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Michel Foucault (michel + foucault)
Selected AbstractsMICHEL FOUCAULT AND THE POINT OF PAINTINGART HISTORY, Issue 4 2009CATHERINE M. SOUSSLOFF This article offers a historiographical analysis of Foucault's contribution to art theory by arguing that the philosopher used the medium of painting and its history since Alberti to explore the differences in the concept of realism between 1650 and his own day. I argue that in his four essays on painting written between 1966 and 1976 Foucault took up the relation of painting to knowledge (savoir), particularly the question of how painting means using an innovative approach that he termed historical. Like the phenomenologists who immediately preceded him, Foucault understood painting as related to our understanding of how knowledge is communicated or felt rather than of how it exists as philosophy. This article explores the consequences of Foucault's contribution to the history of painting for both art history and visual studies. [source] Doctors, Borders, and Life in CrisisCULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2005Peter Redfield The politics of life and death is explored from the perspective of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins sans frontières [MSF]), an activist nongovernmental organization explicitly founded to respond to health crises on a global scale. Following the work of Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, I underline key intersections between MSF's operations that express concern for human life in the midst of humanitarian disaster and the group's self-proclaimed ethic of engaged refusal. Adopting the analytic frame of biopolitics, I suggest that the actual practice of medical humanitarian organizations in crisis settings presents a fragmentary and uncertain form of such power, extended beyond stable sovereignty and deployed within a restricted temporal horizon. [source] The Learning Society and Governmentality: An introductionEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2006Maarten Simons Abstract This paper presents an overview of the elements which characterize a research attitude and approach introduced by Michel Foucault and further developed as ,studies of governmentality' into a sub-discipline of the humanities during the past decade, including also applications in the field of education. The paper recalls Foucault's introduction of the notion of ,governmentality' and its relation to the ,mapping of the present' and sketches briefly the way in which the studies of governmentality have been elaborated in general and in the context of research in education more particularly. It indicates how the studies of governmentality can be related to a cartography of the learning society, a cartography which helps us to get lost and to liberate our view. [source] Foucault, Educational Research and the Issue of AutonomyEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 3 2005Mark Olssen Abstract This article seeks to demonstrate a particular application of Foucault's philosophical approach to a particular issue in education: that of personal autonomy. The paper surveys and extends the approach taken by James Marshall in his book Michel Foucault: Personal autonomy and education. After surveying Marshall's writing on the issue I extend Marshall's approach, critically analysing the work of Rob Reich and Meira Levinson, two contemporary philosophers who advocate models of personal autonomy as the basis for a liberal education. [source] Matricidal Madness in Foucault's Anthropology: The Pierre Rivière SeminarETHOS, Issue 2 2007John M. Ingham I consider how Michel Foucault avoids trauma and tragedy while emphasizing power and discourse in his study of a 19th-century matricide in the Normandy countryside. Drawing on Jonathan Lear's discussion of knowingness, I show how Foucault misreads tragic drama as well as psychoanalysis to emphasize power, pleasure, and discourse. While seeming to acknowledge tragedy, his emphasis on will to power, violent madness, and male agonism more closely resembles Homeric epic. The attempts to displace psychoanalysis and refigure tragedy, however, are unconvincing, even self-defeating. Ironically, Foucault makes an inadvertent argument for psychoanalysis and tragedy and, thus, psychoanalytic anthropology. [source] New Historicism: Postmodern Historiography Between Narrativism and HeterologyHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 1 2000Jürgen Pieters In recent discussionsof the work of new historicist critics like Stephen Greenblatt and Louis Montrose, it has oftenbeen remarked that the theory of history underlying their reading practice closely resembles thatof postmodern historiographers like Hayden White and Frank Ankersmit. Taking off from onesuch remark, the aim of the present article is twofold. First, I intend to provide a theoretical basisfrom which to substantiate the idea that new historicism can indeed be taken to be the literary-critical variant of what Frank Ankersmit has termed the "new historiography." Inthe second half of the article, this theoretical foundation will serve as the starting point of afurther analysis of both the theory and practice of new historicism in terms of its distinctlypostmodern historiographical project. I will argue that in order to fully characterize the newhistoricist reading method, we do well to distinguish between two variants of postmodernhistoricism: a narrativist one (best represented in the work of Michel Foucault) and aheterological one (of which Michel de Certeau's writings serve as a supreme example). Abrief survey of the two methodological options associated with these variants (discursive versuspsychoanalytical) is followed by an analysis of the work of the central representative of newhistoricism, Stephen Greenblatt. While the significant use of historical anecdotes in his workleaves unresolved the question to which of either