Progressive Geographies

On its 25th anniversary, IBRU, formerly the Durham University’s International Boundaries Research Unit, has been relaunched as Durham University’s Centre for Borders Research. Although past and current clients of IBRU’s consulting and training services likely will see little difference (aside from our new logo), the name change signals IBRU’s ongoing commitment to building bridges between applied work at the intersection of political geography and international law with cutting edge research that connects this applied work with inquiries into the changing nature of borders, territory, sovereignty, citizenship, and the political organisation of space.

L’Usage des plaisirs et Le Souci de soi de Michel Foucault. Regards critiques 1984-1987
coédition PUC – IMEC, Juillet 2014
Dossier coordonné par Luca Paltrinieri.

Textes choisis et présentés par Philippe Artières, Jean-François Bert, Sandra Boehringer, Philippe Chevallier, Frédéric Gros, Luca Paltrinieri, Judith Revel.

Collection Regards critiques.

Avec L’Usage des plaisirs et Le Souci de soi, Michel Foucault reprend, après huit ans de silence, le fil interrompu d’une histoire de la sexualité. Entre-temps, toutefois, le projet a changé profondément : il ne s’agit plus seulement d’étudier les concepts et les normes qui règlent la sexualité, mais aussi les formes et les modalités du rapport à soi par lesquelles les individus se constituent et se reconnaissent comme sujets. La première réception des deux ouvrages témoigne ainsi d’un double étonnement : la découverte d’un nouveau registre de la pensée foucaldienne qui se tisse autour de la subjectivation et l’inexistence, dans les sociétés anciennes…

Dotan Leshem, Embedding Agamben’s Critique of Foucault: The Theological and Pastoral Origins of Governmentality, Theory, Culture & Society, June 30, 2014

doi: 10.1177/0263276414537315

Abstract

This article tackles Giorgio Agamben’s critique of Michel Foucault’s genealogy of governmentality in two ways: first, by presenting an alternative model of the relations between pastoral and theological economy and, second, by conducting a genealogy of the former as revealed in the state of exception, when canon law is suspended. Following the author’s genealogy of oikonomia in the state of exception, he argues that politics and economy are distinct from one another by virtue of the fact that the primary relation of the latter is one of inclusion while that of the former is one of exclusion. Finally, the author traces three of oikonomia’s prolific qualities in the operation of governmentality in civil society and of market economy: (i) its inclusiveness; (ii) the constant representation…