Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977
... According to Foucault (1980), power is a productive force, not simply repressive. Power is constituted through strategic relational processes aimed at people's behaviour using various technologies and procedures (Foucault, 1980). ...
... According to Foucault (1980), power is a productive force, not simply repressive. Power is constituted through strategic relational processes aimed at people's behaviour using various technologies and procedures (Foucault, 1980). These achievements are made through what Foucault calls technologies of governmentality -actions and technologies aimed at shaping people's emotions, values, and actions rather than using physical violence or force (e.g. ...
... Significantly, concepts often interpreted as opposites of hope can relate to agency and resistance towards oppression . However, keeping emotions separated and hierarchised is an essential method in technologies of governmentality (Foucault, 1980). Using this theoretical inspiration, it is possible to 'identify the signs of power domination imposed upon some categories of people, whose suffering and vulnerability has to be read as politically and socially produced' (Fontanari, 2018, p. 191). ...
... This method is a methodological response to new forms of technologically underpinned social organisation, empirically focusing on the technologies of government identifiable within various forms of technocratic organisation such as governments, ministries, commissions and institutions (Wahlberg, 2022). Assemblage ethnography draws on the work of Foucault (1980), Deleuze and Guattari (1987) and Latour (2005), and has proved useful in the study of China's one-child policy (Greenhalgh, 2008), EU migration apparatus (Feldman, 2011), biotechnology (Rabinow, 1996), the war on drugs (Zigon, 2015) and youth services in the UK (Youdell and McGimpsey, 2015). This method also includes an STS and ANT-inspired approach (Law and Callon, 1988;Latour, 2005;Ingold, 2016), with the theoretical framework informed by assemblage thinking (Foucault, 1978;Deleuze and Guattari, 1987). ...
... Indeed the Irish government created a Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to drive much of these endeavours, offer direction to government departments on digital best practice and liaise with EU institutions and agencies on these matters. These policies feed into the apparatus of the welfare state (Foucault, 1980), creating the PEX algorithm, encouraging apparatus-builders to continue with its recalibration, a rebranding as personalised service and an alignment to EU policy goals of digital-by-default public services. Since then, the promotion of profiling has continued through policies of the OECD, World Bank and EU, all encouraging the use of profiling as part of the digital future of government services and 'Digital PES' (Blázquez, 2014;Loxha and Morgandi, 2014;Barnes et al, 2015;OECD, 2018). ...
... The value of such an ethnographic study exposes the social life of the algorithm from emergence, to embedding, to its role in the digital organisational future of 'digital PES'. Using Foucault's concept of the dispositif, the study identifies the PEX algorithm as the state AI apparatus which shapes work practices, decision-making process and client encounters in PES (Foucault, 1980;Agamben, 2009). In exploring the PEX ecosystem evolution from 2011 to 2021 through ethnographic methods, the study further reveals the assemblage which encompasses statistical profiling systems -the assemblage plus its social life (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987). ...
... Hvidheden udtrykkes altså gennem magt-og dominansrelationer (Foucault, 1980a) relateret til diskursivt medierede forståelser af normalitet og afvigelse, som blandt andet influerer sociale steder så som børnehaver (Klarsgaard, 2024a), skoler (Kofoed, 2011;Lagermann, 2014) og videregående uddannelsesinstitutioner (Hvenegård-Lassen & Staunaes, 2021) gennem handlende og verbaliserende praksisser. Hos Foucault (1980a) skal magt ikke forstås som fikseret og ejet af enkeltpersoner eller som et faenomen, der kan føres tilbage til determinerende størrelser som for eksempel kapitalen. ...
... Hvidheden udtrykkes altså gennem magt-og dominansrelationer (Foucault, 1980a) relateret til diskursivt medierede forståelser af normalitet og afvigelse, som blandt andet influerer sociale steder så som børnehaver (Klarsgaard, 2024a), skoler (Kofoed, 2011;Lagermann, 2014) og videregående uddannelsesinstitutioner (Hvenegård-Lassen & Staunaes, 2021) gennem handlende og verbaliserende praksisser. Hos Foucault (1980a) skal magt ikke forstås som fikseret og ejet af enkeltpersoner eller som et faenomen, der kan føres tilbage til determinerende størrelser som for eksempel kapitalen. Magt er derimod en kontekstuelt foranderlig og produktiv størrelse, der "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives" (Foucault, 1980b, s. 39). ...
