Foucault's Work Research Articles

Estatísticas sanitárias e interdependência social na Primeira República

This article analyzes the place of quantification technologies in the network formed to fight diseases, from the Pasteurian revolution to the sanitation movement of the 1920s. It investigates the role of sanitary demography in the imposition of the Pasteurian model among physicians, followed by the statistical monumentalization of the reforms for different social actors. Bruno Latour's actor-network theory and Michel Foucault's works on governmentality are used to problematize a set of documents consisting of the 1906 census, demographic articles and bulletins published in the medical press, statistical yearbooks and ministerial reports.

DELEUZE'S FOUCAULT: ON THE POSSIBILITY OF AN OUTSIDE OF KNOWLEDGE/POWER

ABSTRACTDuring 1985 and 1986, Gilles Deleuze directed a seminar on Michel Foucault's work at the University of Paris 8 at Vincennes/St. Denis. The course was divided into three parts, one dedicated to each of the three levels on which, according to Deleuze, Foucault's concept of thinking unfolds: knowledge, power, and subjectivation. As I will show, Deleuze's attempt to reconstruct Foucault's perspective on the history of thought is highly enlightening, although, at some crucial points, it raises doubts regarding the plausibility of the hypotheses that Deleuze attributed to Foucault. In particular, in the third part, which focuses on subjectivation, it is not clear whether Deleuze was attempting to relate Foucault's concept or to expose his own ideas on the topic. The displacements, which Deleuze introduced into Foucault's perspective, are particularly interesting, since they are symptomatic of broader epistemological problems that philosophical thought currently faces in attempting to articulate a consistent perspective of the possibility of an “outside” of power or, in Foucault's formulation, knowledge/power.

A Foucauldian Defense of the State: Blandine Kriegel and the État de Droit

This paper examines the career and thought of French political philosopher Blandine Kriegel (b. 1943) from the standpoint of the most striking paradox they present: though she was a student of Michel Foucault, who was famous for his critique of central role that political thinking has traditionally accorded the state, Kriegel has, since the mid-1970s, been one of the foremost champions of the concept of état de droit—the state as the embodiment of the “rule of law”—in French political debates. At a time when post-1968 critics of Marxism and totalitarianism (notably the so-called nouveaux philosophes) were arguing that states were inherently despotic, Kriegel mounted an original defense of the state, which, she argued, had played a central role in establishing legal rights that freed individuals from the “slavery” of civil society. She was able to do this, in part, by drawing on several suggestive elements found in Foucault's work: his concept of biopolitics, the claim that individuals and subjectivity are constituted through power relations, and the insight that war and sovereignty represent alternative ways of conceptualizing power. In this way, she used aspects of Foucault's political thought to arrive at a decidedly non-Foucauldian appreciation of the modern state.

Gilles Deleuze's societies of control: Implications for mental health nursing and coercive community care.

Since the era of deinstitutionalisation, many clinical approaches have emerged to enable the care and treatment of people suffering from mental illness. In recent years, the use of coercive approaches in the community (e.g., outpatient commitment or community treatment orders) has also increased internationally. Although nurses' role regarding these coercive approaches is central and significant, few empirical and theoretical writings have tackled this controversial nursing practice. The purpose of this paper is to analyse coercive nursing care through the lens of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze's concept of 'societies of control'. Taking up Michel Foucault's work on disciplinary power, Deleuze explores how the move from the striated spaces of closed institutions to the smooth spaces of societies of control took place since the middle of the 20th century. According to Deleuze, the overall objective of 'societies of control' is no longer simply to govern deviant behaviour in closed environments (e.g., psychiatric hospitals and prisons) but to ensure a regime of unrelentless surveillance in the open spaces of our communities.

The Ideal Body: A Social Construct? Reflections on Body Pressure and Body Ideal Among Students in Upper Secondary School.

Several studies show that young people today are negatively impacted by body image ideals in social media. We studies young people's reflections on body image and body pressure. More precisely: How does a selected group of third-year upper secondary school students understand their body images and body pressures through social media? Eight third-year students, four of each gender, were interviewed from two upper secondary schools in a medium-sized city in Norway. An interesting find was that body pressure was not experienced solely as one-sided pressure exerted externally by media sources, but that they also personally influenced others through their own active use of social media channels like Facebook and Instagram. They reported having experienced body pressure in their own lives and in their immediate environment, and that both genders are affected. The study builds on sociocultural body theory based on Foucault's ideas and work, but also uses more recent media theory for the analysis and discussion. A BOPS model developed by the researchers was used for the operational parameters that is centered around the concepts of panopticon, synopticon and omniopticon.

