Disciplinary Societies Research Articles

Say Her Name: Remembering Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy in Thinking About Algorithmic Finitude and Digital Sufficiency with Foucault and Laruelle

In The Order of Things, Michel Foucault first articulates what he calls the empirico-transcendental doublet, a circular logic according to which the subject, unlike other objects, can at once be an empirical object in experience and the transcendental conditions that make experience of the empirical possible. This doublet structure is tied, moreover, to what Foucault calls the analytic of finitude, a circinate pattern vacillating between a psychology of represented needs and an anthropology of the finitude of human life. Foucault’s argument is that it is this paradoxical structure which forms the historical a priori of knowledge in the modern episteme and, we may surmise, undergirds the enclosing logics of disciplinary societies. In time, Foucault’s contemporary, Gilles Deleuze, will describe the emergence of novel ambient and modulatory conditions that provoke a partial remaking of the boundaries of the subject into the dividual, or data-individual. This transformation, while unparalleled in some ways, relies on many extractive and surveilling methods and technologies developed in the previous episteme. Similarly, the somatechnical facialisation capabilities of digital technologies – described variously as digital epidermalisation, digital phrenology, and recursive redlining – are, I hold, prefigured by plantation logics. But while these are important historical contextualisations, the new algorithmic architectures we are embedded in have occasioned a veritable structural reorganisation of the circularity of the empirico-transcendental doublet. This new recursive epistemological arrangement – or algorithmic-transcendental doublet – causes dividuals to continually be assimilated into computerised temporalities that elicit financialised closed-loop epistemologies and grant the digital illegitimate authority over the radical immanence of life as lived. In addressing the interrelated theses presented here, I invoke François Laruelle’s project on non-standard philosophy to propose an alternative posture – one which refuses the violence of sufficiency: a knowledge that doubles the world via a transcendental synthesis by which the structure of possibility is precipitated always as a doublet.

Grids: Re-considering Infrastructural Politics of Urban Space

For many centuries, the principle of linear planning based on a grid pattern has played a significant role in the spatial organization of urban boundaries. Additionally, the grid principle has formed the basis for policies and practices related to the emergence of “disciplinary societies”, leading to the modern networked society. Drawing on the concept of the grid as a cultural technique by media philosopher Bernhard Siegert, this article examines the functioning of the grid as epistemic frameworks and the media of representation, order, and filteration. The article also provides insights into the manifestation of the grid principle in the context of the emerging field of social research on infrastructures, including the digital infrastructure of smart cities. This encompasses a wide spectrum, from smart devices and everyday communication to pervasive sensors and big data, from the sharing of images and impressions to advanced prosthetics, from the development of smart cities to the deployment of surveillance technologies and predictive algorithms. Through a range of case studies, from the study of structured territorial control of the Roman limitatio to the efficient grid patterns of pre-fabricated housing districts worldwide, the research examines the potential and transhistorical nature of the grid principle. The article is intended for media philosophers, anthropologists, urbanists and digital culture theorists.

Critical Subjectivization: From Docile, Ascetic Bodies to Polyglots in Foreign Language Education in Higher Education

Abstract This paper revisits Michel Foucault’s ideas about subjectivity, its applications to understand foreign language education, and, importantly, its learners in higher education. The paper argues that Foucault’s ideas about subjectivization were grounded primarily in his related concept of disciplinary societies; while today, the government of human subjects in higher education have shifted to forms of governance better described as control societies – an extension layered upon disciplinary societies. If control is overlooked when examining foreign language learners’ subjectivities, it perpetuates an ascetic register of the self that language learners must implicitly navigate under the governance of control societies. As a result, the paper argues that an ascetic register of the self limits the possibilities of dynamically becoming different subjects. The paper concludes by arguing that adding ideas about ‘nomadic-subjects’ with Foucault’s ideas of subjectivity is a more comprehensive framework from which to understand foreign language learners’ subjectivities.

