Category Archives: Michel Foucault

Foucault’s La société punitive – some initial thoughts on the first half

I received Foucault’s La société punitive last week, and it was the only academic book I took with me on my Christmas trip to Ghana. As with these lecture courses generally I know I will read them several times, so … Continue reading

Posted in Foucault's Last Decade, Michel Foucault | 8 Comments

Jeremy Crampton on my ‘the political is always technical’ comment

Jeremy Crampton has responded in a very interesting way to my comment that ‘the political is always technical’. I made that comment in my remarks to the ArcticNet conference last week – a summary and the audio recording are here. … Continue reading

Posted in Boundaries, Conferences, Jeremy Crampton, Mapping the Present, Martin Heidegger, Michel Foucault, Territory, The Birth of Territory | 4 Comments

Fifteen years ago today I submitted my PhD thesis

My PhD thesis was entitled ‘Mapping the Present: Space and History in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger and Michel Foucault’ and it was submitted in December 1998 (I’m pretty sure it was on the 18th). It was examined … Continue reading

Posted in Foucault's Last Decade, Mapping the Present, Michel Foucault, Publishing, Speaking Against Number | 1 Comment

Books received – Foucault, Anderson, Sloterdijk, Geographica Helvetica

The latest Foucault lecture course La société punitive; Sloterdijk’s Nietzsche Apostle; Perry Anderson’s Lineages of the Absolutist State (the only one of my ten books that stayed with me that I didn’t actually own); and the new issue of Geographica … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Geographica Helvetica, Michel Foucault, Peter Sloterdijk | 2 Comments

Books received – Macey, Roberts, Amoore, Barry, Dosse, Tel Quel Reader, TCS, JUCS

Some older books ordered for the Foucault project – the Dosse has some important information on CERFI, there is a Foucault piece in The Tel Quel Reader; Andrew Barry’s Material Politics and Louise Amoore’s The Politics of Possibility sent by … Continue reading

Posted in Andrew Barry, Foucault's Last Decade, Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Louise Amoore, Michel Foucault, Theory, Culture and Society | 1 Comment

Foucault’s Last Decade – fifth update

Having put together rough drafts of chapters 1 and 2 (see previous update), I was now able to move to the real focus of the book. But there is no simple break, and even as I go onto these chapters there … Continue reading

Posted in Foucault's Last Decade, Michel Foucault | 3 Comments

Campbell and Sitze, Biopolitics: A Reader – introduction available online

This looks a useful resource – Timothy Campbell and Adam Sitze, Biopolitics; A Reader. The introduction is available online here. This anthology collects the texts that defined the concept of biopolitics, which has become so significant throughout the humanities and social … Continue reading

Posted in Alain Badiou, Antonio Negri, Gilles Deleuze, Giorgio Agamben, Jacques Rancière, Michael Hardt, Michel Foucault, Paolo Virno, Peter Sloterdijk, Slavoj Zizek | Leave a comment

A short previously untranslated comment by Foucault on religion, witches and madness – and the need for a structuralist study

In a post earlier this week I discussed a text of Foucault’s from 1969 on doctors, judges and witches in the 17th century. In that discussion I mentioned a related piece on “Religious Deviations and Medical Knowledge”, translated in the Religion and … Continue reading

Posted in Michel Foucault | 2 Comments

Philippe Artières, Intolérable – Groupe d’information sur les prisons

A collection of the writings of the Groupe d’information sur les prisons, edited by Philippe Artières, was published earlier this year by Gallimard – full details here. I’m not sure how this text relates to an earlier collection Artières was … Continue reading

Posted in Michel Foucault, Politics | Leave a comment

Michel Foucault, ‘Médecins, Juges et Sorciers au XVIIe Siècle’ – some thoughts on dating and content

There is a curious text by Foucault, initially published as «Médecins, juges et sorciers au XVIIe siècle», Médecine de France, n°200, 1er trimestre 1969, pp.121-128; reprinted in Dits et écrits, text number 62 (Vol I, pp. 753-67 of the original edition); and available online here. … Continue reading

Posted in Michel Foucault | 7 Comments