Foucault's Studies Research Articles

Foucault's Study of Power Theory -- A Textual Study Based on Discipline and Punishment

As the basic concept of political philosophy, power has the nature of absolutely dominating social operation. For a long time, political science and sociology have examined how it operates from a top-down perspective. With the development of grand narrative and the rise of structuralism, the theory of power also needs to be further updated to conform to the trend of postmodernism. Through his research on the development of prisons and other institutions, Foucault realized that the operation law of power was not inseparable from political governance as explained by traditional philosophy, but integrated into the lives of all people in an atomic way. In the modern era, the art of domination incorporates this microphysics and develops it into a technology that, unlike the oppressive domination of antiquity, interferes with People's Daily lives in a way that is controlled by the body. The key to this technology is discipline, which operates in institutions that alienate time and space, and also separate man's utility from his capacity to develop, making him part of the social machine. Foucault's micro-power theory may seem very different from the theory of right and Marxism, but it is used in the context of a contractual society, and its purpose is economic, without disconnection. Through micro-power, we can have a clearer understanding of modern state governance under capitalism.

"Duh u svetu bez duha" - Fukoovo tumačenje Iranske revolucije i otpor zapadnoj modernosti

In this article, we analyze Foucault's research of the Iranian Revolution, conducted at the end of 1978. This research has made Foucault the target of numerous criticisms from his contemporaries, while later interpreters of his work have tried in various ways to understand how this research relates to the rest of his oeuvre. A review of the relevant literature shows that there are different currents in interpreting the place that the study of the Iranian Revolution has in Foucault's work. One of these currents argues that Foucault was "seduced" by the "irrational" aspects of Islam because his theoretical and epistemological standpoints inherently contain anti-Enlightenment aspects. A certain number of authors also agree on the interpretation that sees inconsistency in Foucault's study of the Iranian Revolution, as they believe that at this point, he abandons his understanding of power as a totalizing mechanism and introduces the idea of a free acting subject. We will attempt to show that both currents miss the most important aspect of Foucault's research of the Iranian Revolution, which is the way this research fits into his academic interests at that time. Specifically, we will try to locate his study of the Iranian Revolution within the framework of his academic research in the late 1970s, as well as show how the socio-political context of France at that time influenced his work. We will start the article by examining the relationship between French left-leaning intellectuals and the French Communist Party during this period, as well as their stance on the coalition between the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party. We will show that due to the influence of cooperation with Maoist organizations and his participation in the student revolt of 1968, Foucault developed a negative attitude towards the Stalinist orientations of the French Communist Party and therefore at that time tries to develop a theoretical framework for a non-Marxist understanding of macro-social reality. In such a context, Foucault develops his theory of "governmentality", which refers to the specific logic of social relations that regulates the institutions of society in a given historical period. The set of institutions and social relations that governmentality regulates he calls a "dispositive". Foucault's research leads him to the conclusion that the dispositive regulating contemporary society is guided by the logic he calls "pastoral governmentality", claiming that it involves regulating individuals' actions through their dimension of subjectivity, i.e., through the way they relate to themselves and manage their behavior. Furthermore, he demonstrates how this logic, rooted in the Catholic Church, extends to other social institutions from the seventeenth century and becomes associated with the capitalist mode of production in the eighteenth century. It then assumes a role in regulating individuals' subjectivity in accordance with the concept of the individual as homo economicus. Aligning with his concept of governmentality, Foucault develops the notion of "counter-conduct" as a form of resistance to pastoral governmentality. This idea involves rejecting the prescribed model of subjectivity and, consequently, developing practices that transcend the power relations shaped by pastoral governmentality. We will demonstrate that Foucault's research of the Iranian Revolution serves as a real-time, practical test of his idea of counter-conduct. Namely, he claimed that the reforms of the Iranian Shah aimed at establishing a dispositive guided by the pastoral logic of governmentality. Therefore, he sees the Iranian Revolution as a collective revolt against the dispositive that has been dominant in Western countries since the seventeenth century. In his study of the Iranian Revolution, he is particularly interested in the role of Shia Islam in regulating practices of resistance. He sees Shiism as the discourse through which the Iranian Revolution as a collective form of counter-conduct is coordinated and argues that this form of Islam allows revolutionaries to transform their subjectivity by rejecting the model of subjectivity prescribed by pastoral governmentality. Finally, the article concludes with a review of two ways in which the study of the Iranian Revolution fundamentally affects Foucault's work. The first way involves a shift in the focus of his research, which from 1979. becomes centered on the phenomenon of subjectivity. Thus, during the 1980s, Foucault's work involves exploring various models of subjectivity in the history of Western culture. The second influence of the Iranian Revolution can be observed in Foucault's renewed focus on the concept and phenomenon of the Enlightenment.

