DOCSLIB.ORG

Foucault Against Ethics: Subjectivity and Critique After Humanism

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Foucault Against Ethics: Subjectivity and Critique After Humanism Missouri University of Science and Technology Scholars' Mine Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works Arts, Languages and Philosophy 01 Jan 2016 Foucault against Ethics: Subjectivity and Critique after Humanism Patrick Gamez Missouri University of Science and Technology, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/artlan_phil_facwork Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Gamez, P. (2016). Foucault against Ethics: Subjectivity and Critique after Humanism. University of Notre Dame. This Dissertation - Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars' Mine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works by an authorized administrator of Scholars' Mine. This work is protected by U. S. Copyright Law. Unauthorized use including reproduction for redistribution requires the permission of the copyright holder. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FOUCAULT AGAINST ETHICS: SUBJECTIVITY AND CRITIQUE AFTER HUMANISM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Notre Dame in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Patrick Gamez _______________________________ Gary Gutting, Co-director _______________________________ Stephen Watson, Co-director Graduate Program in Philosophy Notre Dame, Indiana July 2016 © Copyright by PATRICK J. GAMEZ 2016 All rights reserved FOUCAULT AGAINST ETHICS: SUBJECTIVITY AND CRITIQUE AFTER HUMANISM Abstract by Patrick Gamez This dissertation is in the first place an interpretation of the thought of Michel Foucault. Beyond interpretation, it also makes provides a qualified defense of his views on the significance of ethical theory, particularly in its “critical” forms, the shape of the space of reasons, and the role of subjectivity within it. I take as my starting point an orthodox view of Foucault’s work, namely, that it can divided in terms of its content into three distinct periods. First, an “archaeological” phase spanning most of the 1960s. Second, a “genealogical” devoted to unearthing power-relations beneath purportedly progressive institutions. Finally, an “ethical” period, focused on rehabilitating practices of moral self-formation in Antiquity. This so-called “ethical turn” has been a source of persistent criticism of Foucault’s thought for several decades. I claim that this periodization is mistaken. There is no substantively “ethical” period in Foucault’s work that would stand in contrast to his genealogical inquiries. In the first chapter, I present overwhelming textual evidence against this interpretation, and then diagnose the motivation for it: the charge of “ethical nihilism” and the demand for a normative framework from critics of Foucault’s genealogical works. In brief the charge is that in revealing the power-relations that partially constitute Enlightenment institutions Patrick Gamez and the ideals that sustain them, Foucault deprives himself of the resources required to construct the kind of ethical theory needed to ground his critical project. In the second chapter and third chapters, I bring Foucault into conversation with several figures in analytic philosophy, most prominently Wilfrid Sellars and the “Pittsburgh School,” and P.F. Strawson. I argue that Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical works are best construed as an historical inquiry into the construction of “spaces of reasons,” in which we find ourselves subject to normative evaluation and direction. I then argue that the charge of nihilism against Foucault is the result of a process of neutralizing and depoliticizing the essentially plural, agonistic character of the space of reasons. I conclude by using my interpretation to explain and defend Foucault’s controversial engagement with the Iranian Revolution. As always, for my mother, without whom I doubt I’d have amounted to much at all ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................................... iv 1. DID FOUCAULT DO ETHICS? ........................................................................................1 §1.1 What, if Anything, Comes After Genealogy? .....................................................1 §1.2 The Illusion of an “Ethical Turn” ....................................................................14 ! §1.3 The Demand for a Normative Framework .......................................................30 §1.4 Moral Problematization and the Technologies of the Self ...........................................................................................................................40 2. FOUCAULT’S ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION OF THE SPACE OF REASONS .........................................................................................................61 §2.1 The Trouble with Freedom .................................................................................61 §2.2 Sellars, the Myth of the Given, and the Space of Reasons ...................................................................................................................69 §2.3 Placing the Space of Reasons in the Arena of Power ....................................74 §2.4 Historical Ontology and the Archaeology of the Space of Reasons ............................................................................................................89 §2.5 Rationalities, Persons, and Power ......................................................................95 3. HUMANISM, CRITIQUE, AND HISTORICAL ONTOLOGY .............................112 §3.1 The Prosecutor, The Jurist, and the Universal Intellectual ...........................................................................................................112 §3.2 War, Sovereignty, and Subjectivity ....................................................................127 §3.3 Discipline, the Human Sciences, and the Subject of Correction ............................................................................................................142 §3.4 Cutting Off the King’s Head ............................................................................164 4. PUTTING THE ACCOUNT TO THE TEST: FOUCAULT ON BIOPOLITICS, NEOLIBERALISM, AND THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION ...................................................................................................................198 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................................214 iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research and writing of this dissertation would not have been possible without the support generous support of fellowships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Nanovic Institute of European Studies. I am always grateful - and never more than at the end of an undertaking as convoluted as writing a dissertation - for the constant support of my family and friends in Edmonton: Mom, Dad, Ryan, Jillian, Michael, Nicholas, Matthew, and Conor. As is usually the case, the faults of this dissertation are mine, but whatever insights it contains have been sharpened by a group of friends and interlocutors, both at the University of Notre Dame and beyond. First and foremost, I am immeasurably grateful for the constant camaraderie and inspiration provided by Jordan Rodgers. Joshua Pineda’s criticism has been invaluable, as has his friendship. Discussions with Will Smith, Naomi and Jeff Fisher, Daniel Sportiello, and Scott Hagaman have made me a better philosopher than I would have been otherwise. Various parts of this work were presented at several conferences, receiving important commentary from Evan Edwards and Juniper Alcorn, and both serious questioning and support from Alexis Dianda, Debbie Goldgaber, Owen Glyn-Williams, Tom Krell, P.J. Gorre, Colin Koopman, and Jon Cogburn. Finally, I will never be able to repay Erin Marie Hall for her patience with me throughout this process. There are many more, of course, but these few needed to be named. iv 1 DID FOUCAULT DO ETHICS? §1.1 What, If Anything, Comes After Genealogy? It has become something of a commonplace, if not outright orthodoxy, in Foucault scholarship to divide his work into several periods. Foucault’s earliest works are sometimes the subject of discussion: Mental Illness and Psychiatry, or his introduction to Kant’s Anthropology. And his very early History of Madness has rightfully been at the centre of a great deal of scholarly dispute. But, more or less, the established periodization of Foucault’s work has three parts. First, there is the “archaeological phase,” exemplified in The Birth of the Clinic, The Order of Things, and The Archaeology of Knowledge. This “first” phase is set off from the second phase by an extended silence in publishing by Foucault, which is explained with reference to Foucault’s realization of the “methodological failure” of archaeology.1 This is followed by a second, “genealogical” phase, in which Foucault’s concerns are taken to shift from the autonomy of discourse and the production of knowledge to the effects and mechanisms of power. The works attributed to this genealogical period are, more or less obviously, Discipline and Punish and The Will to Knowledge, the first volume of The History of Sexuality. This genealogical period, similarly, is followed by a relative silence; Foucault publishes no major monographs between 1976 and 1984. A third period, in which Foucault’s concerns are taken to centre
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Kristeva and the Political
