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Colin Gordon, A Note On “Becker On Ewald On Foucault On Becker” : American Neoliberalism And Michel Foucault’s 1979 Birth Of Biopolitics Lectures. A conversation with Gary Becker, François Ewald, and Bernard Harcourt” [1]

This is a response to a discussion linked to earlier on this blog: American Neoliberalism and Michel Foucault’s 1979 ‘Birth of Biopolitics’ Lectures (2012)

Full pdf of article

Opening paragraph

In 1991, I published a short account of Foucault’s 1978-9 lectures on governmentality, liberalism and neoliberalism, as part of my introduction to The Foucault Effect. This had been preceded by an earlier, briefer summary contained in an essay on Weber and Foucault, published in 1987. Since the publication of the lectures themselves in 2004 (in the original French) and 2007-8 (in excellent English translations) [2] interest in their content has, very justifiably, continued to grow, while the need for those interested to rely…