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Abstract

Mobility is often associated with flow and freedom; nonetheless, it is also about power and government. While mobility studies have shown how interpersonal social relations are increasingly supported by mobile technologies, it seems less clear how mobilities are involved in governing societies. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality and his 1978 lectures on security, territory and population, this article suggests that societies are increasingly governed through mobility, rather than there being government of mobility. If circulation has become a producer of, rather than an obstacle to, societies, then governmobility is a meaningful concept relating to how societies are ruled through connections. In conclusion, the article asks: what are the implications of governmobility for border studies, and more broadly, what are the powers of mobility studies?

Reblogged from BINARYTHIS:

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A comic I made for a second year gender studies course I tutored for in 2012, to help students understand some of the themes from Foucault's The History of Sexuality Vol.1:

All page references from Foucault, M. (1976 ), The History of Sexuality: Volume 1., R. Hurley, , Victoria: Penguin Group

Stay tuned for Judith Butler explained with cats!

Read more… 4 more words

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Abstract
This paper draws on the writings of Michel Foucault, in particular his lectures on biopolitics at the Collège de France from 1978-79, to examine liberalism and neoliberalism as governmental forms that operate through different models of surveillance. First, this paper re-reads Foucault’s Discipline and Punish in the light of his analysis of the art of liberal government that is advanced through the course of these lectures. It is argued that the Panopticon is not just an architecture of power centred on discipline and normalization, as is commonly understood, but a normative model of the relation of the state to the market which, for Foucault, is ‘the very formula of liberal government’. Second, the limits of panopticism, and by extension liberal governance, are explored through analysis of Gilles Deleuze’s account of the shift from disciplinary to ‘control’ societies, and Zygmunt Bauman’s writings on individualization and the ‘Synopticon’. In response to Deleuze and Bauman, the final section of this paper returns to Foucault’s lectures on biopolitics to argue that contemporary capitalist society is characterized not simply by the decline of state powers (the control society) or the passing down of responsibilities from the state to the individual (the individualization thesis), but by the neoliberal marketization of the state and its institutions; a development which is underpinned by a specific form of governmentality. In conclusion, a four-fold typology of surveillance is advanced: surveillance as discipline, as control, as interactivity, and as a mechanism for promoting competition. It is argued that while these types of surveillance are not mutually exclusive, they are underpinned by different governmentalities that can be used to address different aspects of the relationship between the state and the market, and with this the social and cultural logics of contemporary forms of market capitalism more broadly. © 2012 The Author. The Sociological Review © 2012 The Editorial Board of The Sociological Review.

Paul Rabinow interviewed in Paris in French by Christian Girard and Pierre Cutellic, 2010

With thanks to Dirk Felleman for this link

Abstract
In this paper I interpret Montaigne’s essay, “On Educating Children”, as a pedagogical text through its performance of a distinct epistolary function, one that addresses the letter-recipient for the purpose of shaping the ideas, actions, and beliefs of that individual. At the same time, I also read “On Educating Children” within the context of the wider project of Montaigne’s Essays, which, as I suggest, is an ethical-aesthetic project of self-fashioning and self-cultivation. The net result is an interpretation of teaching as an ethical-aesthetic practice of the self, one that is in concert with the interpretation of Montaigne’s writing of the Essays as a similar practice of the self. In order to build this case, I employ Michel Foucault’s fourfold schema of ethical subjectivity, mapping that schema onto “On Educating Children”, so as to reveal a unique pedagogy of self-formation-a pedagogy that works as much upon the self of the teacher as it does the self of the student.

