Foucault News

Morales-Ladrón, M. On docile bodies: silence, control and surveillance as self-imposed disciplines in Anna Burns’ Milkman
(2023) Irish Studies Review

DOI: 10.1080/09670882.2023.2198081

Abstract
Anna Burns, the first Northern-Irish woman to have been awarded the Booker Prize for her novel Milkman in 2018 has been celebrated since then as a lucid and necessary voice in the contemporary panorama. Set in an unknown location in Northern Ireland, at a time when the Troubles were at its peak, the narrative defiantly targets at what appears to be sexual harassment, to further disclose layers of more subtle meanings related to sociopolitical (self-)control and surveillance, in an atmosphere of pathological silence. Informed by Michel Foucault’s theories, developed in his studies Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality, this article explores Burns’ novel in light of Foucault’s model of biopower, defined as a “technology of power centered on life,” within which the panopticon will be revisited. I will contend that silence, consequently, surfaces as both the voluntary alternative and the inevitable consequence of the imposition of regulatory practices on docile bodies, on a disempowered microstructure of inmates that facilitates the success of such technology of power. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
Anna Burns; docile bodies; Northern Ireland; panopticon; the Troubles

Alice Leal & Philip Wilson (2023) A tale of two disciplines? Philosophy in/on translation, Perspectives, 31:1, 1-15,
DOI: 10.1080/0907676X.2023.2148984

ABSTRACT
We describe the genesis of this special issue on ‘philosophy in/on translation’: a symposium led to the formation of a successful research group. The interface between philosophy and translation studies has become a fruitful research field, as evidenced by the growing number of conferences and publications. Research into translation and philosophy addresses three topics, as identified by Anthony Pym: what philosophers have said about translation; how translation theorists turn to philosophy to support their ideas; and the translation of philosophical texts. We argue for a fourth link: that, following Derrida, the implications of (un)translatability shape the very notion of philosophy. Five future research directions are mapped in detail: the move beyond the western canon, as the academy engages with the process of decolonisation; epistemic justice, as researchers interrogate and reject Anglophone models; substantive theories of translation that will complement analytical enquiry; the use of translation as a philosophical tool; and the new interface between translator studies and philosophy. We describe in detail the contents of the ten chapters of this special issue and show how the authors both investigate phenomena and provide ways of moving research forward. An exciting time lies ahead for those who work in this interdisciplinary field.

KEYWORDS: philosophy, translation, canon, epistemic justice, translation theory, translator studies

Miro Griffiths. Declare Independence. International Journal of Disability and Social Justice. 2023. Vol. 3(1):24-41.
DOI: 10.13169/intljofdissocjus.3.1.0024

Open access

Abstract
This article presents an original and critical interrogation of how disabled activists establish claims and coordinate activities to progress the independent living agenda. The article achieves this by employing Beckett and Campbell’s (2015) concept of ‘oppositional device’, which is used to understand resistance practices and the technologies of power that coalesce around disabled people’s collective action. The article argues that the independent living concept could, similarly, be understood as an oppositional device and this holds potential for furthering the emancipatory claims of disabled people’s social movements. This allows for an understanding of Independent Living Movements as assemblages of technologies that open heterotopias, which engage in the experimentation of what disabled people can be and do through the ideas of independent living. The article draws on empirical data from a study exploring young disabled people’s views and experiences of disability activism across Europe to evidence the claims made.

Bloomfield, M.J., Manchanda, N.
Business, power, and private regulatory governance: Shaping subjectivities and limiting possibilities in the gold supply chain
(2023) Regulation and Governance

DOI: 10.1111/rego.12522

Abstract
To examine how private regulatory governance reproduces a market logic that always already circumscribes possibilities for radical change, we tarry with Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality and his writings on power. We focus on two major initiatives created to regulate gold supply chains, subjecting their publicly released documents to a discourse analysis. This reveals subtle but tangible examples of how these initiatives discursively shape business preferences and possibilities for engaging with a social change agenda. Through a focus on how power circulating through these initiatives works to shape the identities and interests of business actors themselves, we contribute a new perspective to the literature on business, power, and private regulatory governance, one that highlights the ways through which these discourses both expand and limit business actors’ engagement in setting social agendas and the mixed and sometimes seemingly contradictory implications for the public interest. © 2023 The Authors. Regulation & Governance published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Author Keywords
business power; discourse analysis; Foucault; gold supply chain; private regulatory governance