. Technological ill-being is an expression of the tension between an individual’s social attributes and aspirations when using modern IT and a system of norms, rules, and values imposing constraints on him or her. We identify the reasons for the lack of consideration of technological ill-being in CSR through identification of the inclusion-exclusion principle. The resulting critical, comprehensive approach to corporate responsibilities and IT uses incorporates the ethical implications of the latter, highlights the practical rationality of their relationship, and demands both individual and collective responses, through a call for collective ethical awareness and self-engagement. The findings prompt a Foucauldian ethics of IT use in organizations, which emerges in a mutually constitutive relationship between the self, as a moral subject of own actions, and broader organizational principles, in which CSR appears as a techne (i.e., a practical rationality governed by conscious aims). © Springer Nature B.V. 2019. All rights reserved.
Author Keywords
Corporate responsibility; Ethics; Inclusion-exclusion principle; Michel Foucault; Technological ill-being; Ubiquitous information technology
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