Processes Of Subjectivation Research Articles

I trust (you) therefore I am! From trust to post-trust: Transforming social paradigms

This paper challenges the conventional belief that trust is an essential component of social cohesion, for example, in the context of climate change denial and post-truth politics. It argues that simply increasing trust or distrust does not address the underlying issues of contemporary societal challenges. This is because these efforts presuppose a ‘trusting subject’ at the heart of the problem. The paper examines the process of subjectification, exploring forms of modern subjectification and how they relate to trust, and how individuals become trusting subjects in relation to and within certain social frameworks. Introducing a new typology, it categorises trust into subjectifying, counter-subjectifying and post-subjectifying forms, revealing how trust both influences and is influenced by social dynamics and power structures. The conclusion advocates a ‘post-trust’ approach, urging a reimagining of relationships with nature and others. This approach emphasises the interconnectedness of human and non-human actors and calls for new forms of relationality and sensitivity to address global challenges effectively.

Dispositifs pulsionnels et économies de la subjectivation : actualités de Nietzsche au prisme de Pierre Klossowski

This article aims to reposition Nietzsche's thought within contemporary fields of research through the prism of its reception by Pierre Klossowski. Our analysis makes use of Klossowski's unpublished manuscripts, allowing us to better articulate and situate Nietzsche's thought within Klossowski's thought, which is nourished by a dialogue that goes beyond his work devoted to Nietzsche and develops an analysis that is particularly amenable to updating. In developing a Nietzsche-informed general economy of subjectivation, Klossowskian theory tends toward various aspects of theoretical explorations present in media thought and the posthumanities. In doing so, we show that Nietzsche's thought, as approached by Klossowski, allows for unprecedented connections that shed light on the genealogy of the posthumanities, conceptually enrich research in Media archaeology and Science and Technology Studies, and anticipate the crucial role of affect and information in contemporary processes of subjectivation.

Linguistische Diskursethnographie als Zugriff auf das Praxisfeld Queer-Gottesdienst

German-Speaking Discourse Linguistics has long been concerned with the analysis of primarily textual data. Thus, other approaches to discourse building up on ideas from qualitative social research have often been neglected. Following Phillip Dreesen (2018), I am going to argue in this paper that ethnographic research strategies are a useful complement to traditional text-analytical approaches. Accordingly, I will illustrate what I mean by Linguistic Discourse-Ethnography and how it can connect to the already existing interdisciplinary research within Discourse Studies. In order to illustrate my arguments, I am going to investigate the phenomenon of hermeneutic speechlessness and how queer church-services help actors to resolve it. Eventually, I will argue that one of the major strengths of Linguistic Discourse-Ethnography is that it can give insight into process of subjectification i.e. that it can illustrate how actors use hegemonic linguistic resources to reconceptualize ways of becoming a subject in discourse.

Non-binary narratives: subjectivation and lived experiences in contemporary Italy

This paper explores the processes of individual and collective subjectivation experienced by non-binary individuals living in contemporary Italy. Using qualitative methods, the study, which was conducted between July and September 2021, involved a sample of twenty-six young adults aged between eighteen and thirty years. Starting from participants’ narratives, the thematic analysis revealed the significance of both physical and virtual support environments in the subjectivation process, taking into account the diverse micro-contexts in which people live. The study’s findings underscore the continued need to challenge societal norms and structures that perpetuate discrimination against people who reject exclusive identification with the male or female gender and opt for more fluid and non-traditional definitions of gender identity.

