DOCSLIB.ORG

Deleuze and the Anthropology of Becoming

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Deleuze and the Anthropology of Becoming Current Anthropology Volume 51, Number 3, June 2010 317 Deleuze and the Anthropology of Becoming by Joa˜o Biehl and Peter Locke Philosopher Gilles Deleuze emphasizes the primacy of desire over power and the openness and flux of social fields. In this article, we place our ethnographic projects among the urban poor in Brazil and Bosnia-Herzegovina in dialogue with Deleuze’s cartographic approach to subjectivity and his reflections on control and the transformative potential of becoming. As people scavenge for resources and care, they must deal with the encroachment of psychiatric diagnostics and treatments in broken public institutions and in altered forms of common sense. By reading our cases in light of Deleuze’s ideas, we uphold the rights of microanalysis, bringing into view the immanent fields that people, in all their ambiguity, invent and live by. Such fields of action and significance—leaking out on all sides—are mediated by power and knowledge, but they are also animated by claims to basic rights and desires. In making public a nuanced understanding of these fields—always at risk of disap- pearing—anthropologists still allow for larger structural and institutional processes to become visible and their true effect known. This fieldwork/philosophical dialogue highlights the limits of psychiatric models of symptoms and human agency and supplements applications of concepts such as biopolitics, structural violence, and social suffering in anthropology. Continually adjusting itself to the reality of contemporary lives and worlds, the anthropological venture has the potential of art: to invoke neglected human potentials and to expand the limits of understanding and imagination—a people yet to come. The ultimate aim of literature is to set free, in the delirium, and Bosnia-Herzegovina—people are at the mercy of volatile this creation of a health or this invention of a people, that economies and pay a high physical and subjective price to get is, a possibility of life. (Deleuze 1997:4) by day-to-day. As people scavenge for resources and care, they must deal with the encroachment of psychiatric diagnostics An Empirical Lantern and treatments in broken public institutions and in altered forms of common sense. We find Deleuze’s reflections pro- The late Gilles Deleuze was particularly concerned with the vocative and helpful as we address lives in contexts of clinical idea of becoming: those individual and collective struggles to and political-economic crisis. In the field, the unexpected come to terms with events and intolerable conditions and to happens every day, and new causalities come into play. We shake loose, to whatever degree possible, from determinants are drawn to human efforts to exceed and escape forms of and definitions—“to grow both young and old [in them] at knowledge and power and to express desires that might be once” (Deleuze 1995:170; 2001). In becoming, as Deleuze saw world altering. How can anthropological methods and con- it, one can achieve an ultimate existential stage in which life cepts incorporate evidence of these kinds of becoming? What is simply immanent and open to new relations—camara- would a Deleuze-inspired ethnography accomplish that others derie—and trajectories. Becoming is not a part of history, he might not? And how could such work challenge dominant wrote: “History amounts only to the set of preconditions, modes of medical and political intervention? It is time to however recent, that one leaves behind in order to ‘become,’ attribute to the people we study the kinds of complexities we that is, to create something new” (Deleuze 1995:171). acknowledge in ourselves, and to bring these complexities into In the urban-poor settings in which we work—in Brazil the forms of knowledge we produce and circulate. We have no grand philosophical aspirations and do not Joa˜o Biehl is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University wish to reduce Deleuze’s enormously complicated venture (116 Aaron Burr Hall, Princeton, New Jersey 08544-1011, U.S.A. into a theoretical system or set of practices to be applied [[email protected]]). Peter Locke is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University’s Center for Health and Wellbeing (Woodrow normatively to anthropology. In this article, we limit ourselves Wilson School, Wallace Hall, Princeton University, Princeton, New to thinking through his insights on the relationships between Jersey 08544-1013, U.S.A.). This paper was submitted 11 IX 08 and power, desire, and sublimation and his cartographic approach accepted 11 II 09. to social fields and the unconscious (see Massumi 2002; Stew- ᭧ 2010 by The Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. All rights reserved. 0011-3204/2010/5103-0002$10.00. DOI: 10.1086/651466 318 Current Anthropology Volume 51, Number 3, June 2010 art 2007). These insights help us to better grasp what is at engagement. Anthropologists demarcate uncharted social ter- stake for individuals and interpersonal relations in the context ritories and track people moving through them. The maps of new rational-technical interventions. Exploring the utility we produce allow the navigators—the interpreters—to con- of Deleuze’s ideas in light of the ethnographic realities we sider these territories and their life force (their capacities and study—mental illness, poverty, and the aftermath of war— possibilities as much as their foreclosures). can highlight the limits of psychiatric models of symptoms In our reflections we draw from Biehl’s work with Catarina and human agency (Biehl, Good, and Kleinman 2007; Moraes, a young woman abandoned by her family and left to DelVecchio Good et al. 2008; Jenkins and Barrett 2004). It die in an asylum called Vita in the southern Brazilian city of can also provide a helpful supplement to prevailing appli- Porto Alegre (Biehl 2005). Largely incapacitated and said to be cations of Michel Foucault’s concepts of biopower