Denne artikel er et opråb – og et nødråb – til de af os, for hvem det hvide privilegie kan være lige så usynligt, som det kan være behageligt. Med afsæt i et kritisk etnografisk inspireret feltarbejde gennemført i to danske børnehaver, stiller artiklen skarpt på affektive responsers ’gøren’ i relation til hvid forskerpositionalitet. Artiklen viser, hvordan hvidhedens affektive ladninger er socialt cirkulerende og magtfulde i deres orienteringer af kroppe, steder og (forsker)praksisser og dermed bidrager til opretholdelsen af den (u)synlige hvide norm. Artiklen argumenterer for, hvorfor affektive responser, som for eksempel vrede og usikkerhed, er gode at tænke med, når forskningens ambition er at forstyrre diskursivt medierede forståelser af normativ hvidhed, der optræder som en situeret del af racialiseret forskerpositionalitet.
... Jag intresserar mig för hur ålder görs socialt (Castro, 2020;Morrow, 2013;Närvänen & Näsman, 2004;Thorne, 2004Thorne, , 2008. Det innebär även ett intresse för hur ålder blir normerande (Foucault 1970(Foucault /19931980) och reglerar individen i vardagen (Andersson, 2008;Butler, 1969;Castro, 2020: Moosa-Mitha, 2005. Att erkänna ålder som en konstruktion är dock inte detsamma som att bortse från dess mycket uppenbara konsekvenser för social segregering, utanförskap och stigmatisering. ...
... Enligt Foucault (1970Foucault ( /19931980) skapas subjektiviteten diskursivt. En individs ålder kan därför betraktas som relationell, relativ och situationsbestämd. ...
This thesis examines the production of intergenerational encounters and its
function in social life. The aim of this study is to produce knowledge about how
municipally arranged intergenerational interventions condition, enable and limit
intergenerational relations and education through the co-production of age, time
and space. The study was conducted in Gothenburg, Sweden, and combines two
research projects: Kulturmöten utan gränser (Cultural Encounters without Borders)
and Kulturhus Backaplan —“generationsdialog” i stadsutveckling (Cultural Centre Backaplan —‘an Intergenerational Dialogue’ in City Planning). Fieldwork was conducted
in formal educational and care institutions, as well as non-formal public urban
spaces. Both projects involved participants from different generations, aged
between three and eighty-four.
The theoretical framework of this thesis is influenced by critical theory and
social constructionism. It combines theoretical concepts that enable an analysis of
linguistic, material and embodied aspects of the ‘un/doings’ of age in relation to
time and space. The study’s methodological approach is designed based on multi-
sited ethnography and involves participant observation, conversational interviews,
analysis of policy documents and other textual material. The analysis is based on
Foucauldian discourse analysis and involves an abductive interaction between the
theoretical framework and the produced material.
The results highlight the following central problem representations that have
become prominent in the studied material: 1) the ‘un/doings’ of intergenerational
encounters in different institutional environments, 2) the ways in which
intergenerational encounters cut through different time regimes, and 3) the
normalisation and idealisation of ‘hyper-effective’ intergenerational encounters to
save time and money.
The main conclusion is that municipally arranged intergenerational encounters
are characterised by ambivalent messages in relation to social age, education, time
and space. On the one hand, there is a visionary political effort towards increased
age integration as a matter of societal survival. On the other hand, intergenerational
encounters appear as superfluous or ‘non-existent’ as they lack political
recognition, by being absent in the policy organisation of education and care, and
in ways in which their practical knowledge tends to be neglected rather than cared
for and used as a contribution to society.
... Lyotard (1979, en La condición postmoderna, afirma que el saber científico ha perdido su legitimidad como metarrelato universal, dando paso a una pluralidad de narrativas fragmentarias. En esta línea, Foucault (1980 introduce el concepto de saber/poder, señalando que todo conocimiento está imbricado en relaciones de dominación y exclusión. ...
... "No hay conocimiento sin poder, y no hay poder sin producción de saber" (Foucault, 1980. ...