On the Subject, Purpose and Method of Religious Education as a Practical Metaphysics

The aim of this study is to discuss the possibilities of designing the current science of religious education as a practical metaphysics without excluding its objectives. The current science of religious education is a religious pedagogy in terms of the conditions that brought it into existence and its characteristics. Accordingly, religious education activities are carried out after transforming religious knowledge within the limitations of pedagogy. Pedagogy, on the other hand, depends on the paradigm of being, human being and behavior that finds its meaning in natural sciences such as physics and biology, human sciences, especially psychology, and educational sciences, which are established depending on the natural state in which modernity is formed. Religious education activities are therefore bound to a conception of the human being whose capabilities are determined. But, as a newly established discipline, religious education as religious pedagogy naturally does not possess a fully developed theoretical framework (naẓarīyat), and thus, its principles, goals, methods, and the outcomes of religious education activities have not been subjected to a critical analysis. However, education is the process of becoming human, and by taking various differences in meaning into account, it means becoming a social reality, historicizing, and becoming a subject. Religious education as a practical metaphysics which is proposed to replace religous pedagogy, maintains its critical perspective and since it deals with subjectivity and the historicization of subjectivity, pedagogy can be articulated to discourses and institutions taking into account the criteria of verification. The pedagogical approach to religion is inherently anthropological due to the requirements of its discursive characteristics. While it necessarily considers a specific religion and its tradition, it derives its principles from a spectrum of sciences, ranging from natural sciences to educational sciences. Religious education as practical metaphysics isn’t obliged to derive its principles from any specific science, as it’s founded on existence itself. Instead, it calls for the reevaluation of sciences based on potential forms of subjectivity and promotes the establishment of new scientific disciplines. The general framework and concepts adopted in this study are derived from Platonic philosophy and Foucault’s analyses. The current educational paradigm is part of the line extending from Aristotle to modern science. Traditional religious thought, represented by the sciences of the explication (bayān) has established strong links with Aristotelian thought via kalām. Plato's philosophy, on the other hand, provides a third theoretical possibility alongside Aristotelian philosophy and the discipline of kalām. Foucault's analyses on subjectivation, which refers to the socialization of individuals and consequently their historicization, theorize the allegory of the cave in Politeia, which coincides with the verse that the worldly life is play and amusement. The analysis of subjectivity enables us to perceive the human being in a holistic manner, which is reduced in the Aristotelian thought system and fragmented in the discipline of kalām, as it reveals the human existence in its most general characteristics. Religiosity in terms of identity is the primary characteristic of subjectivity. As the science of subjectivity, practical metaphysics will be able to analyze religiosity without dividing it and thus create a new basis for interpreting traditional religious sciences. The study consists of three parts in which the subject, aims and methods of religious education as a practical metaphysics are expounded. The subject of religious education as a practical metaphysics is the most general form of human existence in the world, which is subjectivity. Its purpose is to scrutinize the conditions for the formation of subjectivity and to articulate a process of subjectification integrated with pedagogy. Thus, pedagogy can be conducted in harmony with the general principles of subjectification. Practical metaphysics can use the dialectical method in terms of human relation to truth, archaeology and genealogy for the analysis of subjectivity and forms of subjectivation, and any justified method for its pedagogical dimension.

Spiritual capital and spiritual entrepreneurship: The new spiritualities and the processes of subjectivation

AbstractThis paper critically examines the constructs of spiritual capital and spiritual entrepreneurship/entrepreneur. These concepts have recently become widespread in the social sciences and the psychology of the New Age, or the new spiritualities, and they are also increasingly present in business literature, organizational management, and personal improvement in managerial terms. From a critical social psychology position, the paper will consider the usefulness of these concepts in revealing how the field of spirituality currently seems to be a favoured space of governmentality and subjectivation for neoliberalism.