The fourth ecology: Hikikomori, depressive hedonia and algorithmic ubiquity

In this article we expand upon the conceptual framework of Félix Guattari’s 1989 essay, The Three Ecologies. Here Guattari examines changes in subjectivity that have come about due to scientific and technological advances which, as he sees it, brought about an “ecological disequilibrium” ([1989]2000, 27) and deteriorated individual and collective modes of being. In response to this Guattari proposes a kind of holistic therapy or ‘ecosophy’ between three ecological registers: “the environment, social relations and human subjectivity” (ibid., 28). Guattari cautions that we not only take note of these macro determinations, but also heed the libidinal impulses of desire – what captures it, what directs it, and what shuts it down. Since the publication of The Three Ecologies, the rise of digital technologies has dramatically influenced the ways in which people think, live and communicate. Technological infrastructures, for instance, are used to spread disinformation at a vast speed and scale, and because social networks are often homophile many people infrequently encounter critical disagreement and debate. The increase in media and digital communications usage has also led to new forms of social inclusion and exclusion, the most exacerbated form of which is probably the phenomenon known as hikikomori – acute, prolonged social withdrawal. Taking hikikomori as our focus, we describe what we see as a general set of symptoms of society and trace its myriad intersections with an ever-increasing algorithmic ubiquity, which we posit as the new form of hyper-modulation following from Foucault’s disciplinary societies and Deleuze’s control societies.

Developing the Human Factors/Ergonomics Discipline to Support Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) is recognized as crucial to addressing societal challenges that are systemic in nature, including issues of diversity, equity and inclusion. The Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors (CIEHF) recently issued a guidance outlining how HFE can help address DEI issues, in line with the Annual Meeting activities organized by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFES) Diversity and Inclusion Committee since 2016. This panel brings together the author of the CIEHF report, a former President of CIEHF and two HFES members to discuss DEI issues in HFE science HFE. The goal of this session is to identify needs and opportunities within HF/E to directly support DEI initiatives and approaches, both within and external to our disciplinary societies. This is an interactive session between the attendees guided by the panelists.

Identity crisis and social dissociation in control societies

The article is devoted to the problem of the naming crisis of modern society. The sequences by which the social and cultural history of the West is ordered, represented by the evolution of economics, technology, religion, forms of capital and wealth, communications, following the technological acceleration of time, coexist with each other, compete for primacy, creating a society of atomized subjects who have ceased to understand their place in the history of society. This situation is described in the article as an identity crisis. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate the gaps that have been discovered in attempts to identify society, which are the object of criticism. The article refers to the tradition of explanatory modeling of social interactions in terms of psychopathology and psychiatry. The crisis of the identity of society is illustrated through the images of madness in modern art culture. The article hypothesizes that there is an unspoken ban on naming a society associated with the crisis of capitalism in the transition from disciplinary societies to control societies. Culture's interest in insanity serves as an indicator of a social crisis. The evolution of cultural interest in the figure of a madman from a frightening "outcast" to an attractive "rebel" is shown. The article suggests the tasks of critical philosophy that coincide with the tasks of caring for social health. The idea of the need for the deprivation of mental illness is expressed. Mental health care is considered as a social task.

The emergence of technological tools to control Covid-19: a reinvention of panopticons

In the following text, we intend to discuss the digital epidemiological surveillance caused by the pandemic by Covid-19. The concern with surveillance and privacy is not new, but in the current pandemic situation, the role of the State in electronic surveillance, added to that which has long been played by the Big Tech that corner the market are known, it reconsiders these concerns. To what extent can we, or not, consider that the measures adopted to control contagion by the new coronavirus and in response to the pandemic are part of what were the “disciplinary societies”, as Foucault conceptualized them? To contribute to the answer to this question, the empirical approach that we propose to present aims to characterize the current panorama of the governmental use of technological tools to control the pandemic, as well as the limitations that many applications have come to reveal. To this end, information was collected and systematized divulged in various media from different countries.