Self-Care and Truth-Telling: Rethinking Care with Foucault

Although the <em>care of the self</em> looms large in Michel Foucault's later works, his analyses are largely neglected in current debates on care. This may be due to the fact that Foucault's work has so far been read primarily as an ethics and aesthetics of the self, concerned less with common care activities than with individualistic practices of self-cultivation. Against this background, I argue that in Foucault the care of the self is pervaded by the presence of the Other. This becomes clear as soon as one links the care of the self with the concept of <em>parrhesia</em>, which signifies a form of truth-telling in which the individual confronting the Other with the truth constitutes herself as the subject of a discourse of truth. It is precisely by associating the care of the self with <em>parrhesia</em> that the genuinely critical and emancipatory potential of each becomes effective in the first place. This makes it possible not only to detach the concept of care from its close entanglement with the private sphere and to reframe it in political terms but also to envisage a critical attitude that is based both on the care of the self and others and on the concern for truth.

Neoliberal Opportunism in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Neoliberal Opportunism in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The regime of ‘post-truth’: COVID-19 and the politics of knowledge

ABSTRACT The emergence of ‘post-truth’ is often associated with the rise of conspiracy theories and the lack of trust in scientific knowledge. This article attempts to theorise the complex division of labour in this regime of ‘post-truth’, with reference to the COVID-19 pandemic/infodemic. First, we argue that the ‘post-truth’ condition mirrors what Foucault called the ‘will to truth’, and that this challenges the procedures and systems by which truth and knowledge are ordered. Second, through Basil Bernstein's extension of Foucault's work, we argue that the era of post-truth has two features regarding the condition of knowledge: (1) that conflicts in the field of knowledge recontextualisation, that is, the pedagogisation of knowledge, are becoming more intense and visible, and (2) that greater exposure to high-stakes, uncertain scientific knowledge, which grows at exponential rate, increases social anxieties and leads to biopoliticisation of neoliberal responsibilisation.

Writing as a Religious &lt;i&gt;Lieu de Savoir&lt;/i&gt;

Taking its start from the analysis of the notion savoir-pouvoir in Foucault's philosophical work, the article discusses the applicability of the concept lieux de savoir in the study of writing activities in late medieval France and Italy performed by non-professional vernacular scribes. The act of copying a text is evaluated as an active contribution to the dissemination of religious texts. It is approached as a social act and process, which creates a communication circuit facilitating the flow of information within a textual community created by the very same act of writing. The approach to lieu de savoir as an activity, in which a process-oriented methodology is preferred to a material one, paves the way for new applications of the concept, in which the spaces, the objects and the actors are studied in a continuous exchange and dynamic.

Unpacking algorithms as technologies of power: Syrian refugees and data experts on algorithmic governance

The article explores algorithmic governance through the lenses of Foucault's work on governmentality. Algorithms are understood as “technologies of power” that literally “subjectify” the individuals upon which they act. Our main focus is on Syrian refugees in two national contexts - Estonia and Turkey - and we consider four types of algorithms to which refugees are subjected: relocation, police risk scoring, recommendation algorithms and online advertisements. The goal is to explore the “algorithmic imaginaries” of both refugees and Estonian experts who work with migration data about these technologies, via a series of interviews with 19 refugees and 24 data experts. Our findings show that, while relocation and police risk scoring algorithms are perceived as technologies of power responsible for producing macro-differences without paying sufficient attention to individual needs, recommendation and ad algorithms are seen as less threatening, i.e. as “technologies of the self”. From here, we suggest reconsidering algorithmic governance as an iterative practice to eventually transform the datafied “knowledge of the self”, suitable for algorithms, into a true “care of the self”.

О методологическом значении понятия политического

The purpose of this study is to identify the functions of the concept of the political and to demonstrate its heuristic potential. The paper examines the concept of the political in its associative and dissociative interpretations. The phenomenon of the existence of the political and its dependence on the modern understanding of society is considered. Using M. Foucault's work, heuristic potential of the political is shown.