and gov- mad, Catarina spent her days in Vita assembling words in what ernmentality in anthropology (Fassin 2007b; Ferguson 2006; she called “my dictionary.” She wrote, “The characters in this Foucault 2007; Lovell 2006; Ong and Collier 2005; Rabinow notebook turn and un-turn. This is my world after all.” Ca- and Rose 2006) and to neo-Marxist theories of structural tarina’s puzzling language required intense listening, bracketing violence (Bourgois 1995; Farmer 2001; Scheper-Hughes diagnostics, and an open reading. Since first encountering her, 1992). We are concerned with human matters that dominant Biehl thought of her not in terms of mental illness but as an epistemologies and interventions do not routinely concep- abandoned person who was claiming experience on her own tualize or account for. terms. Catarina knew what had made her a void in the social In emphasizing the powers and potentials of desire (both sphere—“I am like this because of life”—and she organized creative and destructive), the ways in which social fields cease- this knowledge for herself and her anthropologist, thus bringing lessly leak and transform (power and knowledge notwith- the public into Vita. “I give you what is missing.” Her ex- standing), and the in-between, plastic, and ever-unfinished family, she claimed, thought of her as a failed medication reg- nature of a life, Deleuze lends himself to inspiring ethno- imen. The family was dependent on this explanation to excuse graphic efforts to illuminate the dynamism of the everyday itself from her abandonment. In Catarina’s words, “To want and the literality and singularity of human becomings. my body as a medication, my body.” Her condition spoke of Through close attention to people moving through broken the pharmaceuticalization of mental health care in Brazil; in institutions and infrastructures in the making and with careful his ethnographic work, Biehl charts the social side effects that observation always complicating the a priori assumptions of come with the unregulated encroachment of new medical tech- universalizing theory, ethnographic work can make public the nologies in urban-poor settings. constellations through which life chances are foreclosed and Catarina’s life tells a larger story about shifting human highlight the ways desires can break open alternative path- values and the fate of social bonds in today’s dominant mode ways. For in learning to know people, with care and an “em- of subjectification at the service of science and capitalism. She pirical lantern” (Hirschman 1998:88), we have a responsibility suggests that these days, one can become a medico-scientific to think of life in terms of both limits and crossroads—where thing and an ex-human at the convenience of others. In the new intersections of technology, interpersonal relations, de- merciless interface of capitalist and scientific discourses, we sire, and imagination can sometimes, against all odds, propel are all a new kind of proletariat—hyperindividualized psy- unexpected futures. chobiologies doomed to consume diagnostics and treatments This is not to give up on explanation or the careful dis- (for ourselves and for others) as we seek fast success in econ- cernment of relations of causality and affinity in social and omies without empathy (Martin 2007). But Catarina fought medical phenomena. The question, rather, lies in our recep- the disconnections that psychiatric drugs introduced in her tivity to others, in what kinds of evidence we assemble and life—between body and spirit, between her and the people use—the voices to which we listen and the experiences we she knew, in common sense—and clung to her desires. She account for—and in how we craft our explanations: whether worked through the many layers of (mis)treatment that now our analytics remain attuned to the intricacy, openness, and composed her body, knowing all too well that “my desire is unpredictability of individual and collective lives. Just as med- of no value.” ical know-how, international political dynamics, and social Catarina wrote to sublimate not only her own desires for realities change, so too are people’s lives (biological and po- reconnection and recognition but also the social forces—fa- litical) in flux.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Art of 'Governing Nature': 'Green' Governmentality
    THE ART OF ‘GOVERNING NATURE’: ‘GREEN’ GOVERNMENTALITY AND THE MANAGEMENT OF NATURE by KRISTAN JAMES HART A thesis submitted to the Graduate Program in Environmental Studies In conformity with the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Environmental Studies Queen„s University Kingston, Ontario, Canada (September, 2011) Copyright ©Kristan James Hart, 2011 Abstract This thesis seeks to unpack the notions of Michael Foucault's late work on governmentality and what insights it might have for understanding the „governing of nature‟. In doing this it also operates as a critique of what is often termed 'resourcism', a way of evaluating nature which only accounts for its utility for human use and does not give any acceptance to the idea of protecting nature for its own sake, or any conception of a nature that cannot be managed. By utilizing a study of the govern-mentalities emerging throughout liberalism, welfare-liberalism and neoliberalism I argue that this form of 'knowing' nature-as-resource has always been internal to rationalities of liberal government, but that the bracketing out of other moral valuations to the logic of the market is a specific function of neoliberal rationalities of governing. I then seek to offer an analysis of the implications for this form of nature rationality, in that it is becoming increasingly globalized, and with that bringing more aspects of nature into metrics for government, bringing new justifications for intervening in „deficient‟ populations under the rubric of „sustainable development. I argue, that with this a new (global) environmental subject is being constructed; one that can rationally assess nature-as-resource in a cost-benefit logic of wise-use conservation.