Foucault's Epicureanism: Parrhēsia , Confession, and the Genealogy of the Self

Abstract: This paper addresses the apparent absence of a systematic analysis of Epicureanism in Foucault's exploration of ancient philosophy. By considering Pierre Hadot's remark concerning Foucault's problematic neglect of the Epicurean notion of hēdonē , it revisits Foucault's work in search of traces of his engagement with Epicureanism. It then goes on to analyze the genesis of the notion of parrhēsia in Foucault's work, showing how it first appears and is developed in a series of analyses of the "philosophy of the garden," first in a reading of Epicurus's view on the study of nature in the Vatican Sayings , second in his study of Philodemus's Peri Parrhēsias . It is precisely in a series of readings of the Epicurean school that Foucault finds one of his key theoretical resources guiding his study of ancient philosophical practices in the 1980s. More importantly, the paper seeks to articulate the ways in which the analysis of parrhēsia —and of the Epicureans in particular—is situated in a broader genealogy of confession, which connects Foucault's studies of ancient philosophy to his readings of Christianity and the formation of the modern technologies of power and veridiction, defining aspects of the earlier project of a History of Sexuality , as announced in the Will to Knowledge . Finally, the paper articulates a possible view on the critical import of parrhēsia in this broader genealogy of confession.

The Treachery of Images and the Order of Discourse. Political Connotations of Aesthetic Experience

Michel Foucault's outstanding essay This is not a Pipe scrutinizing no less remarkable painting The Treachery of Images by René Magritte, first of all, draws attention of scholars as an original commentary to a landmark piece of art. The article offers a slightly different perspective of consideration the philosopher's work, that can be conditionally called “proto-political”. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to demonstrate political senses of Foucault's aesthetic studies. The first part of the article attempts to reconstruct Magritte's ideas on the nature and purpose of painting, on the correlation between a thing, image and utterance, on resemblance and similitude, which the painter found akin to Foucault's considerations set forth in the book The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Focused on the analysis of Foucault's text on Magritte, the second part of the article reveals significant discrepancies between the intention of the artist and the explication of the philosopher, who, although based on the artist's ideas, interprets them in a very peculiar way. According to Foucault, the revolutionary nature of Magritte's painting consists in the confrontation between the spoken order and the visible order that already represents political consequences. The final part of the article formulates three basic principles of “emancipated” aesthetic judgment, which can be extracted from Foucault's innovative approach to the interpretation of Magritte's work. Thus, the appeal to the theory of Jacques Rancière allows us to demonstrate not only the political significance of these principles, but also their effectiveness and relevance in modern realities.

A EMERGÊNCIA DOS GRUPOS REFLEXIVOS DE GÊNERO PARA HOMENS AUTORES DE VIOLÊNCIA: UMA ESTRATÉGIA DE GOVERNAMENTO

The Maria da Penha Law represented an advance with regard to the human rights of women, conferring challenges to the public authorities to consolidate a wide and efficient network for combating violence against women. The law innovated by conferring on the State the responsibility for the creation of Reflective Gender Groups aimed at men who are perpetrators of violence. In this writing, we aim to analyze the emergence of these reflexive groups for men who are perpetrators of violence as a strategy for governing the individuals. The research is supported by post-structuralist and Foucaultian studies. For the production and analysis of the data, documental analysis of legal and regulatory documents of the Gender Reflective Groups will be used through the concept of governmentality. We intend to contribute to the discussion about practices and knowledge built-in spaces that act to guide the people’s conduct involved in these reflective groups.Keywords: Gender Reflective Groups. Men Authors of Violence. Governmentality.

