ASTK12129U Foucault and Politics

Volume 2014/2015
Content

This course examines the work of Michel Foucault with regard to its importance for contemporary political thought. Since his death in 1984, Foucault has been recognized as a significant political thinker in his own right. The literature on 'governmentality' that has emerged out of an engagement with Foucault's thought now forms an important field in political theory. Yet this literature can at times overlooks how the broad range of Foucault's work - including his earlier considerations of the clinic, the archaeology of knowledge, mental illness, and incarceration - makes a significant contribution to contemporary political theory. While the course will include a close examination of Foucault’s more specifically political concepts – such as disciplinary power, biopolitics, and governmentality - it will aim to test these ideas and show that they have a number of possible interpretations and applications.

Schedule

1. Introduction - does Foucault have a political theory?

Part 1 - Power and the Formation of the Modern Subject of Politics

2. From the archaeology to the genealogy of political knowledge

3. The medical gaze and the modern subject of politics

4. Madness and power

5. The right to kill and the power over life - disciplinary power and politics

6. Presentations I

7. Presentations 2

Part 2 - Governmentality, Biopolitics, and the History of the Political Present

8. War pursued by other means

9. Biopolitics, welfare, and security

10. Governmentality

11. The care of the self and the dissolution of the political subject

12. The rise and fall of neoliberalism

13. Presentations 3

14. Presentations 4

Learning Outcome
Is being updated.

Background Reading

1. Texts by Foucault

‘Truth and Power’

‘Governmentality’

‘The Subject and Power’

(All can be found in J. D. Faubion (ed.) Essential Works of Foucault 1954-1984, Vol 1: Power. London: Penguin Books, 2002.)

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, part 3: Discipline. London: Penguin, 1991.

Society Must be Defended: Lectures at the College de France, 1975-6. London: Penguin, 2004.

The History of Sexuality Volume 1: The Will to Truth, Part 5: Right of Death and Power Over Life. London: Penguin, 1998.

2. Commentaries

Burchell, G. & Gordon, C. (eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991.

Dean, M. Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern Societies, 2nd edition. London: SAGE, 2010.

Dreyfus, H. L & Rabinow, P. Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics, part II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

McNay, L. Foucault: A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994.

Miller, P. and Rose, N. Governing the Present: Administering Economic, Social, and Personal Life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008.

Veyne, P. Foucault: His Thought, His Character. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010.
Lectures and class discussions.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written exam
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course’s goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
     
  • Grade 7 given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
     
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner