Foucault News

Costa, V.R., Luguetti, C., Santos Oliveira, M.D., Pinheiro, M.C., Nunomura, M.
Living within and outside a disciplinary bubble: a Foucauldian analysis of Brazilian gymnasts’ experiences in boarding school
(2022) Sport, Education and Society, .

DOI: 10.1080/13573322.2022.2142544

Abstract
The gymnastics’ environment has been criticised for producing uncompromising coaching practices, emotional disorders, harassment and abuse. Furthermore, the challenges faced by the young gymnasts can be acute when they live in gymnastics boarding schools, where many aspects of their lives are controlled. Drawing upon a Foucauldian lens, this study explores power relations in the lived experiences of former artistic gymnasts who trained in a gymnastics boarding school in Brazil, and the pedagogical and policy implications. Qualitative data were produced from semi-structured interviews with five former Brazilian artistic gymnasts, who described their everyday lives within and around the gymnastics boarding school. First, we explore how technologies of dominance produced a specific docile gymnast subjectivity and how this subjectivation process impacted the lived experiences of the gymnasts during their careers.

Second, Foucault’s later work on the technologies of the self helps us in the microanalysis of how gymnasts negotiated the process of moving out of a space with specific discourses and power relations, that impacted their everyday lives. In so doing, we explore the tensions between technologies of domination and technologies of self. We propose the following pedagogical and policy implications: (a) we question the notion that coaches, and even the gymnastics environment, automatically prepare the gymnasts for ‘real life’ through the application of disciplinary strategies; (b) we advocate for shifting from coercive and punitive strategies to discipline strategies that consider responsive pedagogies and (c) we highlight the importance of the co-responsibility and co-surveillance of stakeholders. Such pedagogical and policy implications might contribute to reflections in gymnastics, in elite athletes’ programmes, and boarding school systems. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Author Keywords
athletes’ lived experiences; boarding schools; coaching; discipline; Foucault; Gymnastics

Index Keywords
article, athlete, Brazil, career, drawing, elite athlete, gymnast, gymnastics, human, human experiment, microanalysis, pedagogics, personal experience, responsibility, semi structured interview, tension

Cheung, M., Chen, Z.T.
Power, Freedom, and Privacy on a Discipline-and-Control Facebook, and the Implications for Internet Governance
(2022) IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, pp. 1-18.

DOI: 10.1109/TPC.2022.3191103

Abstract
Background: The proliferation and penetration of social media into professional and everyday lives have reshaped the way in which people deal with their personal information and call for refreshed perceptions and conceptualizations of the power relationship between individual users and technology giants. Despite intensified privacy concerns and crises over social media, there is little research on the correlations between users’ privacy perception and protection in non-Western settings. Research question: To what extent are Hong Kong Facebook users willing to sacrifice control over their information in exchange for self-expression, sociality, and intimacy in their social roles and relationships

Literature review: We first identified a gap in the literature on user perceptions and concerns over privacy in Eastern cultures, which is scarce despite the increasing concern over privacy in professional communication. Informed by the recent literature on the privacy paradox and Foucault and Deleuze's work on power, the unbalanced and normalizing power relationship between Facebook and its users in Eastern contexts is identified as a synthesis of discipline and control.

Research methodology: Data from a survey of 797 young users in Hong Kong were used for our analysis of privacy perception and protection. The survey contained three sections: Facebook usage, attitudes and behaviors, and basic demographics. Results: The findings support our hypotheses in revealing that the privacy paradox is evident for Facebook users in Hong Kong. In addition, excessive Facebook use leads to reactive privacy awareness and normalization behaviors.

Conclusion: We believe that technology giants, such as Facebook, should be pioneers in safeguarding users’ privacy while encouraging the establishment of social relationships and freedom of expression. The implications for internet governance are discussed from a multistakeholder perspective.

Author Keywords
Deleuze; discipline-and-control social media; Facebook; Foucault; freedom; Internet; Law; Media; Meta; Pandemics; power; Privacy; privacy; Regulation; social network; Social networking (online)

Index Keywords
Data privacy, Social aspects, Surveys; Deleuze, Discipline-and-control social medium, Facebook, Foucault, Freedom, Law, Medium, Meta, Pandemic, Power, Privacy, Regulation, Social media, Social network, Social networking (online); Social networking (online)