Who, in Our Present, Might the Pierre Rivières Be? Political Subjectivation and the Construction of a Collective “We”

This article intends to focus on some of the possibilities for analysis and reflection that emerge from the reading of I, Pierre Rivière, having slaughtered my mother, my sister, my brother: a 1973 text, edited by Foucault, which develops from the recognition of the potency inherent in the act of speech by the speechless. Pierre Rivière is in fact considered the one who, through but also beyond his terrible deed, has the (entirely political) ability to take the risk of “challenging power.” It is precisely by means of this act that he undertakes a process of desubjection and subjectivation, imposing disruptive and scandalous truths and discourses against other truths and discourses recognized as dominant and more authoritative. Pierre Rivière's Memoir cannot therefore be investigated as a confession; rather, it has to do with parrhēsia, anticipating many of the Foucauldian reflections on the subject, which would not be developed until several years later. Moreover, it does not really concern an isolated individual. The subject Rivière speaks of is one who not only rises up for his own part but also paves the way for the many without a part, thus outlining the possibilities of constructing a collective “we” that aims to conquer a political space. From here the question arises: “Who, in our present, might the Pierre Rivières be?” A question that has nothing to do with the tragic facts of the parricide but which allows us to explore what Pierre Rivière enables us to think and say today.

A Critic on the Other Side of the Rhine? On the Appropriations of Foucault's Political Thought by the Heirs of the Frankfurt School

In this article, I make the case that the reception of Foucault's political thought by different authors linked to the Frankfurt School tradition (J. Habermas, N. Fraser, A. Honneth, A. Allen and M. Saar) allows us to discern a series of transformations within the tradition itself. In general terms, it is argued that the fundamental change concerns the gradual abandonment of the problem of social rationalization in favor of a perspective focused on the question of processes of subjectivation, a change that calls into question the very meaning of the tradition.

On Foucault’s Legacy: Governmentality, Critique and Subjectivation as Conceptual Tools for Understanding Neoliberalism

The text addresses Foucault’s critical understanding of neoliberalism as a new contemporary governmentality strategy for the conduction of people’s lives. A major aspect of Foucault’s analysis of neoliberalism relies on his understanding of the neoliberal homo oeconomicus as dependent on subjectivation processes related to self-assumed values and standards oriented by the competitive economic market. Our hypothesis is that governmentality, critique and subjectivation are the core notions that shaped Foucault’s understanding of neoliberalism and form the legacy of his seminal analysis. Contrary to critics who affirm that Foucault flirted or even became fascinated with neoliberalism, we argue that he offered critical tools for its understanding in a critique that is not to be confused with denunciation, however. Accordingly, we discuss Foucault’s conception of critique and relate his analysis of neoliberalism to his notions of governmentality and subjectivation. Finally, we briefly point out how some contemporary critics of the neoliberal order have appropriated and developed Foucault’s conceptual tools in their own understanding of it. We conclude that although Foucault did not propose a comprehensive theory of neoliberalism, he offered important critical insights for the understanding of it in our times.

Medicines as Subjects: A Corpus-Based Study of Subjectification in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Policy

Abstract The concept of subjectification plays a key role in Foucault’s theory of governmentality and has been an important tool for the analysis of policy discourses, for example, in the form of Bacchi’s (2009. Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia) ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ methodology. In this article, I demonstrate how corpus analysis can complement Bacchi’s methodology to offer a systematic and sophisticated account of subjectification processes in policy discourse, using Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy as a case in point. I combine Bacchi’s methodology with van Leeuwen’s (2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press) linguistic framework for the analysis of discourse as social praxis, and argue that both Bacchi and van Leeuwen’s methodologies contain an important limitation, which is the assumption that agency is necessarily human. Drawing on anthropological theories of agency, I propose a broader concept of subjectification which includes the process whereby human agency is represented as things. From this perspective, another reading of the results emerges, in which the main subjects are medicines, and the aim of the policy is to save medicines.