    [Show full text]
  • The Democratic Biopolitics of Prep Schubert, Karsten
    www.ssoar.info The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP Schubert, Karsten Postprint / Postprint Sammelwerksbeitrag / collection article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Schubert, K. (2019). The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP. In H. Gerhards, & K. Braun (Eds.), Biopolitiken - Regierungen des Lebens heute (pp. 121-153). Wiesbaden: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25769-9_5 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Diese Version ist zitierbar unter / This version is citable under: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-66194-0 Schubert, Karsten. 2019. The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP. In Biopolitiken – Regierungen des Lebens heute, ed. Helene Gerhards and Kathrin Braun, 121–153. Wiesbaden: Springer Fach- medien. Final Manuscript. Published version can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25769-9_5 The Democratic Biopolitics of PrEP∗ Karsten Schubert Summary PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis) is a relatively new drug-based HIV prevention technique and an important means to lower the HIV risk of gay men who are especially vulnerable to HIV. From the perspective of biopolitics, PrEP inscribes itself in a larger trend of medicalization and the rise of pharmapower. This article reconstructs and evaluates contemporary literature on biopolitical theory as it applies to PrEP, by bringing it in a dialogue with a mapping of the political debate on PrEP.
    [Show full text]
  • Fourth Amendment--Requiring Probable Cause for Searches and Seizures Under the Plain View Doctrine Elsie Romero
    Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume 78 Article 3 Issue 4 Winter Winter 1988 Fourth Amendment--Requiring Probable Cause for Searches and Seizures under the Plain View Doctrine Elsie Romero Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminology Commons, and the Criminology and Criminal Justice Commons Recommended Citation Elsie Romero, Fourth Amendment--Requiring Probable Cause for Searches and Seizures under the Plain View Doctrine, 78 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 763 (1987-1988) This Supreme Court Review is brought to you for free and open access by Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology by an authorized editor of Northwestern University School of Law Scholarly Commons. 0091-4169/88/7804-763 THE JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL LAw & CRIMINOLOGY Vol. 78, No. 4 Copyright @ 1988 by Northwestern University, School of Law Printed in U.S.A. FOURTH AMENDMENT-REQUIRING PROBABLE CAUSE FOR SEARCHES AND SEIZURES UNDER THE PLAIN VIEW DOCTRINE Arizona v. Hicks, 107 S. Ct. 1149 (1987). I. INTRODUCTION The fourth amendment to the United States Constitution pro- tects individuals against arbitrary and unreasonable searches and seizures. 1 Fourth amendment protection has repeatedly been found to include a general requirement of a warrant based on probable cause for any search or seizure by a law enforcement agent.2 How- ever, there exist a limited number of "specifically established and
    [Show full text]
  • Neoliberalism: a Foucauldian Perspective
    IRSR INTERNATIONAL REVIEW of SOCIAL RESEARCH Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011, 109-124 International Review of Social Research Neoliberalism: a Foucauldian Perspective Călin COTOI• University of Bucharest Abstract: The contemporary investigations on power, politics, government and knowledge are profoundly influenced by Foucault’s work. Governmentality, as a specific way of seeing the connections between the formation of subjectivities and population politics, has been used extensively in anthropology as neoliberal governmentalities have been spreading after the 1990s all over the world. A return to Foucault can help to clarify some overtly ideological uses of ‘neoliberalism’ in nowadays social sciences. Keywords: governmentality, governance, ethnography, neoliberalism ‘The market is in human nature’ is the proposition that cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged; in