ENSINO DE BIOLOGIA: MORALIZANDO AS CONDUTAS DAS MULHERES ATRAVÉS DA SEXUALIDADE

We investigated the production of the body, sexualities, and genders in the Teaching of Sciences and Biology from articles published in scientific events (ENPEC and ENEBIO). We perceive the functioning of discursive practices based on moralizing medical discourses, aimed at controlling women's sexuality. Such practices, in the present, have historicities. Thus, inspired by Foucaultian studies, we move research between the present and the past of biology teaching. As we go through the past, we find and examine O livro das mamães: noções de puericulture, used in the discipline of Biology Educational for the formation of primary school teachers, in the first half of the twentieth century, aimed primarily at women. The Teaching of Biology, still today, puts into action and updates mechanisms aimed at the control of the body and life.Keywords: Teaching of Biology. Sexuality. Body. Moralization. Women.

PESQUISAS EM GÊNERO, SEXUALIDADE E EDUCAÇÃO NA PERSPECTIVA PÓS-ESTRUTURALISTA

The field of studies of gender and sexuality articulated with education has been constituting and, today is already consolidated as a field of knowledge. This means that this field has mobilized study and research groups linked to CNPq with a focus on these interests, lines of research in Postgraduate programs, National Associations focused on discussions of Gender and Sexuality, Working Groups in the main academic associations, Seminars National and International, in short, a set of actions that allow us to affirm the studies of Gender, Sexuality, and Education as a field that produces and disseminates knowledge. This field has a strong influence from the post-structuralist perspective, which invests in the problematization of important and central issues for society, such as, for example, the production of gender and sexual differences and inequalities in their crossings with race/ethnicity, generation, and class. Bringing it to Education, this approach focuses on the school space and a sense of education beyond schools as contexts in which gender and sexuality relations produce subjects as the effects of discursive practices, knowledge, power relations, and actions between subjects. In this sense, the proposal of a dossier like this is so that we can welcome, know and disseminate research that has taken the poststructuralist perspective in dialogue with other studies, such as Gay and Lesbian Studies, Foucaultian Studies, Cultural Studies, Feminist Studies, Queer Studies as provocations to think about the constitution of subjects and their belonging in their intersectionalities of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, generation, religion, class, among others. Research that works with this sense of constitution of subjects as educational processes that involve not only schools but other educational spaces as well, in which relationships are marked by discourses, practices, and knowledge that produce identities and belonging, as well as allowing us to place under suspicion our ways of thinking, acting, being and being in the world. Our proposal is also to problematize how these researches based on the post-structuralist perspective, in dialogue with other studies, have mobilized our ways of looking at and understanding the field of gender, sexuality, and education studies.KEYWORDS: Gender. Sexuality. Education. Post-Structuralism.

PESQUISAS EM GÊNERO, SEXUALIDADE E EDUCAÇÃO NA PERSPECTIVA PÓS-ESTRUTURALISTA

The dossier proposes to welcome, know and disseminate research that has taken the poststructuralist perspective in dialogue with other studies, such as Gay and Lesbian Studies, Foucaultian Studies, Cultural Studies, Feminist Studies, and Queer Studies as provocations to think about the constitution of the subjects and their belonging in their intersectionalities of gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, generation, religion, class, among others. Research that works with this sense of constitution of subjects as educational processes that involve not only schools but other educational spaces as well, in which relationships are marked by discourses, practices, and knowledge that produce identities and belonging.