approaches Greenblatt belongs, the distinctiondoes serve a clear heuristic purpose. In both cases, it points to the dangerous spot where the newhistoricism threatens to fall prey to the evils of the traditional historicism against which it defineditself. [source] Sex, Race, and Biopower: A Foucauldian GenealogyHYPATIA, Issue 3 2004LADELLE MCWHORTER For many years feminists have asserted an "intersection" between sex and race. This paper, drawing heavily on the work of Michel Foucault, offers a genealogical account of the two concepts showing how they developed together and in relation to similar political forces in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Thus it attempts to give a concrete meaning to the claim that sex and race are intersecting phenomena. [source] Foucault, Rape, and the Construction of the Feminine BodyHYPATIA, Issue 1 2000ANN J. CAHILL In 1977, Michel Foucault suggested that legal approaches to rape define it as merely an act of violence, not of sexuality, and therefore not distinct from other types of assaults. I argue that rape can not be considered merely an act of violence because it is instrumental in the construction of the distinctly feminine body. Insofar as the threat of rape is ineluctably, although not determinately, associated with the development of feminine bodily comportment, rape itself holds a host of bodily and sexually specific meanings. [source] From the defence of the nation to the consolidation of modernity: a genealogy of corruption in Bolivia (1982,1999)INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE JOURNAL, Issue 191 2008Sebastián Urioste Guglielmone The instruments and approach taken from the toolbox proposed by Michel Foucault are used in this first political and historical study of the constitution of knowledge relating to corruption in Bolivia between 1982 and 1999. By reflecting on the links between the discontinuity of knowledge in this phenomenon and the various strategies deployed to fight against it, a genealogy of corruption unveils the profound transformations in politics and policies that Bolivia experienced over two decades. [source] Nursing Best Practice Guidelines: reflecting on the obscene rise of the voidJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2008DAVE HOLMES PhD Aim(s), Drawing on the work of Jean Baudrillard and Michel Foucault, the purpose of this article is to critique the evidence-based movement [and its derivatives , Nursing Best Practice Guidelines (NBPGs)] in vogue in all spheres of nursing. Background, NBPGs and their correlate institutions, such as the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) and ,spotlight' hospitals, impede critical thinking on the part of nurses, and ultimately evacuate the social, political and ethical responsibilities that ought to distinguish the nursing profession. Evaluation, We contend that the entire NBPG movement is based on the illusion of scientific truth and a promise of ethical care that cannot be delivered in reality. We took as a case study the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO), in the province of Ontario, Canada. Key issues, NBPGs, along with the evidence-based movement upon which they are based, are a dangerous technology by which healthcare organizations seek to discipline, govern and regulate nursing work. Conclusion(s), Despite the remarkable institutional promotion of ,ready-made' and ,ready-to-use' guidelines, we demonstrate how the RNAO deploys BPGs as part of an ideological agenda that is scientifically, socially, politically and ethically unsound. Implications for nursing management, Collaborations between health care organizations and professional organizations can become problematic when the latter dictate nursing conduct in such a way that critical thinking is impeded. We believe that nurse managers need to understand that the evidence-based movement is the target of well-deserved critiques. These critiques should also be considered before implementing so-called ,Nursing Best Practice Guidelines' in health care milieux. [source] From iron gaze to nursing care: mental health nursing in the era of panopticismJOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 1 2001D. Holmes RN CPMHN MSc PhD (cand) The purpose of this paper is to question the utilization of mechanical devices (cameras and microphones) to ensure the surveillance of hospitalized patients on psychiatric wards. The works of French philosopher, Michel Foucault, and those of nursing theorist, Jean Watson, are used to support this analysis. A growing number of Canadian psychiatric health care institutions are using mechanical devices for surveillance. The security of staff and patients as well as therapeutic purposes are stated as rationale for these practices. However, a Foucauldian perspective leads us to think otherwise. The metaphor of the panopticon is then used to uncover another reality: a disciplinary one. Within the scope of this paper, the question of surveillance, disciplinary power, caring philosophy, and mental health nursing will be examined. [source] Mobilizing Foucault: history, subjectivity and autonomous learners in nurse educationNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008Chris Darbyshire In the past 20, years the impact of progressive educational theories have become influential in nurse education particularly in relation to partnership and empowerment between lecturers and students and the development of student autonomy. The introduction of these progressive theories was in response to the criticisms that nurse education was characterized by hierarchical and asymmetrical power relationships between lecturers and students that encouraged rote learning and stifled student autonomy. This article explores how the work of Michel Foucault can be mobilized to think about autonomy in three different yet overlapping ways: as a historical event; as a discursive practice; and as part of an overall strategy to