Memory, language, and subjectivity: cure in analysis as a work of remembering, narrative production and elaboration of a subjective position

This article aims to analyze some of the ways in which, in Freudian-based psychoanalysis, the processes of subjectivation are irremediably related to an articulation between memory and language. To this end, we chose the idea of "healing" in psychoanalysis as a guiding thread for our analyses, as we believe we can find, in the symptom's healing process, the emergence of the articulation between memory, language, and subjectivity production processes in a very elucidative manner. To operationalize this work, we conducted systematic theoretical reviews and sought to weave relations between concepts coined at different moments of Freud's theoretical production, aiming to outline his conception of memory and how it relates to subjectivity and language. Our analytical journey shows that, although Freud did not explicitly formulate a theory on how language fundamentally operates in the constitution of subjectivity, all the elements for such a reading are present in his work. From Freud onwards, healing in analysis will be a process of producing singular modalities of subjectivity. This is because the entire process of healing in psychoanalysis requires a subjective rectification of the individual in relation to their symptom, and this rectification is only possible insofar as there is a fundamental relationship between memory and language.

#Studytalk in marketised higher education: student influencers as emerging support providers

ABSTRACT Within the marketised higher education context, where traditional support systems are strained, student influencers on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have emerged as unexpected providers of academic and emotional support for their peers. Utilising a Foucauldian framework and drawing on 13 in-depth interviews with UK-based #studytalk creators, this study investigates the construction of student influencer subjectivity and their strategies for navigating this complex space. Findings reveal how these individuals leverage their success as academically high-achieving students and digital acumen to build legitimacy, negotiate ethical boundaries within the influencer market, and even resist the pervasive toxicity of certain study cultures. We show that these students do not just thrive to be influencers, but they engage with forms of ethical reflection to set certain parameters for their practice. Through this analysis, we contribute to a nuanced understanding of how students negotiate support and self-making in a marketised context while offering theoretical insights into the subjectification processes within the burgeoning influencer economy. By doing so, the article extends the dominant scholarly understandings of student support that often position support provision as the domain of universities. Instead, the findings show that students themselves are highly resourceful in developing and delivering peer support, and their practices intersect with wider student and youth experiences in the digital age.

«O tempo de falar chegou!» Significado e importância teológico-política do Apelo à Nobreza Cristã da Nação Alemã (12 de agosto de 1520)

The text Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, written in August 1520, is one of Martin Luther’s most significant reforming writings (alongside On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, from October 1520, and On the Freedom of a Christian, from November 1520, among others). This pamphlet-like text, despite addressing the pressing issues of its time, also represents a culmination in the debates about the relationship between temporal and spiritual powers (De potestate), which had fueled theological-political discourse during the Late Middle Ages. This includes, notably, discussions regarding the primacy of the council over the Pope (conciliarism), an ancient recognition that, at least since John of Paris (1273-1306) to John of Gerson (1362-1429), opposed the papal claim to the fullness of power (plenitudo potestatis papalis), not only in temporal matters but also in the internal organization and administration of the Church. The papalist interpretation transgressed an idea from Pope Gelasius in the late 5th century about the separation of the two powers or two swords: temporal and spiritual. This concept was continuously betrayed over the centuries by so-called political Augustinianism, which significantly sought support in book XIX of The City of God by Saint Augustine. However, Luther, also a (partial) reader of Saint Augustine and Saint Paul, sought to think of the Church not from the separation, opposition, or subordination of powers, but from grace and charisms (among which is the temporal dominium of a dominus in a kingdom). These are indispensable for the edification of the one Body of Christ, which is both temporal and eternal. Through this lens, all ministries, including the most humble ones, gain great spiritual value (or secularize, from another perspective). Regardless, in the wake of the indulgence controversy, Luther’s appeal urging German princes to assert their autonomy from Rome’s secular power eventually paved the way (at the cost of much dreaming and much bloodshed, it must be said) for the affirmation of the nation-states within the Holy Roman Empire. Simultaneously, through the primacy of the «common priesthood of believers» over the magisterial power of the “ordained priesthood” (potestas ordinis), this pamphlet carries a potentially very virulent, explosive, and even apocalyptic interpretation and preaching of the Scriptures (we are at the end of times, the Antichrist is at the door, etc.). Politically, this erupted soon after (1524-1525) in the fields of Germany. From a broader hermeneutical perspective, it recovers some processes of subjectivation and appropriation of «speaking places» as well as nominalist conceptions that had been gaining relevance in the 14th and 15th centuries. These processes would deepen both in rationalist modernity (from Descartes’ cogito to Kant’s Ich denken) and in fideist modernity (Jansenism, Pascal, etc.). Nevertheless, the urgent call in 1520 is to reform the Church, for «the time for silence has ended, and the time to speak has come!» («Die Zeit zu reden ist kommen»). And it is this decision of Luther to speak out that is most important to us.