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

The Multi-Clientele Assessment Tool as a control mechanism in home care: A poststructuralist analysis

In Quebec (Canada), the Multi-clientele Assessment Tool (Outil d'évaluation multi-clientèle, OEMC) profoundly transformed the practice of home care professionals (HCP), including nurses. Since 2015, all home care patients with a completed OEMC have been counted to assess the performance of services. If performance targets are not reached, funding renewal is threatened, exerting pressure on HCPs. The objective of this article is to review the OEMC's implementation in order to understand its political nature and its impacts on the practice of HCPs and patients' lives. Drawing on the works of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, we propose a poststructuralist analysis of OEMC documents. Shifting from disciplinary societies to societies of control, the OEMC insidiously contributes to the regulation of home care services as well as patients' lives. The will of HCPs to apply their field of expertise is in opposition with the OEMC's purposes. To not complete the OEMC when it is deemed unnecessary would require a negotiation by HCPs. However, HCPs' autonomy is compromised by discourses repressing all forms of resistance.

Eyes Everywhere: Ecological Migration and State Surveillance in the Age of Iron Man

In today’s society, migrants/citizens are monitored and exploited. A comprehension of the complexity of surveillance and resistance to it is crucial to guarantee a more democratic community. Disciplinary societies (in the Foucauldian context) have moved beyond the panopticon’s ecologies. Today’s monitoring is reterritorialized. Surveillance, enabled by digitalization, can adapt to any room today, but with the constant change in spaces, simply monitoring human actions would be inadequate. It is necessary to monitor both behavior and geographical place. Surveillance is also increasingly being marketed. Products are now being sold on the basis of people’s private lives. This dual aspect of surveillance connected to “safety” and “company” is well suited to the neo-liberal agenda. But monitoring also needs the supervised to participate. The States and MNCs are in a challenging situation if and when the monitored resist surveillance. Efforts are still being made by the state and its technology to properly monitor ecological migrations. This study claims that it is ecological and migration surveillance that makes Iron Man a strong avenger. Yet there are several cases in which his surveillance is inefficient through the cinematic narrative. For those already oppressed and who resist surveillance, the study would investigate these moments as flashes of optimism. This study also attempts to enunciate some of the aspects derived from works by theoreticians like Gary Marx and David Lyon. With the collective will of surveillance, unethical monitoring of ecologies and migrations imposed on us, it can be resisted to a good extent.

Notas para la configuración histórica de la pedagogía de párvulos en Colombia: aportes desde Martín Restrepo Mejía, 1888-1930

The purpose of this article is to analyse the configuration of childhood pedagogy used to educate children from three to seven years old from the place of knowledge that Martín Restrepo Mejía occupied in Colombia from the end of the 19th century until the third decade of the 20th century. Three of the main books written by Restrepo Mejía were used as primary sources of emerging foundations for preschool pedagogy. Methodologically, the historical approach of pedagogical practice was used to account for the relationships of knowledge, power and subjectivation to educate children according to the Zerda Plan during the period of conservative hegemony. As a result, the coexistence of the rational and experimental matrices for the configuration of childhood pedagogy within Colombian pedagogical knowledge was achieved. The article ends by presenting some reflections that make it possible in the contemporary world to incorporate the conceptualizations between teaching, development and education typical of early childhood pedagogy in light of the crisis in disciplinary societies.

‘The prison of the body’: school uniforms between discipline and governmentality

ABSTRACT This article asks what uniform practices in schools can tell us about how power functions through a comprehensive analysis of the uniform policies of all Scottish state secondary schools (n = 357). Against the backdrop of large-scale shifts from disciplinary societies to ones dominated by ‘neoliberal governmentality’ identified by Foucault and others, we investigate how these modes of power seem to be entangled in school uniform policies. The analysis reveals the specification of detailed uniform policies that both homogenise, divide and hierarchise the school body, suggesting that disciplinary techniques are alive and well. However, in the justifications that schools provide, we see uniform policies framed not as a tool to enforce discipline, but rather as a technique for pupils to fashion themselves into respectable and employable future adults. We suggest the rise of a ‘neoliberal governmentality’ has shaped how schools justify their practices of control more than it has shaped the practices themselves.