my opinion, it is the most crucial terrain of ideological struggle in our time. Frederic Jameson There is no alternative. Margaret Thatcher Governmentality or ideology? some kind of vague and simplistic political alignment: anti-neoliberalism Neoliberalism has become – alongside on the left and pro-neoliberalism on or, sometimes, replacing ‘globalization’ the right. – one of the buzzwords in public and ddIn this article I propose a way academic discourses on the ‘form of out a narrow ideological meaning the world-as-a-whole’ (Robertson, of neoliberalism, by a close 1990). It is used to forge new academic reading of Foucault’s research on alliances and to identify new political, governmentality, of Nikolas Rose’s moral and epistemological enemies. governmentality studies and of some It works, many times, as an umbrella ethnographical case studies. concept or a badge that helps to create •email: [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • 'The Birth of Bio-Politics': Michel Foucault's Lecture at the College De France on Neo-Liberal Governmentality
    Economy and Society ISSN: 0308-5147 (Print) 1469-5766 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/reso20 'The birth of bio-politics': Michel Foucault's lecture at the Collège de France on neo-liberal governmentality Thomas Lemke To cite this article: Thomas Lemke (2001) 'The birth of bio-politics': Michel Foucault's lecture at the Collège de France on neo-liberal governmentality, Economy and Society, 30:2, 190-207 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03085140120042271 Published online: 09 Dec 2010. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 8456 View related articles Citing articles: 374 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=reso20 Download by: [University of Sussex Library] Date: 11 March 2016, At: 04:24 Economy and Society Volume 30 Number 2 May 2001: 190–207 ‘The birth of bio-politics’: Michel Foucault’s lecture at the Collège de France on neo-liberal governmentality Thomas Lemke Abstract This paper focuses on Foucault’s analysis of two forms of neo-liberalism in his lecture of 1979 at the Collège de France: German post-War liberalism and the liberalism of the Chicago School. Since the course is available only on audio-tapes at the Foucault archive in Paris, the larger part of the text presents a comprehensive reconstruction of the main line of argumentation, citing previously unpublished source material. The nal section offers a short discussion of the methodological and theoretical principles underlying the concept of governmentality and the critical political angle it provides for an analysis of contemporary neo-liberalism.
    [Show full text]
  • Powers of Freedom Reframing Political Thought
    Powers of Freedom Reframing Political Thought Nikolas Rose The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2 2RU, United Kingdom http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk 40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011–4211, USA http://www.cup.org 10 Stamford Road, Oakleigh, Melbourne 3166, Australia Nikolas Rose 1999 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge Typeset in Monotype Plantin 10/12 pt [] A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data Rose, Nikolas S. Powers of Freedom: reframing political thought / Nikolas Rose. p. cm ‘Portions of this book draw on published and unpublished papers’ – Acknowledgements. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 0 521 65075 5 (hb) ISBN 0 521 65905 1 1. Political sociology. 2. Liberty. 3. Community. 4. Foucault. Michel – Contributions in political science. I. Title. JA76.R645 1999 320′.01′1 – dc21 98–40306 CIP ISBN 0 521 65075 5 hardback ISBN 0 521 65905 1 paperback Contents Acknowledgements page ix Introduction: reframing political thought 1 1 Governing 15 2 Freedom 61 3 The social 98 4 Advanced liberalism 137 5 Community 167 6 Numbers 197 7 Control 233 Conclusion: beyond government 274 Bibliography 285 Index 307 vii 1 Governing How should one analyse political power? For much of the twentieth century in European social and political thought, answers to this ques- tion were dominated by the massive spectre of ‘the state’.