A CULPA É TUA! O DISPOSITIVO DA FEMINILIDADE OPERANDO CONDUTAS DE JOVENS ALUNAS CONTEMPORÂNEAS

As a result of a larger investigation, this study is articulated from the theoretical-methodological contributions of Cultural Studies, Gender Studies in a post-structuralist approach, and Foucaultian Studies. The objective is to analyze and discuss the statements of young people aged 13 to 16, 8th-grade students at a public school, located in an urban outskirt region, about the situations of harassment and harassment that they experience. As a methodological strategy, we used discussion groups with twenty-five students, students from two classes, who narrated situations of control of their bodies inside and outside the school environment. We use the concept of the device of femininity to think about how institutions, like the school and even historical discourses, blame women for the violence they suffer. Therefore, they end up operating in the conduct of these students' behavior, regulating their ways of being and living.Keywords: Cultural Studies. Gender Studies. Sexuality. Youths. Dispositif

Poslušno telo posmatrano sa aspekta postjugoslovenske umetničke prakse u srpskom filmu

The object of institutional discipline: docile body as a primary goal of shaping, is defined by Michel Foucault in relation to the position of the centre of power at a certain historical moment. Post-Yugoslav artistic cinematography praxis, realised in collaboration of the countries of former Yugoslavia, provides a space for analysing of the mechanisms of power in the period of challenging potential for manipulation. On the example of militarism and its structures, it is possible to extrapolate a docile body subordinate to the indoctrination system by using Foucault's study of discipline and punishment, and to analyse the causality of control enforcement. From the historical and outdated punishment systems, public delivery of physical punishments popularised at war times - as depicted in the film Krugovi (Circles) (2013, Srdan Golubović) as well as the consequences rising from manifestations of restrictions, through systemic presence of repressive messages/instruction bearers and unavoidability of the institution as a bastion of alienated centre of power - as depicted in the film Ničije dete (Nobody's Child) (2014, Vuk Ršumović), through description of the process of assimilation of a non-controlled individual into a defined system of subordinates, to the hierarchic dynamics within military units and acting out of one's own volition - as in the film Karaula (The Border Post) (2006, Rajkot Garlic) - the docile body, in terms of military mobilisation, provides an insight into how discipline/control functions, what consequences it raises and how it influences all members of the society, insisting on its stagnation.

MEMORIAIS DE DOCENTES DE ENFERMAGEM, FOUCAULT E ADRIANA VAREJÃO: APROXIMAÇÕES EM PESQUISA-ENSAIO ÉTICO-ESTÉTICA

Objective to conduct an essay ethically and aesthetically about writing academic memorials as a way of constituting full subjects in a Brazilian Nursing School. Method this is an ethical-aesthetic essay. A theoretical-methodological framework was used from the perspective of Foucaultian studies of intertextuality, together with reproduction of works by Adriana Varejão. We also used documentary sources from 16 memorials of full professors at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Nursing School, written between 2012 and 2020. Results writing academic memorials is a practice of constituting subjects who tell the truth about themselves. We are inspired by artistic works by Brazilian Adriana Varejão as an approximation to the field of art, already known for its possibility of creation. The teaching-care place, nurse-caregiver, nurse and professor are places of production of truth about themselves. On the other hand, other identities, such as sanitarian and anthropologist in and of health, make up the paintings. Such productions of truths about themselves, in the academic ritual of ownership, produce acts of knowledge and power in which subjects who write become what they claim to be in their testimony and, in the opening of the ocular extirpation, this image is shown and proliferated to those who approach it. Conclusion writing works as clothes worn by such subjects, in their best sewing. In the memorials, the aim is to reinforce the place of knowing and knowing about herself and about how she became a full professor, so as not to break the situation or to operate surgically in her way of seeing.

