Power,Subjectivity, and Agency: Between Arendt and Foucault

The author argues for bringing the work of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt into dialogue with respect to the links between power, subjectivity, and agency.Although one might assume that Foucault and Arendt come from such radically different philosophical starting points that such a dialogue would be impossible, the author argues that there is actually a good deal of common ground to be found between these two thinkers. Moreover, the author suggests that Foucault's and Arendt's divergent views about the role that power plays in the constitution of subjectivity and agency should be seen as complementary rather than opposed.     

Aesthetic Licence: Foucault's Modernism and Kant's Post-modernism

Recently criticism and theory have maintained that Kant's aesthetic theory is central to modernism, and have used Foucault's archaeology to interrogate that modernism. This paper suggests that archaeology ultimately cannot escape Kant's hold because it depends on Kantian theses. The first section will consider how a recent exponent of an 'archaeological' viewpoint characterizes Kant's theory and will set out the critical role Kant ascribes to art. The second section compares Kant and Foucault to argue that despite appearances their projects turn out to be substantially coterminal. My interest in comparing these critics is not only to be provocative but also to show that post-modernist thinking, at least in the guise of Foucault, needs and uses standards that Kant proposes.     

Helping traumatized warriors: Mobilizing emotions,unsettling orders

Within the span of a week in late November 2013, three Canadian Forces members committed suicide. Another suicide was reported in early December. This spate of soldiers taking their own lives caused uproar among military families and suicide survivors. Our interest in these suicides is the discourses around helping traumatized warriors and veterans that seem to be circulating both in tandem and at odds with one another. We draw on Michel Foucault's ideas about discourse, truth games, and parrhēsia to unravel some of the complicated connections within the discourse of helping traumatized soldiers. Using the analytical method of audiography, we make the case for understanding these discourses as parts of authoritative narratives and echoed narratives. We pay close attention to the embeddedness of emotion in the discursive practices of help-seeking and help-offering and to the mobilization of emotion within the asymmetries in the practice of power. We close with comments about the mediated effects of military and state hierarchies in discourses of helping traumatized warriors.     

医学化的权力与经济批判——从伊里奇到福柯

权力与经济是分析当代医学化现象的两个重要维度。医学不只是一种知识和技术,同时也是一种权力规范和经济活动,伊里奇和福柯都对此展开了分析,但是两者的方式与对策有所不同。伊里奇将医学化视为一种文化异化现象,并提出了一种文化主义的消除策略,福柯则将医学化视为权力体系和经济体系的一部分,从而提出了一种基于生命政治批判的反抗策略。两者的解决方案都具有局限性,但两者所开启的权力与经济批判以及对个体自主性的强调,有助于理解当代社会医学化的复杂性,也有助于将医学化批判置于整个社会危机的哲学反思之中。

     

“Rabbi,Who Sinned?” Disability Theologies and Sin

Abstract : The historic doctrine of sin has been harmful for persons with disabilities. Disability theologies need to articulate new definitions of sin that expose ableism and exclusion as social sins, and develop models of sin that resist any association of sin with disability, physical differences, mental health, or intellectual abilities. I suggest that disability theologies consider the following models of sin: failure to accept limit, invisibilization, discourse, subject position, and subjection.     

福柯哲学应用:医患关系中的微观权力分析

福柯对医学有着较高的关注度,著作中有大量对医学伦理的深入思考和分析。他的“微观权力”理论非常适合解释现今医患关系的本质,对理解医患关系的起源和实质,以及如何解决医患关系中的种种问题,给出了极为有价值的解答。这种解答是融合了现代科学技术、医学社会学、政治经济、历史以及哲学之发展的综合观点,并从中引申出人类的现代性困境。它的解决策略不同于商谈伦理、契约论、允许原则、生命伦理学规范、德性论,甚至叙事医学。     

Subjectivity,Reflection and Freedom in Later Foucault

Abstract

This paper proposes a new reading of the interaction between subjectivity, reflection and freedom within Foucault’s later work. I begin by introducing three approaches to subjectivity, locating these in relation both to Foucault’s texts and to the recent literature. I suggest that Foucault himself operates within what I call the ‘entanglement approach’, and, as such, he faces a potentially serious challenge, a challenge forcefully articulated by Han. Using Kant’s treatment of reflection as a point of comparison, I argue that Foucault possesses the resources to meet this challenge. The key, I contend, is to distinguish two related theses about reflection and freedom: Foucault’s position is distinctive precisely because he accepts one of these theses whilst rejecting the other. I conclude by indicating how this reading might connect to the longstanding question of Foucault’s own right to appeal to normative standards.     

Social skill assessment and training for children: an evaluative review

Techniques employed in the behavioral assessment and treatment of socially deficient children are reviewed. General definitions and components of assertion and social skill in children are presented. While considerable data attest to the potential efficiency of behavioral approaches with this population, several methodological problems prevent any definitive conclusions from being drawn at this time. Some of these include: (1) lack of an accurate classification system of socially isolated children, (2) need for an empirical determination of skill components, and (3) the paucity of data concerning generalization and maintenance of treatment effects. The utility of incorporating developmental and social psychological methods into behavioral programs also is discussed. Suggestions for future directions of research are offered.     

“A Tiger Behind, and Coming up Fast”: Governmentality and the Politics of Population Control in China

China has a growing superaging population, known colloquially as a tiger behind. This phenomenon has been traditionally analyzed by conventional social science methodology as a question of resource allocation to a burgeoning elderly population. However, population policies in China have emerged as key vehicles used to legitimize and position the identities that older people adopt. They contain specific yet continually changing technologies that function to mediate relations between older people and the Chinese state. They also represent an increase in state control that can be exerted on lifestyles in family form and older age and thus, the wider social meanings associated with that part of society and lifecourse. This article briefly summarizes the empirical detail and context of superaging in China, presenting an original theoretical analysis based on a reading of the work of Michel Foucault. The interrelationship between the Chinese government and older people is identified in terms of Foucault's (1978) and Rose and Miller's (1992) concept of governmentality. The article highlights how and why older people are the subjects of the Chinese state's gaze.