    KRISTEVA AND THE POLITICAL Julia Kristeva is one of the most influential French thinkers of the twen­ tieth century and is best known for her work in linguistics, feminist theory and psychoanalysis. Kristeva & the Political is the first book to explore and assess the relation of Kristeva's work to politics and the political. Kristeva & the Political casts new light on her work, connecting her to recent developments in literary theory, political theory and cultural studies. In particular it shows how Kristeva's account of art and psychoanalysis widens the notion of the political. Each chapter introduces a fundamental theme in Kristeva's work, high­ lighting a specific period of development in her thought and drawing on texts from the 1960s through to the 2000s. The book shows the continuity of her work on the political, as well as its scope. Kristeva & the Political demonstrates that her theory of revolt draws on specific notions of mater­ nity and alterity, love and recognition, embodiment and temporality, illuminating the radical potential of intimate spaces that are not tradition­ ally regarded as politically relevant. Cecilia Sjoholm is Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at Sodertorn University College, Sweden. She is the author of The Antigone Complex: Ethics and the Invention of Feminine Desire. THINKING THE POLITICAL General editors: Keith Ansell Pearson University of Warwick Simon Critchley University of Essex Recent decades have seen the emergence of a distinct and challenging body of work by a number of Continental thinkers that has fundamentally altered the way in which philosophical questions are conceived and discussed. This work poses a major challenge to anyone wishing to define the essentially contestable concept of 'the political' and to think anew the political import and application of philosophy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political in Subjectivity
    This is the post print version of the article, which has been published in Subjectivity. 2018, 11(1), 57-73. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41286-017-0040-z. Onbecomingpolitical:Thepoliticalinsubjectivity JouniHäkli* SpaceandPoliticalAgencyResearchGroup SchoolofManagement FI33014UniversityofTampere,Finland KirsiPauliinaKallio SpaceandPoliticalAgencyResearchGroup SchoolofManagement FI 33014UniversityofTampere,Finland Biographies: JouniHäkliisprofessorofregionalstudiesandtheleaderoftheSpaceand PoliticalAgencyResearchGroup(SPARG)attheUniversityofTampere.Heis alsothevicedirectoroftheAcademyofFinlandCentreofExcellence (RELATE).Hisresearchfocusesonpoliticalagency,politicalsubjectivity, transnationalization,citizenship,andborderstudies. KirsiPauliinaKallioisanAcademyFellowattheUniversityofTampere.Her researchinterestsincludepoliticalsubjectivityandagency,political geographies ofchildhoodandyouth,transnationalchildren’srights,mundane formsofcitizenparticipation,andtheeverydaypracticeofdemocracy. ȗJouniHäkliiscorrespondingauthor,contactdetails: Email:[email protected] Phone:+358-40-1973664 Web:http://www.uta.fi/jkk/yhteystiedot/hallintotiede/hakli.html 1 Onbecomingpolitical:Thepoliticalinsubjectivity Abstract This article explores mundane political agency. We introduce the notion of the political ordinary as agency based on the capacity of human beings to carry out acts that are undetermined and unexpected, and thus capable of challenging, opposing, negotiating, maintaining, and readjusting prevailing conditions. We approach subjectivity from
    [Show full text]
  • The Construction of Political Subjectivity: the Case of Immigrant Workers in Slovenia*
    REVISTA PLÉYADE 10/ ISSN: 0718-655X / JULIO - DICIEMBRE 2012/ PP. 37-66 The Construction of Political Subjectivity: The Case of Immigrant Workers in Slovenia* Andreja Vezovnik** University of Ljubljana A B S T R A C T This article deals with the political subjectivation and desubjectivation of immigrant workers in Slovenia. It explores ontic and ontological views on their subjectivation by framing them in the socio-historical context of post-Yugoslavian migration dynamics. At the ontic level a Critical Discourse Analysis of media texts is presented showing how the political subjectivation and desubjectivation of immigrant workers is constructed in public discourse. The article explores discursive strategies of victimization, reification, animalisation and subjectivation. The article explores the notion of (de-)subjectivation at the ontological level using the Laclauian logic of naming to explore the political representation process. Key words: Naming, representation, (de-) subjectivation. La construcción de la subjetividad política: el caso de los tra- bajadores inmigrantes en Eslovenia Este artículo trata sobre la subjetivación y desubjetivación política de los trabajadores inmigrantes en Eslovenia. Explora las perspectivas ónticas y ontológicas de su subjetivación en el marco del contexto socio-histórico de las dinámicas migratorias de la post-Yugoslavia. En el nivel óntico, se realiza un Análisis Crítico del Discurso de los textos de los medios en el que se muestra cómo la subjetivación y desubjetivación política de los trabajadores inmigrantes es construida en el discurso público. El artículo explora la noción de (de) subjetivación en el nivel ontológico usando la lógica del nombrar de Laclau para explorar el proceso de representación política.