    [Show full text]
  • Reglas De Congo: Palo Monte Mayombe) a Book by Lydia Cabrera an English Translation from the Spanish
    THE KONGO RULE: THE PALO MONTE MAYOMBE WISDOM SOCIETY (REGLAS DE CONGO: PALO MONTE MAYOMBE) A BOOK BY LYDIA CABRERA AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION FROM THE SPANISH Donato Fhunsu A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Comparative Literature (Comparative Literature). Chapel Hill 2016 Approved by: Inger S. B. Brodey Todd Ramón Ochoa Marsha S. Collins Tanya L. Shields Madeline G. Levine © 2016 Donato Fhunsu ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Donato Fhunsu: The Kongo Rule: The Palo Monte Mayombe Wisdom Society (Reglas de Congo: Palo Monte Mayombe) A Book by Lydia Cabrera An English Translation from the Spanish (Under the direction of Inger S. B. Brodey and Todd Ramón Ochoa) This dissertation is a critical analysis and annotated translation, from Spanish into English, of the book Reglas de Congo: Palo Monte Mayombe, by the Cuban anthropologist, artist, and writer Lydia Cabrera (1899-1991). Cabrera’s text is a hybrid ethnographic book of religion, slave narratives (oral history), and folklore (songs, poetry) that she devoted to a group of Afro-Cubans known as “los Congos de Cuba,” descendants of the Africans who were brought to the Caribbean island of Cuba during the trans-Atlantic Ocean African slave trade from the former Kongo Kingdom, which occupied the present-day southwestern part of Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, Cabinda, and northern Angola. The Kongo Kingdom had formal contact with Christianity through the Kingdom of Portugal as early as the 1490s.
    [Show full text]
  • Foucault Studies © Stephen D’Arcy, 2004 ISSN: Pending Foucault Studies, No 1, Pp
    foucault studies © Stephen D’Arcy, 2004 ISSN: pending Foucault Studies, No 1, pp. 116-18, December 2004 REVIEW Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose (eds.) The Essential Foucault: Selections from Essential Works of Foucault, 1954- 1984 (New York: New Press, 2003). ISBN 1-56584-801-2 It is customary to periodize Foucault’s work in terms of three phases, the archaeological writings of the 1960s, the genealogical writings of the 1970s, and the ethical writings of the 1980s. Though this is simplistic, it does help to highlight some discernible discontinuities in his intellectual trajectory. A less chronological classification of Foucault’s works, , also pointing to a fundamental differentiation, is suggested by a perusal of The Essential Foucault (New Press), a new anthology of short pieces by Foucault, edited by Paul Rabinow and Nikolas Rose. In it we find a series of unmistakably philosophical interviews and occasional lectures or essays, but no excerpts from any of Foucaultʹs largely historical monographs, such as The Order of Things, Discipline and Punish, and the first volume of The History of Sexuality. The omission reminds us that Foucault the philosopher, preoccupied by questions of method and aiming to elucidate basic concepts, can be distinguished from Foucault the historian, intent on tracing the genealogy of human kinds and present‐day social practices. The Essential Foucault is a single‐volume abridgement of the three‐volume Essential Works of Foucault, 1954‐1984 (New Press), itself a partial translation of the multi‐volume Dits et Écrits (Gallimard). It would be wrong to expect from this book a kind of abbreviated summation of Foucault’s career.
    [Show full text]
  • The Book of Common Prayer
    The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church Together with The Psalter or Psalms of David According to the use of The Episcopal Church Church Publishing Incorporated, New York Certificate I certify that this edition of The Book of Common Prayer has been compared with a certified copy of the Standard Book, as the Canon directs, and that it conforms thereto. Gregory Michael Howe Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer January, 2007 Table of Contents The Ratification of the Book of Common Prayer 8 The Preface 9 Concerning the Service of the Church 13 The Calendar of the Church Year 15 The Daily Office Daily Morning Prayer: Rite One 37 Daily Evening Prayer: Rite One 61 Daily Morning Prayer: Rite Two 75 Noonday Prayer 103 Order of Worship for the Evening 108 Daily Evening Prayer: Rite Two 115 Compline 127 Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families 137 Table of Suggested Canticles 144 The Great Litany 148 The Collects: Traditional Seasons of the Year 159 Holy Days 185 Common of Saints 195 Various Occasions 199 The Collects: Contemporary Seasons of the Year 211 Holy Days 237 Common of Saints 246 Various Occasions 251 Proper Liturgies for Special Days Ash Wednesday 264 Palm Sunday 270 Maundy Thursday 274 Good Friday 276 Holy Saturday 283 The Great Vigil of Easter 285 Holy Baptism 299 The Holy Eucharist An Exhortation 316 A Penitential Order: Rite One 319 The Holy Eucharist: Rite One 323 A Penitential Order: Rite Two 351 The Holy Eucharist: Rite Two 355 Prayers of the People