Sinopsis: Este libro es una introducción integral y actualizada a la epistemología, concebido como texto de consulta para estudiantes y docentes universitarios. A lo largo de seis capítulos, expone de forma clara y reflexiva las principales corrientes, problemas y enfoques que han dado forma al estudio del conocimiento, desde los clásicos como Platón, Aristóteles, Descartes y Kant, hasta autores contemporáneos como Foucault, Harding, Haraway, Popper, Kuhn y Feyerabend. Cada capítulo ha sido cuidadosamente elaborado con referencias actuales, abordando temas como la epistemología crítica, feminista, decolonial y algorítmica, lo que permite comprender cómo influyen el lenguaje, el poder, la tecnología y los contextos culturales en la producción del saber. Con un lenguaje accesible y rigor académico, este libro no solo explica teorías, sino que invita al lector a cuestionar las bases del conocimiento, sus límites y sus implicancias sociales. Es, por tanto, una obra útil tanto para cursos universitarios de filosofía, ciencias sociales y educación, como para cualquier lector interesado en pensar críticamente sobre cómo construimos lo que llamamos “verdad”.
... Ahora bien, los resultados permiten ver que este intento de regulación de las identidades sobre el estado y los y las jóvenes se produce en el marco de un complejo dispositivo. En la perspectiva de Foucault (1980) este opera como sinónimo de apparatus y hace referencia al sistema de relaciones establecido entre los elementos que, respondiendo a las necesidades urgentes de un momento histórico particular, configuran un conjunto heterogéneo constituido por: discursos, instituciones, formas arquitectónicas, decisiones regulatorias, leyes, medidas administrativas, enunciaciones científicas, proposiciones filosóficas, morales y filantrópicas… (p. 194). ...
... Aceptar este principio, implica no asumir lo que Foucault (1980) considera una primaria y masiva condición de dominación, una estructura binaria donde por un lado hay "dominadores" y por otro "dominados"; lo que él sugiere es la existencia multiforme de relaciones de dominación susceptibles de ser integradas dentro de otras estrategias. (p.142). ...
En el marco de un proyecto de investigación doctoral que problematiza los procesos políticos de configuración del estado y la participación de los y las jóvenes en ellos, el artículo presenta la síntesis de los resultados de un estudio piloto cuyo objetivo fue explorar los significados atribuidos a las nociones de ciudadanía juvenil, juventud y estado en los discursos del Banco Mundial sobre el tema. Empleando como metodología algunas modalidades de Análisis Crítico del Discurso, los resultados muestran las estrategias argumentativas a través de las cuales la ciudadanía juvenil opera, dentro de un complejo dispositivo de las economías políticas, como un instrumento de gobierno sobre las identidades políticas de los jóvenes, y sobre los significados del estado y de la juventud.
... The next chapter explores the subject as assemblage in business incubation. (Foucault 1977(Foucault [1975(Foucault ], 1980: 'the subject does not simply interact with power, but is in fact an effect of power' (Park 2021b: 8). This ties in with our second point on the Deleuzian concept of the 'fold'that is, processes by which the subject not only passively internalises but actively selects and re-arranges the power relations in entanglement (Deleuze 1991(Deleuze [1953(Deleuze ], 2006(Deleuze [1986). ...
If language policy produces space – from nations to workplaces – is this simply a process ‘from pen to land’? Is language policy strictly an institutional practice? Additionally, is language policy solely a matter of ‘language(s)’?
Taking an ecological perspective, the thesis develops a spatial approach to language policy. It argues that language is regulated not primarily in institutional planning (policy texts and defined managers). Rather, regulation is formed in the entanglement of political, cultural, economic, social and natural processes circulating in the sociolinguistic ecology. The thesis proposes a spatial ontology of language policy through the notion of spatialisation (the formation and de-formation of territories) and the Deleuzo-Guattarian concepts of rhizome (the open flow of semiotic processes) and assemblage (the shifting territories created in the entangling semiotic processes).
Guided by ethnographic and discourse analytic approaches, the thesis examines the case of business incubation (the industry nurturing early-stage companies) in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) in South China. The region is of interest for its timeliness (as one of the most recent initiatives of regionalisation in a leading economy) and sociolinguistic (especially intra-lingual) diversity. The focus on business incubation practices offers insight into a scarcely studied domain. It complements the primary focus on multi-national corporations in the established literature by presenting the sociolinguistic environment from which start-up and early-stage businesses are grown. The case taps into the potential future of business language policy and practices in the changing political and economic orders within the region and beyond.
The study brings two implications. First, language policy functions as spatial assemblage in producing territorial spaces that are enclosing but remain radically open with the ecological flows. This sheds light on indeterminacy functioning on the ontological level beneath practical uncertainties in the regulation of language. Second, language is regulated in interactions between material practices and discursive ideologies bound by affective relations. The thesis shows that institutional interventions are themselves regulative effects emerging from broader ecological processes, offering a more holistic approach to understanding the regulation of language.