“We can’t allow ourselves to fall ill”: Health and (self-)discipline in female family caregivers from a gender perspective

Research has shown significant differences and inequalities in the health of women and men who care for older dependent family members, with women having poorer health and suffering more from overload. Women internalize a cultural model of caregiving involving social norms whereby caring becomes a central dimension of gender-female identity, cutting across other aspects of life. This study takes a biopsychosocial approach, understanding gender as a determinant of health, in order to investigate the processes of subjectivation (and “technologies of the self”) that mediate between the social organization of care and the health of women. A reflexive thematic analysis was undertaken in this qualitative study, following in-depth interviews with nineteen women caring for family members. The results show that women’s biopsychosocial health is affected by the subjective positions they adopt in order to submit to or resist gender-based social norms about caring in three dimensions: their relationship to their own health problems, their experience of vulnerability, and the place of love and morality in relation to being a caregiver. Those (inter)subjective processes reflect the neoliberal update of the gendered social organization of care and the way its social discourses, such as free choice and unstinting performance, relate to female caregivers’ biopsychosocial health. It is necessary to deconstruct this traditional model and the self-regulated processes as recast by the neoliberal order for the sake of women’s health, to relieve them of this burden. It is essential to commit to sociopolitical articulations aimed at shared responsibility in care.

SEMANTIC AND PRAGMATIC MANIFESTATION OF MODALEM AND SPECIFICS OF DIALOGIC DISCOURSE TRANSLATION (based on the parallel corpus)

The article centers on the description of the category of subjective modality of dialogic discourse in terms of its semantic and pragmatic nature, exemplify the concept of modalem as a semantic marker of a verbal message, a means of expressing the subjective modality and a semantic quantum of the speaker’s remarks in a literary discourse. It alsо provides a semantic typology of modalems and illustrates the role of modalems with equivalent verbal content. The structure of dialogic discourse includes: producer – reference situation – remark – recipient. These are the components of communicative situation. The semantic load of such a communication conveys an obligatory modal aspect which is formed by the superposition of semantic and pragmatic coordinates. The process of subjectification (modalization) of the speaker’s remark in fictional discourse begins with the subjective view and perspective one of objective reality, described through a selected subjective mode of comprehension which represents the subjective modality of discourse. In other words, the subjective modal marking of discourse implies the speaker’s intention. Modalization is a complex process of including additional meanings onto the verbal information of a remark, determined by the author-producer’s intentions and their attitude towards the referential meaning. It serves as a pragmatic and axiological quantum of information that the producer embeds in their verbal message. The deciphering of modalem in the context of direct communicative interaction, as exemplified by the dialogic discourse of fictional prose, represents the semantic link that binds together “what the speaker said” and “what they meant to say” into a single semantic whole. For beginner translators, working with corpora for identifying the ways to convey modalems in different languages serves both a reliable basis for successful translation activities and an essential source for practicing interpreting and simultaneous translating.

Sustainability, Agency Empowerment, Neoliberalism in Global Citizenship Education

This paper explores the impact of evolving sustainability discourse and its integration into Global Citizenship Education (GCE) since 2015 on the formation of neoliberal subjectivity. While the post-2015 sustainability discourse and GCE model aim to systematize GCE approaches and empower individuals as change-makers, they consequently reinforce the neoliberal principles of self-governance and economic rationalization. Utilizing Michel Foucault’s theories on neoliberalism and neoliberal subject formation, this study examines how the post-2015 GCE model’s emphasis on standardization, measurement, and individual agency empowerment fosters self-convincing and self-regulating global citizen subjects to maintain that this process of neoliberal subjectivization cultivates an individuated, self-centered subjectivity that may undermine collective efforts to address global challenges.

