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Category Archives: Foucault

Police, Governmentality and Security

Sunday, December 31, 2006

A bit from Mariana Valverde’s review essay of Foucault’s ‘Society Must be Defended’ and Securite, territoire, population lectures at the College de France from, respectively, 1975-6 and 1977-8. The latter series of lectures includes the infamous “governmentality” lecture. I wasn’t particularly impressed with Valverde’s discussion of ‘Society Must be Defended,’ so I haven’t included any [...]

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Racism and the Norm

Sunday, September 3, 2006

A final chunk from Foucault’s ‘Society Must be Defended,’ where he, perhaps unwittingly, provides the question to which the “War on Terror” is the answer – that is, how does one exit the problem created by the Cold War policy of mutually assured destruction?

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Savages, Barbarians and Society

Saturday, September 2, 2006

Another excerpt from Foucault’s ‘Society Must be Defended’ lectures.

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Foucault on Sovereignty

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

An excerpt from Foucault’s lectures at the College de France from 1975/1976 (the lectures themselves were given in the first three months of 1976) entitled ‘Society Must be Defended.’ The excerpt is drawn from the last part of the second lecture. (Page thirty-four to thirty-nine in the English edition.) As readers no doubt know, Discipline [...]

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Power and its Representations

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

What follows are some notes in what is rapidly becoming an article I’m writing about Foucault’s political theory. It originally began as an attempt to clarify my understanding of Foucault in relation to the writing of my dissertation proposal… these things have a life of their own. One is tempted to interject a Spinozist metaphor [...]

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