MEMORIALS OF NURSING PROFESSORS, FOUCAULT AND ADRIANA VAREJÃO: APPROACHES IN ETHICAL-AESTHETIC ESSAY

Objective to conduct an essay ethically and aesthetically about writing academic memorials as a way of constituting full subjects in a Brazilian Nursing School. Method this is an ethical-aesthetic essay. A theoretical-methodological framework was used from the perspective of Foucaultian studies of intertextuality, together with reproduction of works by Adriana Varejão. We also used documentary sources from 16 memorials of full professors at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Nursing School, written between 2012 and 2020. Results writing academic memorials is a practice of constituting subjects who tell the truth about themselves. We are inspired by artistic works by Brazilian Adriana Varejão as an approximation to the field of art, already known for its possibility of creation. The teaching-care place, nurse-caregiver, nurse and professor are places of production of truth about themselves. On the other hand, other identities, such as sanitarian and anthropologist in and of health, make up the paintings. Such productions of truths about themselves, in the academic ritual of ownership, produce acts of knowledge and power in which subjects who write become what they claim to be in their testimony and, in the opening of the ocular extirpation, this image is shown and proliferated to those who approach it. Conclusion writing works as clothes worn by such subjects, in their best sewing. In the memorials, the aim is to reinforce the place of knowing and knowing about herself and about how she became a full professor, so as not to break the situation or to operate surgically in her way of seeing.

Metaphor, magic, and mental disorder: Poetics and ontology in Mexican (Purépecha) curanderismo.

This article offers an epistemological, poetic, and ontological reading of the ways of knowing regarding mental disorders that are characteristic of the traditional healers (curanderas and curanderos) of an Indigenous group in Mexico. The study is based on ethnographic interviews with traditional Purépecha (Tarascan) healers in rural Michoacan. Interviews focused on local conceptions of emotional and mental illness, especially Nervios, Susto, and Locura (nerves, fright, and madness). We discuss the conceptual structure of these Indigenous illness notions, the nature of the associated imagery and notions of the soul, as well as the general sense of meaningfulness and reality implicit in Purépecha curanderismo. The highly metaphorical modes of understanding characteristic of these healers defy analysis in purely structuralist terms. They do, however, have strong affinities with the Renaissance "episteme" or implicit framework of understanding described in The Order of Things, Michel Foucault's classic study of modes of knowing and experiences of reality in Western thought-a work profoundly influenced by Heidegger's interest in the historical and cultural constitution of what Heidegger termed "Being." After examining the individual illness concepts, we explore both the poetic and the ontological dimension (the foundational sense of reality or of Being) that they involve, with special emphasis on supernatural concerns.

"Mães e pais pela democracia" e "lugar de criança é na escola": Uma análise de disputas sobre volta às aulas no Instagram

Brazilian Education has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the contention forms was social distancing, which suspended classes and led to discussions. This research analyzes two movements in Rio Grande do Sul State that are in this dispute, “Mothers and Fathers for democracy” and “Children's place is at school”, aiming to understand the discourses that constitute them and how they are organized. His Instagram posts were analyzed using Foucaultian Studies point of view, focusing on the governmentality concept. It is noted that movements are based on risk management, legitimizing themselves using media, contribution to expert speeches and the defense of children's rights.

Psiquiatria, segregação e punições: análises a partir de Michel Foucault

OBJETIVOS: Este artigo visa, por meio de um ensaio teórico, pensar relações entre Psiquiatria, espaços de segregação nos estudos de Foucault, a partir de cursos, conferências, entrevistas, aulas, livros e por meio de alguns comentadores de Michel Foucault, no Brasil. MÉTODOS: Analisar os espaços de controle dos corpos em hospitais e prisões fez parte dos objetivos deste texto, considerando uma análise conceitual como metodologia. As práticas punitivas e psiquiátricas são entrecruzadas nesta analítica sob o eixo das relações de poder e saber ligadas ao espaço. CONCLUSÕES PROVISÓRIAS: Problematizar este campo de uma história política da verdade, no presente, é um ponto de preocupação e ativação da escrita operatória deste artigo com análises teórico-conceituais com a interface da Psiquiatria com os espaços de segregação, internação e aprisionamento.