    [Show full text]
  • Theorizing Gender Solidarity in Times of Global Power Shift
    International Journal of Communication 8 (2014), 506–523 1932–8036/20140005 Developmental Bodies and the Occupation of Time: Theorizing Gender Solidarity in Times of Global Power Shift KATHERINE REILLY1 Simon Fraser University Global power shift (GPS) offers an opportunity to rethink assumptions underlying feminist theories of solidarity with a view toward more historically engaged theorizing. During the globalist moment, feminist critical theory relied on the idea of “transversity” as a foundation for the theorizing solidarity because it created a bridge between dualities (local–global, rationalism–postmodernism). More recently, feminist critical theory has turned to intersectionality as a means to redress the dualities inherent in transversity. I argue that expressions of transversal solidarity tended to reify historical sedimentation of power, while intersectional theories of solidarity emphasize collective identities at the expense of transformative agendas. Drawing on the work of Mendieta, Kompridis, and Trouillot, I propose we understand gender solidarity in terms of developmental bodies that occupy time such that women can engage with GPS in proactive ways. This resituates communication’s role in solidarity building as a conversation with history rather than a dialogue between identities. Introduction Much of the literature on contemporary global power shift (GPS) has been concerned with whether and how the changing fortunes of nation-states will influence the functioning of international institutions, their regulation of global markets, or the possibility of diplomatic breakdown leading to war (e.g., Altman, 2009; Ferguson, 2009; Hoge, 2004; Ross & Friedberg, 2009). But for critical theories, GPS challenges us to look beyond regime theories when trying to make sense of historical change.
    [Show full text]
  • Revising Society Must Be Defended by Michel Foucault Sam Holder
    Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal Volume 16 Article 4 Number 1 Winter 2019 Winter 2019 Revising Society Must be Defended by Michel Foucault Sam Holder Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_race_poverty_law_journal Part of the Law and Race Commons Recommended Citation Sam Holder, Revising Society Must be Defended by Michel Foucault, 16 Hastings Race & Poverty L.J. 71 (2019). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_race_poverty_law_journal/vol16/iss1/4 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. SMBD REVIEW (AUTHOR EDITS) MACROS.DOCX (DO NOT DELETE) 1/16/2019 11:38 AM BOOK REVIEW REVISITING SOCIETY MUST BE DEFENDED BY MICHEL FOUCAULT SAM HOLDER* It seems to me that the real political task in a society such as ours is to criticize the workings of institutions, which appear to be both neutral and independent; to criticize and attack them in such a manner that the political violence which has always exercised itself obscurely through them will be unmasked, so that one can fight against them. - Michel Foucault, 1971 One could argue that society is in greater need of defense in 2018 than in 1976, when Michel Foucault first delivered his seminal lectures, which would later become known as Society Must Be Defended. What, then, is the value of formally revisiting this work? I argue that returning to this particular series of lectures and engaging with it directly1 helps us to properly understand, interpret, and respond to current global political phenomena, particularly when it comes to race relations.
    [Show full text]
  • Downloaded from Elgar Online at 09/29/2021 10:30:42AM Via Free Access
    JOBNAME: EE0 d’Aspremont PAGE: 1 SESS: 6 OUTPUT: Wed Jan 30 08:58:14 2019 1. Introduction: The life of international law and its concepts Sahib Singh and Jean d’Aspremont ‘What meaning has the concept of murder, when we are confronted with the mass production of corpses?’1 Hannah Arendt asks this question of her readers as she attempts to understand the workings of totalitarianism. It may, though, also sound apt for today’s international law and its concepts. Contemporary international lawyers ply their trade knowing full well that significant parts of this law are structurally implicated in and perpetuate on-going economic and social injustices. Yet lawyers idealistically and increasingly resort to international law’s promises. How could our greater recourse to concepts such as universality, aggression, development, humanity or rights (to name but a few) not be tinged with a sense of futility? But this would miss Arendt’s point, for her question is a critique of how we are prone to think with concepts. Recourse to the concept of murder in order to understand, explain and evaluate the known horrors of the concentration camps meant giving in to a certain common sense. It was to concede to the ‘great temptation to explain away the intrinsically incredible by means of liberal rationalizations’.2 Modes of thought or attitudes that seek to reduce the complexities (and horrors) of our social world to inadequate categories are not merely unwarranted but potentially dangerous. It is, after all, not inadequate concepts or attempts to grasp the ungraspable and infinitely complex that Arendt indicts, but rather those who would do so by turning away from life and hence responsibility.3 Rather the question becomes: may we think of the relation(s) between concepts, life and living in international law? We broach this question in three sections.