Disciplinary societies and community colleges: Partners in progress

AbstractThis chapter summarizes the varied disciplinary society structures and synthesizes the ways to enhance the relationship between the disciplinary societies and their community college partners.

A role for disciplinary societies in supporting community college adjunct faculty

AbstractDisciplinary societies have a role to play in supporting the needs of community college adjunct faculty. The potential exists to improve the professional lives of these faculty members, an underappreciated segment of the higher education workforce, and to positively influence outcomes for students enrolled in community colleges.

Governo das Condutas e a Constituição da Subjetividade

O presente artigo parte da transição discreta entre as sociedades disciplinares para as sociedades de controle que, em tese, se realizada pela utilização das tecnologias de vigilância e a produção das Big Datas. A partir dessa premissa o artigo busca na relação de dados e algoritmos as condições de possibilidade de uma governamentalidade algorítmica que transforma as subjetividades dos indivíduos em perfis gerados pelas tecnologias, como forma de compreensão da sociedade. Com isso, o estudo tem por objetivo compreender como a governamentalidade algorítmica influencia na construção da realidade subjetiva e social através das tecnologias de comunicação e informação que se alimentam com dados, que logo, através da Data Science, se torna em algo utilizável a favor do controle das populações. Por fim, conclui-se que o futuro estará cada vez mais entrosado com a sociedade de controle algorítmica, e que, precisamos ser críticos com os eventos relacionados à tecnologia, à ciência e a sociedade.

Viral Times

Viral Times

Postscript on the empire of control

This paper maps Hardt and Negri’s use of Deleuze (and Guattari’s) philosophical commitment to the control society as a temporal phenomena in the context of education. Education is important because it is pushed and pulled by those vectors that Hardt and Negri see as central tensions in late capitalism: localism vs globalisation, discipline vs control, codes vs axioms, metrics vs expertise and so on. In Empire, Hardt and Negri represent Empire as a form of governance that responds to the passing from disciplinary societies to societies of control. The societies of control (and Foucault’s theorisation on biopower) are central to their concept of Empire defined “as a regime of the production of identity and difference, or really of homogenization and heterogenization” (p. 46). Empire, then, is a macropolitics that produces, or infiltrates, subjectivation as a means to affect the self within globalising and localising regimes. This paper takes up Hardt and Negri’s challenge in two areas. First concerns what appears to be the collapse of the ideal of publicness within public school systems. The second provocation concerns the digital, or presumptive, economy of online and adaptive learning systems.

The ClassDojo app: training in the art of dividuation

This article emerged in response to the increasing ubiquity of the ClassDojo app, a Silicon Valley-developed digital communication and behavior management platform, in grade schools throughout the world. The author engages critically with ClassDojo by situating it within current scholarship around network governance, describing how the app may reflect a broader transition from Foucauldian disciplinary societies to Deleuzian societies of control. Through a focus on ClassDojo, the author provides an account of how technologically driven processes of ‘dividuation’ encourage a qualitatively different form of power—what Savat, following Deleuze, referred to as modulation—to augment disciplinary power’s longstanding role in producing the ‘good student,’ the ‘good teacher,’ and the ‘good parent.’ The author argues that the modulatory effects of ed-tech platforms like ClassDojo mark an important shift away from schools as sites for the production of neoliberalised individuals and toward schools as networked nodes for the anticipation of dividuals.

“Verdugueo”: sentidos subjetivos acerca del hostigamiento policial que sufren jóvenes de sectores populares de Córdoba (Argentina)

En las últimas décadas en Argentina se ha desarrollado un campo de estudios sobre violencia policial, con énfasis en las prácticas de hostigamiento sufridas por jóvenes de sectores populares. Este artículo focaliza en el sentido subjetivo, es decir, las significaciones subjetivas y el registro emocional que estas experiencias tienen para las víctimas. En el marco de una estrategia metodológica cualitativa, se desarrollaron distintas técnicas conversacionales (entrevistas en profundidad, talleres socio-educativos, conversaciones en marcha). Verdugueo es una categoría local que los propios jóvenes utilizan para designar estas experiencias cotidianas, incluyendo uso de violencia física sobre los cuerpos y de la palabra con fines intimidatorios. Conjuga humillación y vergüenza como sentimientos predominantes y expresa el ejercicio de poder del estado policial cordobés, articulando discrecionalidad, impunidad y espectacularización.