Author keywords
Ethical-subjectivity; Foucault; Letter-writing; Montaigne; Plutarch; Self-fashioning

Abstract
This article discusses the effects of the 24 year-old rule in Denmark utilising Foucault’s understanding of the ‘subject’ within a governmentality framework. The 24 year-old rule is a good example of how a gendered knowledge about immigration becomes a reality that steers biopolitics, enables practices of normalisation and subjectifies immigrants in various ways. The article foregrounds the subjectivity of immigrant women through a narrative analysis of the constitution of the subject within discourses and in an asymmetrical relationship to power in governance. This analysis reveals the complexity of empirical interactions between the ideational structure of legislative measures and personal meanings expressed by immigrant subjectivities. While I illustrate certain modes of subjectification in relation to the 24 year-old rule, I emphasise the ways subjects employ certain identity strategies by resisting, reworking or contributing to the practices of normalisation.

Author keywords
Denmark; Foucault; Gender; Governmentality; Immigration; Subjectification

Publisher’s page

The author is also conducting an inaugural public lecture at 6 pm on the 24th of May 2013 at the University of Kent, Canterbury, Faculty of Humanities to coincide with the publication of the book.
Pdf flyer for event

Description
From the mid-1960s onwards Michel Foucault has had a significant impact on diverse aspects of culture, knowledge and arts including architecture and its critical discourse. The implications for architecture have been wide-ranging. His archaeological and genealogical approaches to knowledge have transformed architectural history and theory, while his attitude to arts and aesthetics led to a renewed focus on the avant-garde.

Prepared by an architect, this book offers an excellent entry point into the remarkable work of Michel Foucault, and provides a focused introduction suitable for architects, urban designers, and students of architecture.

Foucault’s crucial juxtaposition of space, knowledge and power has unlocked novel spatial possibilities for thinking about design in architecture and urbanism. While the philosopher’s ultimate attention on the issues of body and sexuality has defined our understanding of the possibilities and limits of human condition and its relation to architecture.

The book concentrates on a number of historical and theoretical issues often addressed by Foucault that have been grouped under the themes of archaeology, enclosure, bodies, spatiality and aesthetics in order to examine and demonstrate their relevancy for architectural knowledge, its history and its practice.

Contents

Introduction Part 1: Positioning 1.1 Context 1.2 Resisting Boundaries 1.3 Architecture Unspoken

Part 2: Archaeology 2.1 Human Sciences, Knowledge and Architecture 2.2 Archaeology as Difference

Part 3: Enclosure 3.1 Madness 3.2 The Asylum 3.3 The Clinic 3.4 The Prison

Part 4: Bodies 4.1 The History of Sexuality 4.2 Sexuality, Knowledge and the Structure of Aesthetic Experience 4.3 Biopower 4.4 Bodies, Architecture and Cities

Part 5: Spatiality/Aesthetics 5.1 Spatiality and its Themes 5.2 Avant-Garde and the Language of Space 5.3 Deleuzian Century 5.4 Ad Finem

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Abstract

Although genealogy is a popular methodological choice for philosophers, a number of social scientists in numerous fields have taken it up as way of studying historical texts. How one might use genealogy as a methodological approach, however, is not always clear. In this article, I argue for the combination of critical discourse analysis with a genealogical ethos of analysis, despite some differences in their respective approaches. The aim of the article is to contribute to debates around how qualitative textual research can be opened up as a site of contact, negotiation, and unification for genealogical and critical discourse analytic approaches.

Reblogged from Stockerblog:

Publisher’s page

Description

Foucault, Power, and Education invites internationally renowned scholar Stephen J. Ball to reflect on the importance and influence of Foucault on his work in educational policy. By focusing on some of the ways Foucault has been placed in relation to educational questions or questions about education, Ball highlights the relationships between Foucault’s concepts and methods, and educational research and analysis. An introductory chapter offers a brief explanation of some of Foucault’s key concerns, while additional chapters explore ways in which Ball himself has sought to apply Foucault’s ideas in addressing contemporary educational issues.

In this intensely personal and reflective text, Ball offers an interpretation of his Foucault—That is, his own particular reading of the Foucauldian toolbox. Ideal for courses in education policy and education studies, this valuable teaching resource is essential reading for any education scholar looking for a starting point into the literature and ideas of Foucault.

Source Variazioni foucaultiane