    [Show full text]
  • On Miracles and Medicine: Negotiating
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Vanderbilt Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive ON MIRACLES AND MEDICINE: NEGOTIATING RELIGIOUS VALUES AT THE END OF LIFE By Trevor M. Bibler Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion December, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Larry R. Churchill, PhD Victor A. Anderson, PhD Dr. Keith Meador Elizabeth Heitman, PhD Copyright © 2014 by Trevor M. Bibler All Rights Reserved ii To my family and all the people I love. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt to all of the scholars and teachers who have helped me become the person I am today. Faculty from the University of Northern Iowa’s Department of Philosophy and World Religions showed me the importance of critical thinking and historical understanding. The faculty at Vanderbilt Divinity School showed me how to ask good questions. And members of my dissertation committee reminded me that answering questions—or, at least trying to answer questions—requires not just careful thought, but nerve as well. I am also grateful for the love and support my wife and family have given. I can tell that they love and care about me. Every day I think about them. I have also been fortunate to make a number of great friends while in Nashville. I owe them thanks too. Whatever value this dissertation has is due to these remarkable, loving, and supportive people. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.............................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Neoliberalism: a Foucauldian Perspective
    DOI: 10.1515/irsr-2011-0014 IRSR INTERNATIONAL REVIEW of SOCIAL RESEARCH Volume 1, Issue 2, June 2011, 109-124 International Review of Social Research Neoliberalism: a Foucauldian Perspective Călin COTOI• University of Bucharest Abstract: The contemporary investigations on power, politics, government and knowledge are profoundly influenced by Foucault’s work. Governmentality, as a specific way of seeing the connections between the formation of subjectivities and population politics, has been used extensively in anthropology as neoliberal governmentalities have been spreading after the 1990s all over the world. A return to Foucault can help to clarify some overtly ideological uses of ‘neoliberalism’ in nowadays social sciences. Keywords: governmentality, governance, ethnography, neoliberalism ‘The market is in human nature’ is the proposition that cannot be allowed to stand unchallenged; in my opinion, it is the most crucial terrain of ideological struggle in our time. Frederic Jameson There is no alternative. Margaret Thatcher Governmentality or ideology? some kind of vague and simplistic political alignment: anti-neoliberalism Neoliberalism has become – alongside on the left and pro-neoliberalism on or, sometimes, replacing ‘globalization’ the right. – one of the buzzwords in public and ddIn this article I propose a way academic discourses on the ‘form of out a narrow ideological meaning the world-as-a-whole’ (Robertson, of neoliberalism, by a close 1990). It is used to forge new academic reading of Foucault’s research on alliances and to identify new political, governmentality, of Nikolas Rose’s moral and epistemological enemies. governmentality studies and of some It works, many times, as an umbrella ethnographical case studies. concept or a badge that helps to create •email: [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Discursive Contestations of Governmentality in the Transparency Dispositif Sun-Ha Hong, François Allard-Huver
    Governing governments? Discursive contestations of governmentality in the transparency dispositif Sun-Ha Hong, François Allard-Huver To cite this version: Sun-Ha Hong, François Allard-Huver. Governing governments? Discursive contestations of govern- mentality in the transparency dispositif. Paul McIlvenny; Julia Zhukova Klausen; Laura Bang Linde- gaard. Studies of Discourse and Governmentality. New perspectives and methods., John Benjamins, pp.149-176, 2016, 9789027206572. 10.1075/dapsac.66.05hon. halshs-02061132 HAL Id: halshs-02061132 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02061132 Submitted on 1 Apr 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. CHAPTER 5 Governing governments? Discursive contestations of governmentality in the transparency dispositif Sun-ha Hong and François Allard-Huver University of Pennsylvania, USA and Paris Sorbonne University, France In a world of controversy and suspicion, transparency promises a ‘virtuous chain’ of informed citizens, rational deliberation and democratic participation. In contrast, this essay conceptualises transparency as a Foucauldian dispositif: a network of discourse, tactics, institutional processes and local subjectivities which articulates what kinds of actions and statements are admissible and tactically profitable. Notably, transparency discourse mobilises individual citizens to audit the state – to govern governments.
    [Show full text]