Critical Theory for Geography Students I: Foucault and "Questions on Geography"

Critical Theory for Geography Students I:Foucault and "Questions on Geography" Michael W. Pesses (bio) Introduction This is the first in a series of essays I want to write to assist students in understanding some key critical theory that I see as being immensely beneficial to our field. My goal is not to just work through an essay or book, but also to advocate for theory's place in the discipline of geography. I have long seen how critical theory can be a bad word amongst some geographers as well as produce anxiety in students the first time they try to make sense of a foundational text. My first experiences with post-structuralist thought as a grad student were a mess, but through encouragement from professors and fellow students I eventually understood and benefited from some of these intellectual giants. And even if you don't see a need for theory in your own work or academic aspirations, you should at least understand that which you are disregarding. I want to use this first essay to explore Michel Foucault's work, using the interview "Questions on Geography" as a gateway to his larger oeuvre1. While I want to use plain language whenever possible to make Foucault's concepts accessible, there are some repeated terms in the literature of which a knowledge will help. I am focusing on Foucault and this specific essay for two reasons. First, Foucauldian concepts are of incredible importance to my own work as well as my own outlook on the world. Even if I am not directly citing Foucault in my research, his ideas infiltrate everything I write. My thoughts on whatever subject I am researching—typically the environment, automobiles, or popular media—begin from a Foucauldian conception of power and knowledge as well as what questions ought to be asked. This is not to say that Foucault holds every answer, nor is he even liked by all geographers (see Harvey 2007 and Thrift 2007 for examples of the latter). [End Page 148] Second, this interview was one of the first things I read when I decided to switch from anthropology to geography (thankfully!) as I began graduate school. Upon the first read, I was confused, which I now see was due to a lack of contextual knowledge. I also was disturbed by what I have always read as a bit of neediness on the part of the interviewers that I think our small discipline should work to eradicate. So often being the smallest discipline within the social sciences at most universities seems to produce a little sibling vibe that we should resist. Rather than complain that we are ignored, we geographers should work to show that when other disciplines ignore our spatial reasoning, their own work suffers. Caveats Before I begin on Foucault, I want to share some things I picked up when I began working through theory in general. I was initially resistant to a lot of it during my undergraduate days, mainly because I felt like these writers wrote unintelligibly to seem smart. I now know that, with maybe a few exceptions, it wasn't so much bad writing as it was me not knowing how to properly read this stuff. Despite being an eighteen-year-old who thought he had all the answers, it turned out that what I mainly needed to grasp theory was to simply open up my mind. Understanding theory is a process. I hope it has become clear to you in your undergraduate careers that grasping academic writing or concepts does not happen on the first read. We must read slowly and deliberately, going back to the beginning as needed and always paying attention to subtle word choices, such as the difference between "or" and "and." You might be impatient and want to get through the chapter or article you have been assigned for a class or you need to help write a paper, but a little patience will help tremendously. I will say that at a certain point, after much struggle, I could suddenly pick up a new essay or book and it quickly made sense! A lot of it has to do with building...

Foucault and the Rhetoric of Exemplarity

ABSTRACT Why is it that Foucault's work resists the conceptual pull of traditional political theological discourse? In this essay I explore one approach to this question, arguing that although Foucault does not have an elaborated political theology, his rhetoric of exemplarity offers a model of how one might think a relation between religion and politics. This rhetoric, I show, inherits and recasts the age-old philosophical problem of how to think identity analogically. Foucault's mobilization of exemplarity draws attention to the patterns that delimit political theology as a domain of analysis, while simultaneously suggesting new possibilities that imaginatively redraw these boundaries.

Who is Watching? What Do They Want? A Foucauldian Analysis of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences with the edTPA

Background/Context This article is a policy discussion of the edTPA preservice portfolio assessment; it uses Foucault's work and our data to suggest a more critical and activist approach to the assessment. Currently 764 teacher education programs in 40 states have included the edTPA as part of their requirements. In Illinois, it is a newly required high-stakes portfolio assessment required for teacher licensure. Purpose/Objective We studied our teacher candidates’ experiences with edTPA portfolio. We wanted to know how they experienced this new assessment and how that might inform our program. As instructors, we had heard many complaints from our candidates, and we wanted to examine their experiences from their perspectives. Participants In this study, we collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their perspectives (total N = 37). The participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Research Design We collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their experiences with the edTPA (total N = 37). We gave participants a choice of whether to do individual or focus group narratives. Participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Findings As teacher educators, we aimed to support our candidates’ development into critically engaged educators. However, we found that the regulatory powers in the policies and procedures of the edTPA had a negative effect on our candidates’ experiences with it. We also did not give them the tools they needed to sufficiently analyze this particular assessment, despite having discussed testing policies in the schools and their negative implications for teachers and students. Further, we found a normalization of the edTPA between Year 1 and Year 3 of implementing this assessment that suggested a trend toward normalization over time—from energetic critique in Year 1 to acceptance and a just-get-it-done attitude in Year 3. Conclusions We conclude with implications for teacher educators, including a call for more critical engagement with this and other disciplinary technologies that our candidates may be subject to. As teacher educators, we advocate for a more explicit critical analysis with candidates to help them more deeply understand the history, context, and implications of corporatized, standardized assessments in teacher education, in particular the edTPA, and testing in the schools.