Infrastructure Beyond Control: Clowning the Nuclear Age

Infrastructure Beyond Control:Clowning the Nuclear Age Jessica Hurley (bio) Clowns are, perhaps surprisingly, recurring figures in nuclear literature. Russell Hoban's 1980 post-nuclear-apocalyptic novel Riddley Walker includes a mutation of the English clown/puppet show Punch and Judy as a major motif, while in a more realist mode the Māori novelist James George's 2005 Ocean Roads features a character who has leukemia as a result of his father's work developing the atom bomb, and who spends much of the novel performing beautifully-described clown routines. Martin Cruz Smith's 1986 Stallion Gate, a historical novel about the construction of the first nuclear infrastructures at Los Alamos, opposes the Western scientism of the nuclear complex with the decolonial epistemologies of Pueblo clowns, and in activist circles anti-nuclear protestors have dressed as clowns for their protest actions across two decades (Plowshares 2018). What is it, then, that makes clowning a go-to aesthetic form for thinking about nuclear infrastructures and their failures? My contention in this essay is that clowning, as an art form rooted in the tension between control and its loss, is uniquely able to help us to conceptualize infrastructure (and specifically nuclear infrastructures) as a material object that simultaneously fulfills a fantasy of control and confronts us with the limits of that fantasy. The question of infrastructure, in turn, is central to critical theories of control. In his 1992 essay "Postscript on the Societies of Control," for instance, Gilles Deleuze frames control as a specifically infrastructural issue. Narrating the turn from Foucault's "disciplinary societies" to "the societies of control," Deleuze describes the disciplinary society as being constituted by and through "environments of enclosure," built environments such as the school, the barracks, the hospital, and the prison that organize and orient human life towards the orderly extraction of capital (1992, 3-4). With the post-World War II shift into the society of control comes a different set of infrastructures with a different mode of social and spatial organization: "the crisis of the hospital as environment of enclosure" produces new sites such as "neighborhood clinics, hospices, and day care" (4). The story of the shift from the disciplinary society to the control society thus brings with it its own environmental narrative of a transition from the fixed, spectacular [End Page 101] structures of discipline to the flexible assemblages of infrastructural control; as Deleuze writes, "Enclosures are molds, distinct castings, but controls are a modulation, like a self-deforming cast that will continuously change from one moment to the other, or like a sieve whose mesh will transmute from point to point" (4). This understanding of infrastructure as central to a decentralized, Deleuzian system of power has been fundamental to recent analyses of infrastructure's social function, especially in critical theory and the social sciences. Building on the work of Michel Foucault, social theory has developed a broad consensus that "liberal 'government' does not reside exclusively or even primarily in governments but consists rather in ad hoc assemblages of technologies and designs, architectures, and infrastructures that make up the built environment" (Wakefield 2018, 2). Yet as Stephanie Wakefield has pointed out, the idea of infrastructure as a space of control, of mastery over the natural world, has come under increasing pressure in the emerging timescale referred to as the Anthropocene, as degrading infrastructures become more present in everyday life and ongoing disasters such as climate change and toxification become visible as a consequence of precisely the desire for the control indexed by large-scale infrastructural projects (2018). This shift suggests the need for a more dialectical understanding of the relationship between control and out-of-controlness, one that can account for the ways in which fantasies of control intersect with the awareness of the impossibility of control to shape the emergence of infrastructure itself. This article addresses the relationship between infrastructure, environment, and control through an analysis of nuclear infrastructures and their epistemological foundations, and the challenges posed to those foundations by recent representations of nuclear infrastructures, their failures, and the clowns who inhabit them. My objects of analysis are two nuclear texts drawn from very different fields. The first is the 1983...