A produção do outro incluído em tempos de avaliações em larga escala

As avaliações em larga escala têm se tornado cotidianas no meio educacional. Seus propósitos são o de mensurar a qualidade da educação. Contudo, compreende-se que tais avaliações também produzem e qualificam sujeitos. No Brasil uma das recentes avaliações é a Avaliação Nacional da Alfabetização - ANA -, sobre a qual temos problematizado o modo como os sujeitos com deficiência têm sido produzidos. Nesta pesquisa o objetivo foi o de analisar a produção do sujeito com deficiência nas escolas públicas a partir da Avaliação Nacional da Alfabetização. Para tanto foram analisados documentos que compõe e regulam essa avaliação e foram realizadas entrevistas com professores e diretores de escolas públicas de sete municípios gaúchos. Os dados foram analisados com base nos Estudos Foucaultianos. Destaca-se que a ANA contribuiu para a constituição do outro com deficiência como um sujeito incapaz e invisível a esses avaliadores.Palavras-chave: avaliação em larga escala; sujeito; inclusão escolar; currículo.

Docência e a profissionalização do magistério no brasil: contribuições da obra de Luiz Pereira

O presente texto propõe-se a estabelecer uma reflexão crítica sobre a profissionalização do magistério no Brasil, revisitando os primeiros estudos sociológicos de Luiz Pereira acerca da escolarização em nosso país. Utilizando-se do procedimento metodológico da análise documental e operando com o conceito de prática a partir dos Estudos Foucaultianos, é possível mapear e descrever alguns enunciados que se referem à profissionalização do magistério na década de 1960, no Brasil. O primeiro desses enunciados mapeados se refere ao declínio da concepção artesanal-missionária relacionada à docência em processo de substituição por concepções mais burocratizadas dessa profissão. O segundo enunciado relaciona-se com as capacidades integrativas, mostrando como a integração de papéis domésticos e profissionais no magistério fortaleceu sua feminização no período analisado.

The Potentiality Of Black Women Narratives For Inclusive Education: Developing Other Subjectivities At School

The paper aims to present the results of a research developed with narratives written by Brazilian Black Women, as well as to discuss its educational potentiality. The research data was composed of 36 autobiographic narratives published by Black women in a blog called Blogueiras Negras, between 2013 and 2016. The research relies on post-structuralism perspective, articulating Foucaultian Studies, the field of Multicultural Education, and the Critical Race Theory-CRT. The analysis shows that the blog works as an essential educative place, where women of color feel safe to share their experiences. The narratives about the school are mostly discriminatory and painful, which made it possible to problematize the processes of learning and teaching. The paper concludes by discussing how the autobiographic narratives of Black women in classrooms can help students and teachers to work forward an inclusive education.

The Potentiality of Black Women Narratives for Inclusive Education: Developing other Subjectivities at School

The paper aims to present the results of a research developed with narratives written by Brazilian Black Women, as well as to discuss its educational potentiality. The research data was composed of 36 autobiographic narratives published by Black women in a blog called Blogueiras Negras, between 2013 and 2016. The research relies on post-structuralism perspective, articulating Foucaultian Studies, the field of Multicultural Education, and the Critical Race Theory-CRT. The analysis shows that the blog works as an essential educative place, where women of color feel safe to share their experiences. The narratives about the school are mostly discriminatory and painful, which made it possible to problematize the processes of learning and teaching. The paper concludes by discussing how the autobiographic narratives of Black women in classrooms can help students and teachers to work forward an inclusive education.

The emerging of a gender discourse in education: the differences in the school space

The present study sought to reflect on issues of gender, sexuality and sexual diversity in school, based on a bibliographic review, considering the recurrence of such discussions in the pedagogical practice in the 21st century. In order to understand the intrinsic relationship between education and sexuality, we guided this reflection in Foucault's studies (1984; 1995), Louro (1997; 1999; 2003; 2004), Butler (1999; 2002; 2003), as well as documents such as The National Curriculum Parameters - PCN's and the National Common Curriculum Base – BNCC, because we understand that the school plays a major role in the construction of knowledge. Thus, discussing new policies for the inclusion of gender differences and sexual diversity requires, on the part of the educators, to experience new forms of language use that can produce resistance to sexist or homophobic patterns. Including studies on gender, sexuality and diversity in the school curriculum is an inclusive pedagogical practice and respect for differences.