Educators’ Subjectivities in Localising Global Citizenship Education: A Chinese Case

ABSTRACT Global citizenship education (GCE) encounters epistemic barriers in curriculum localisation, which, from a semiotic perspective, are related to educators’ subjectivation process. By choosing a Chinese case based on six secondary schools on the east coast of China, this paper builds on previous efforts to investigate how principals’ (n = 6) and teachers’ (n = 10) subjectivation process could influence their comprehension of the concept of GCE. The focus of this paper is on distinguishing the subjectivities in participants’ interviews that related to their perceptions and planning of the curriculum. The findings of the study included qualitative feedback, which was later categorised into three themes: the communitarian subjectivity, the hybrid subjectivity and the assimilated subjectivity. The three forms of subjectivity exposed the vulnerability inherent in participants’ efforts to localize GCE. This study demonstrated a specific epistemic condition that challenges the prevailing discourse, suggesting that defending traditional culture does not always serve the purpose of promoting cultural diversity on a global scale.

Babies' questions in educational institutions: a formative contribution

How do you work in a nursery with babies at different paces? What knowledge is needed to teach babies? How do you guarantee personal care in collective spaces? Based on my experiences as a teacher trainer in Early Childhood Education, with regard to (re)organising feeding and nappy changing times, this article aims to discuss theoretical and methodological aspects of continuing education in the light of Lee S. Shulman and Donald Wood Winnicott. These authors were chosen because they contribute to learning to teach, teaching cases, case studies and the relationship between babies and adults. Our objectives lie in the attitude of adults towards babies and reflections on how the institution works, as well as the process of subjectivation in the relationship with childcare professionals. As a result of the dialogue on personal care, based on teaching knowledge, it was possible to reorganise feeding times and the search for quality when changing nappies, because once babies understand the relationships established, this is the beginning of humanisation and the construction of their subjectivity.

The psychological experience of sickle cell disease in a Cameroonian adolescent living with her grandparents

Sickle cell disease, the most widespread genetic disorder globally, is characterized by chronic and painful crises and high treatment costs, particularly in the Sub-Saharan African context where the disease is often associated with imminent death. This study aims to understand the experiences of an adolescent in Cameroon living with this disease and residing with her grandparents. Through in-depth interviews, we reveal how therapy non-compliance—particularly evident in medication delays—and the ambivalent behavior of her grandparents impact her disease management. The grandparents exhibit behaviors that are sometimes overprotective and at times aggressive, which not only affect how this adolescent understands and manages her condition but also hinder the process of subjectivation of her disease. These findings highlight the need to provide a space for grandparents to express their understanding of their granddaughter's illness and to assume their role in the care process. This study extends our understanding of family dynamics in managing sickle cell disease and demonstrates the importance of supporting grandparents as crucial resources in healthcare within this context.

‘Who is the ideal woman?’: The subjectification of impoverished Javanese working mothers

AbstractThis study examines the subjectification of working mothers through the lens of intersectionality by listening to the under‐represented voices of those whose lives are shaped at the intersections of gender, poverty, Islam, and Javanese ethnicity. Drawing on poststructuralist feminist discourse analysis, the subtle subjectification process is observed through conversational interactions in which working mothers construct the ‘ideal woman’. The findings challenge the predominant postfeminist framing in the extant literature by illustrating how here working mothers draw on a specifically local discourse (i.e., moderate‐Islam and Javanese cultural discourses) to construct the ideal woman as embodying the dual wife‐mother identities. Based on these locally dependent discourses, working mothers accentuate their identity as wives while subduing identities as mothers and workers. The emphasis on the underexplored wife identity imbues work with a distinct significance for mothers within this context.