    [Show full text]
  • Thrownness, Attunement, Attention: a Heideggerian Account Of
    Thrownness, Attunement, Attention: A Heideggerian Account of Responsibility Darshan Cowles A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy University of Essex October 2017 Abstract: This thesis argues that Heidegger’s existential analytic of human existence challenges the traditional understanding of responsibility as lying in the power or mastery of the subject. In contrast to secondary literature that attempts to read Heidegger as showing that we take responsibility through some kind of self-determination or control, I argue that Heidegger’s account of our thrownness, and its first-personal manifestation in our attunement, contests such understandings and points to an account of responsibility that does not find its locus in the power of the subject. In light of this, I argue that taking responsibility for our being-in-the-world should be understood as becoming attentive. By emphasizing the ‘movement’ of thrownness and the meaning of this as finding ourselves always already gripped by way of being attuned, my analysis demonstrates the pervasive power of that which is beyond the subject. I show that we must always already find ourselves submitted to particular possibilities and, more fundamentally, to the enigma of being Dasein. From this analysis, and via the work of Harry Frankfurt, I demonstrate how our thrownness speaks against seeing responsibility for our being-in-the-world in terms of choice, rational judgement, or wholeheartedness. A further analysis of anxiety, contrasting with accounts which read it as manifesting a privileged space for freedom and self-determination, emphasizes the revelation of the ‘I’ as essentially bound to what is beyond it.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Article (PDF)
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 491 Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Arts and Humanities (IJCAH 2020) Examining Political Subjectivity Through the Truth Procedure in Ahmad Tohari’s Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk Aprinus Salam1,* Sulistya Ningtyas1 1 Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Ahmad Tohari’s novel, Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk, portrays the struggle of the underclass of Dukuh Paruk in facing the political turmoil, particularly around the 1960s. The present study examines political subjectivity through the truth procedure in the novel. The research problems are answered by using a qualitative research method and post-Marxism as the critical approach. By applying a theory proposed by Alain Badiou, this study questions the role of Javanese women, represented by Srintil as the main character of the novel, in adapting to the rapid changes of the world. In Badiou’s philosophy, truth is not a static state but appears as a procedure—in which it can be seen for a passing moment as an event. The results of the analysis show that the Dukuh Paruk community experiences an event of political propaganda which, eventually, leads to independence of the working class. Due to the incorporation, Srintil as a ronggeng (a local traditional dancer) who plays an essential role in the center of the community is subjectivated to become a reactive subject, one who denies the event of truth. Keywords: Truth Procedure, Event, Subjectivity, Incorporation, Ronggeng Dukuh Paruk 1. INTRODUCTION Though it appears that there is a degree of development, they do not see the essential core of traditions as obstacles Traditional societies are primarily characterized by to their newly established circumstances.