produce a specific student subject position. The implications for educational practice are that, rather than a site where students are empowered, nurse education is both a factory and a laboratory where new subjectivities are continually being constructed. This suggests that empowering practices and disciplinary practices uneasily co-exist. Critical reflection needs to be directed not only at structural dimensions of power but also on ourselves as students and lecturers by asking a Foucauldian question: How are you interested in autonomy? [source] Snap-shots of live theatre: the use of photography to research governance in operating room nursingNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 2 2003Robin Riley Snap-shots of live theatre: the use of photography to research governance in operating room nursing The use of photography is an underreported method of research in the nursing literature. This paper explores its use in an ethnographic research project, the fieldwork of which was undertaken by the first author. The aim was to examine the governance of operating room nursing in the clinical setting and the theoretical orientation was the work of Michel Foucault. The focus of this paper is on how photography was used as a means of data generation. To establish some context we begin by drawing on writers from sociology and anthropology to provide an overview of the status of vision and visual research methods in contemporary social research. We then move to a brief discussion of the uses of photography in social research and the limitations imposed by ethical considerations of its use in clinical nursing settings. As well, the process and approach involved in this research project, and issues of analysis are discussed. Three ,snap-shots' of operating room nursing, taken by participants, are presented. Each is analysed in terms of its contributions to the research process as well as its substantive contribution to the theoretical framework and the research aims. [source] Therapeutic touch and postmodernism in nursing,NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 3 2001Sarah Glazer Abstract Therapeutic touch, a healing technique based upon the laying-on of hands, has found wide acceptance in the nursing profession despite its lack of scientific plausibility. Its acceptance is indicative of a broad antiscientific trend in nursing. Adherents of this movement use the jargon of postmodern philosophy to justify their enthusiasm for a variety of mystically based techniques, citing such postmodern critics of science as Derrida and Michel Foucault as well as philosophical forerunners Heidegger and Husserl. Between 1997 and 1999, 94 articles in nursing journals referred to postmodernism, according to a database search. This paper criticizes the postmodern movement for abandoning the biological underpinnings of nursing and for misreading philosophy in the service of an antiscientific world-view. It is also suggested that nursing can retain its tradition of ,caring' without abandoning the scientific method. [source] Governing the Captives: Forensic Psychiatric Nursing in CorrectionsPERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHIATRIC CARE, Issue 1 2005Dave Holmes RN TOPIC/PROBLEM:,Since 1978, the federal inmates of Canada serving time have had access to a full range of psychiatric care within the carceral system. Five psychiatric units are part of the Federal Correctional Services. Nursing practice in forensic psychiatry opens up new horizons in nursing. This complex professional nursing practice involves the coupling of two contradictory socio-professional mandates: to punish and to provide care. METHOD:,The purpose of this article is to present the results of a grounded theory doctoral study realized in a multi-level security psychiatric ward of the Canadian Federal Penitentiary System. The theoretical work of the late French philosopher, Michel Foucault, and those of sociologist, Erving Goffman, are used to illuminate the qualitative data that emerged from the author's fieldwork. FINDINGS:,A Foucauldian perspective allows us to understand the way forensic psychiatric nursing is involved in the governance of mentally ill criminals through a vast array of power techniques (sovereign, disciplinary, and pastoral) which posited nurses as "subjects of power". These nurses are also "objects of power" in that nursing practice is constrained by formal and informal regulations of the penitentiary context. CONCLUSION:,As an object of "governmental technologies", the nursing staff becomes the body onto which a process of conforming to the customs of the correctional milieu is dictated and inscribed. The results of this qualitative research, from a nursing perspective, are the first of their kind to be reported in Canada since the creation of the Regional Psychiatric Correctional Units in 1978. [source] Resisting Homosexual Law Reform in Britain in the 1950s: the Passions of Earl Winterton,AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND HISTORY, Issue 2 2010Kate Gleeson The Sixth Earl Winterton was an eccentric who is too easily dismissed as a homophobe and bigoted critic of the reforms proposed in the Wolfenden Report. But his outbursts in the Parliament against homosexuality point to his personal concerns for British masculinity and to an alternative understanding of masculinity that has received scant attention in the assessment of gay law reforms initiated by Wolfenden. Sociologists insist that the main function of homophobia is the maintenance of heterosexuality and patriarchal homo-society. In this article I examine Winterton's arguments in their historical context, not to understand "homosexualism" which affronted him, but for what they say between the lines about British manliness, identity, intimacy and friendship. Winterton's is one version of a masculine self that experienced being cut adrift and betrayed by the cultural and political shifts which the