“Indisciplina” en Chocó: una problematización de las prácticas disciplinarias en tiempos de pandemia

Partiendo del enunciado, “nos preocupa muchísimo el alto grado de indisciplina social (…) cuando tenemos una epidemia tan grave con la COVID-19”, en este artículo se propone realizar una problematización indisciplinar de las prácticas disciplinarias presentes en las medidas para la contención de la pandemia. Para ello, se asume una actitud terapéutico deconstruccionista, inspirada en los filósofos Wittgenstein y Derrida; a través de la cual no se busca defender o refutar ese enunciado, sino verlo de otras maneras, desplazando las prácticas disciplinarias por distintas épocas, contextos y campos de actividad humana. Para posibilitar este desplazamiento, se establecen algunas articulaciones, principalmente, con la obra de Foucault “Vigilar y Castigar”, en relación con el modelo disciplinar y el examen en tiempos de la peste del siglo XVIII y en la actualidad. Finalmente, se presentan las nociones de escuela, currículo y evaluación a partir de las prácticas sociales de algunas comunidades indígenas del departamento del Chocó; nociones que estarían emparentadas con las que expone Miguel, Vilela y de Moura (2010; 2012) y Miguel (2016;2018) en una perspectiva indisciplinar.

Sur les hétérotopies de Michel Foucault

It has become more and more difficult to enumerate the uses of the notion of heterotopia in academic as well as in the artistic fields and the activist communities. As a result, this article aims to give a renewed perspective on the stakes of the notion of heterotopia introduced by Michel Foucault in 1966. The fluctuations of the concept, and the need to specify it, force us to examine its genealogy. Our work will then consist in historicizing this notion by a chronological reading of its deployment in Foucault's work. In the course of this investigation, we will explore the commentators' repetitions in order to expose heterotopia to its potential critical and emancipatory implications. We are indeed convinced that it is most irrelevant to study the corpus of heterotopias without immediately, and at the same time, explore the way in which users have grasped this notion and, doing so, shaped it.

António Manuel Hespanha (1945–2019)

António Manuel Hespanha (1945–2019)

Post-Coronavirus Disease 2019 Health Care and University: From Efficiency to Resilience.

After the initial emergency responses deployed to control the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the first half of 2020, we should now start thinking about long-term strategies and concepts for pandemic and disaster governance such as resilience. In this context, COVID-19 health care and education are especially important because they are essential public goods that determine what kind of a society we live in, during the pandemic and afterward. So for, the focus has been a tactical efficiency perspective that prioritized instrumental, logistical, or pragmatic aspects in planetary health and university education, with much less attention paid to social justice, history of inequity, and power asymmetries that affect the pandemic impacts in society. For a resilient COVID-19 response, we need to address not only medical, technical, and logistical challenges, but also the social disparities that are inherited from the prepandemic world that are negatively affecting the current pandemic outcomes.

How method travels: genealogy in Foucault and Castro-Gómez

ABSTRACT This paper examines whether, and how, Foucauldian genealogy travels to contexts and problematizations beyond the method's European site of articulation. Our particular focus is on the work of Colombian philosopher Santiago Castro-Gómez, whose work includes both a systematic defense of the usefulness of Foucauldian inquiry for decolonial study and genealogical inquiry in a Foucauldian spirit but in a context beyond Foucault's own horizon of study. We show that taking up Foucault's work in the context of Latin America leads Castro-Gómez to significantly change Foucauldian concepts, categories, and methods. We further survey the potential synergies of decolonial thought and Foucauldian critique, while also highlighting how their joint mobilization requires a revision and problematization of key commitments of both approaches.

El derecho en la obra de Michel Foucault. Un desajuste entre prácticas y conceptualizaciones

Si bien los trabajos de Michel Foucault han tenido influencia en numerosas disciplinas, no abundan los estudios que tematicen sobre sus aportes al derecho. Durante quince años, las discusiones sobre la ley en la obra de Foucault giraron en apoyo o en respuesta a los desarrollos de Foucault and Law publicado por Alan Hunt y Gary Wickham en 1994. Con anterioridad, François Ewald había dedicado algunos párrafos al tratamiento del derecho en la obra de Foucault, con posterioridad se publicaron varios artículos, hasta que en 2009 apareció Foucault´s Law de Ben Golder y Peter Fitzpatrick, quienes al año siguiente realizaron una compilación titulada Foucault and Law, con artículos ya publicados pero dispersos, y en el 2013 Golder compiló Re-reading Foucault: On Law, Power and Rights.