    [Show full text]
  • 33536 SP WEB FM 00I-Xii.Indd
    Process Approaches to Consciousness in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Mind Edited by MICHEL WEBER AND ANDERSON WEEKES Process Approaches to Consciousness in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Mind SUNY series in Philosophy George R. Lucas Jr., editor Process Approaches to Consciousness in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Philosophy of Mind Edited by Michel Weber and Anderson Weekes Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2009 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu Production by Cathleen Collins Marketing by Anne M. Valentine Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Process approaches to consciousness in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mind / edited by Michel Weber and Anderson Weekes. p. cm. — (SUNY series in philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4384-2941-0 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Consciousness. 2. Process philosophy. 3. Psychology. 4. Neurosciences. 5. Philosophy of mind. I. Weber, Michel. II. Weekes, Anderson, 1960– B808.9.P77 2010 126—dc22 2009010131 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In memoria ingentis ingenii, dedicamus librum hunc ad Alecem MDCDLXXVI – MMVII vi Contents For much of the twentieth century, all sciences, including biology, were obsessed with reductionism: viewing the world at all levels, from the smallest to the largest, as merely a machine made of parts.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Participants
    “Nature and Value” WORKSHOP 2016 LONDON LIST OF PARTICIPANTS Akeel Bilgrami is the Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, where he is also a Professor on the Committee on Global Thought. He was the Director of the Humanities Center at Columbia University for seven years and is currently the Director of its South Asian Institute. Akeel got a B.A in English Literature from Elphinstone College, Bombay University and went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar where he read Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He has a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. His publications include the books Belief and Meaning (1992), Self-Knowledge and Resentment (2006), and Secularism, Identity and Enchantment (2014). He is due to publish two short books in the near future: What is a Muslim? and Gandhi's Integrity. His long-term future [email protected] work is on the relations between agency, value, and practical reason. Akeel Bilgrami has been leading the NOMIS series of workshops on Nature and Value since 2012. David Bromwich is Sterling Professor of English at Yale University. He received his PhD in Yale, was promoted Mellon Professor of English at Princeton University and returned to Yale where he became Sterling Professor in 2006. David is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has published widely on Romantic criticism and poetry, and on eighteenth-century politics and moral philosophy. His book Politics by Other Means concerns the role of critical thinking and tradition in higher education, and defends the practice of liberal education against political encroachments from both Left and Right.
    [Show full text]
  • States of Dispossession: US Political Culture, State Form, and Race from 1930 to the Present
    States of Dispossession: US Political Culture, State Form, and Race from 1930 to the Present by Christian Ravela A dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Prof. Eva Cherniavsky, chair Prof. Gillian Harkins Prof. Colin Danby Prof. Chandan Reddy Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Department of English ©Copyright 2013 Christian Ravela University of Washington Abstract States of Dispossession: US Political Culture, State Form, and Race from 1930 to the Present Christian Ravela Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Eva Cherniavsky Department of English States of Dispossession: US Political Culture, State Form, and Race from 1930 to the Present creates a genealogy of US political culture of dispossession to historicize contemporary experiences of left melancholia. By dispossession, I mean the material conditions, power relations, and discourses through which political subjects experience and know their loss and suffering. Even though dispossession is a condition more often associated with nineteenth and early twentieth century through settler colonialism, chattel slavery, and imperial expansion, my inquiry begins with emergence of the New Deal during which the problem of the dispossessed takes on a political prominence and a national scale in the wake of the Great Depression and then moves on into the late 20th century to trace its centrality in the development of liberal governmentalities. Through an analysis of key nodal moments, the dissertation argues how the dispossessed gets bound to the legitimacy and operations of the state through techniques of governance that simultaneously rationalize state intervention and manage political crises.
    [Show full text]
  • Gendered Visions of the Bosnian Future: Women’S Activism and Representation in Post-War Bosnia-Herzegovina
    GENDERED VISIONS OF THE BOSNIAN FUTURE: WOMEN’S ACTIVISM AND REPRESENTATION IN POST-WAR BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA by Elissa Lynelle Helms BA, Bucknell University, 1991 MA, University of Pittsburgh, 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2003 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Elissa L. Helms It was defended on August 1, 2003 and approved by Nicole Constable Joseph Alter Kathleen Blee Dennison Rusinow Robert M. Hayden Dissertation Director ii To the memory of my grandmothers Julia Moore Helms 1906 - 1994 and Ruth Zimmerman Schliebe 1912 - 1998 iii GENDERED VISIONS OF THE BOSNIAN FUTURE: WOMEN’S ACTIVISM AND REPRESENTATION IN POST-WAR BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA Elissa L. Helms, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2003 This is an ethnographic study of women’s activism in Bosniac (Muslim) areas of post-war Bosnia-Herzegovina. I examine the activities and representational strategies of activists in women’s non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and political parties as they engage local nationalist and religious discourses, established notions of gender, and the discourses and policies of foreign donors and international bodies. The work is based on over two years (1999-2000) of ethnographic research among women activists, who take a range of approaches to gender and ethno-national/religious identity. I show how women’s attempts to influence the direction of post-war reconstruction often rely on what I term, following Richard G. Fox, “affirmative essentialisms”– over-simplified but positive characterizations of women.
    [Show full text]