Wolfenden Report both signified and embodied. I think now, after studying the history of sex, we should try to understand the history of friendship, or friendships. That history is very, very important (Michel Foucault, 1982)., [source] Disciplining Society through the City: The Genesis of City Planning in Brazil and Argentina (1894,1945)BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2003Joel Outtes This paper looks at the genesis of a discourse on urbanismo (city planning) in Brazil and Argentina between 1894 and 1945 using the ideas of Michel Foucault on discipline and his concept of bio,power. The demographic pattern of the major cities in both countries from 1890 onwards and the renewals of the centres of these cities are also discussed. Other sections are dedicated to the plans proposed for the same cities in the 1920s and to urban representations, such as ideas about social reform, the role of hygiene as a point of departure for planning, and the relationship of ideas on Taylorism (scientific management) and the city. The paper also discusses the planners opposition to elections, when they claimed that they were the only ones qualified to deal with urban problems and therefore they should be employed in the state apparatus. Other concerns of the paper are the use of planning as an element of nation building and ideas defining eugenics (race ,betterment') as an important aspect of city planning. I conclude by arguing that, if implemented, city planning was a way of creating an industrial culture, disciplining society through the city, although the industrial proletariat has never made up the majority of the population in Brazil or Argentina. Even if many aspects of the plans proposed for both countries were not implemented, the discourse of planners can be seen as a will to discipline society through the city. This discipline would affect the freedom of movement of human bodies, and is therefore approached through Foucault's concepts of bio,power and discipline [source] MOVING BEYOND BIOPOWER: HARDT AND NEGRI'S POST-FOUCAULDIAN SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORYHISTORY AND THEORY, Issue 4 2005RÉAL FILLION ABSTRACT I argue in this paper that the attempt by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri in Empire and Multitude to "theorize empire" should be read both against the backdrop of speculative philosophy of history and as a development of the conception of a "principle of intelligibility" as this is discussed in Michel Foucault's recently published courses at the Collège de France. I also argue that Foucault's work in these courses (and elsewhere) can be read as implicitly providing what I call "prolegomena to any future speculative philosophy of history." I define the latter as concerned with the intelligibility of the historical process considered as a whole. I further suggest, through a brief discussion of the classical figures of Kant, Hegel, and Marx, that the basic features of speculative philosophy of history concern the articulation of both the telos and dynamics of history. My claim is that Hardt and Negri provide an account of the telos and dynamics of history that respects the strictures imposed on speculative philosophy of history by Foucault's work, and thus can be considered as providing a post-Foucauldian speculative philosophy of history. In doing so, they provide a challenge to other "theoretical" attempts to account for our changing world. [source] Reflective practice and clinical supervision: meticulous rituals of the confessionalJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 2 2001Tony Gilbert BA MSc PhD RN PGCE Reflective practice and clinical supervision: meticulous rituals of the confessional Background.,Reflective practice and clinical supervision are progressively asserting hegemony upon nursing practice with claims of emancipation and empowerment. However, this is being achieved in an environment where there is little critical debate about the assumptions on which these practices are based. Aim.,This paper sets out to challenge the basis upon which reflective practice and clinical supervision are promoted within nursing discourse by employing Michel Foucault's (1982) concept of governmentality. Theme.,A broad Foucauldian perspective is used to demonstrate how the technologies of reflective practice and clinical supervision have been accommodated within modern forms of government. These technologies are consistent with the flattened hierarchies and increasing dispersal of practitioners in contemporary health care. In this context reflective practice and clinical supervision can be shown to function in two independent but interrelated ways. First as modes of surveillance disciplining the activity of professionals. Second, as ,confessional' practices that work to produce particular identities , autonomous and self-regulating. [source] Abu Ghraib, the security apparatus, and the performativity of powerAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 2 2010STEVEN C. CATON ABSTRACT The critical discourse on U.S. military detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison has been dominated by Weberian-style arguments (a bureaucracy gone wrong, insufficient or badly applied administrative rules, or individuals acting as cogs in a machine). We argue that Michel Foucault's "security apparatus" provides a more insightful model for understanding the Abu Ghraib phenomenon. According to this model, the prison becomes a nodal point in an information-gathering nexus confronting unforeseen, emergent, and unclear events, a place where power is less disciplinary than improvisational, exercised through practical judgments about uncertain situations. The performance of such power at Abu Ghraib included the use of photography and acts that, we claim, resemble M. M. Bahktin's negative carnivalesque. [Abu Ghraib, security apparatus, improvisational power, photography, carnivalesque] [source] | |||||||||||||