... En outre, comme nous l'avons montré plus haut, il est inutile de nier le rôle politique du marketing et, par extension, notre rôle de chercheur et d'enseignant. Souvent personnellement touchés par l'éco-anxiété et conscients des défis auxquels nous sommes confrontés, nous serons probablement de plus en plus contraints de nous éloigner de la neutralité scientifique imposée de manière fallacieuse au nom de la rigueur, reconnaissant ainsi que la connaissance n'est jamais neutre (Foucault, 1980 ;Latour, 2010). Nous pensons que, au lieu de limiter les implications de notre recherche à leur valeur managériale, il est vital de considérer ses conséquences environnementales, sociales et politiques de manière cohérente. ...
By focusing on the capacity of marketing to contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss, and strains on natural resources, this article addresses a fundamental concern. Despite the urgency and significance of these issues, the discipline, indeed, lags in recognizing that human activities have geological-scale consequences, to the extent that a new era, the Anthropocene, is being evoked. This reluctance can be attributed, at least in part, to the implicit assumptions of sustainable marketing, which tend to downplay the extent of the crisis and the necessary paradigm shifts. Hence, dominant approaches in “sustainable marketing” struggle to challenge the fundamental principles and ideological foundations of the market system. That is why we are advocating for radical changes in marketing research to envision a truly sustainable future. We put forth five research proposals with the aim of instigating profound transformations in the field.
... Indeed, following Innerarity (2012, 79-80), I understand "controlling [researchers'] temporal resources" and "the regulation of rhythms, duration, speed, sequencing, and the synchronization of events and activities" as expressions of power. This is much in line with Michel Foucault (1980), who underlines that it is both less interesting and less important to pose who and what questions than it is to focus on how power is exercised; in this case, power is exercised through time. Foucault invites us to study the "infinitesimal mechanisms, which each have their own history, their own trajectory, their own techniques and tactics" to get to the "ultimate destinations"; from there, we can study the moments and places where power, as Foucault describes, "invests itself in institutions, becomes embodied in techniques, and equips itself with instruments" (ibid., 96). ...
This chapter opens by examining the dominant linearities in academia—powerful imaginaries that guide and shape scholarly action. While offering a critical lens, it also recognizes the coherence, purpose, and logic inherent in each linear pathway, reflecting visions of progress, achievement, and value creation shaped by specific contexts and temporal conditions. To deepen understanding of the evolving temporalities of academic research, the chapter introduces two key concepts: timescapes and temporal regimes. Drawing on Barbara Adam’s work, timescapes illuminate the multiple, interwoven forms of time that characterize academic work. Meanwhile, temporal regimes conceptualize time as an exercise of power, revealing the institutional actors and contested dynamics that shape the temporal structures imposed on academia.
... Discourse becomes one of the media that perpetuates power. There are several meanings of discourse, according to Foucault (1972). First, discourse is a general domain of all statements. ...
This study applies Michel Foucault's power relation and Gayatri C. Spivak's subaltern theory to analyze the power dynamics and representation of subaltern voices in the 2019 Indian movie Dream Girl. The movie, directed by Raaj Shaandilyaa, depicts the complex power structures connected to gender and class in Indian culture. It follows Karamveer Singh, who adopts a female persona to work as a phone entertainer. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method to examine significant scenes and discussions, with the goal of determining how Karamveer's gender performance both challenges and intersects with subaltern concerns. The study evaluates how the movie portrays marginalized voices and identities by drawing on Spivak's definition of the subaltern and Foucault's theory of power as pervasive and interconnected. The results demonstrate that the Dream Girl movie highlights the challenges subaltern groups have in reclaiming agency within these power structures while also criticizing the rigidity of gender binaries. The movie illustrates how dominant cultural narratives filter and, in some situations, quiet marginalized voices and how power can be both repressive and constructive. This study contributes to the discussion of how popular movies can serve as platforms for marginalized voices to be represented and a site of resistance.
... While we recognize the numerous theoretical frameworks and descriptions of power in the broad literature [6][7][8][9][10], in this paper we lean on the idea of members of an IKT research team, or the environments in which they operate, as having power to, power over or power with each other [11]. Our contemporary understanding of power has evolved significantly since political theorist Robert Dahl's [12] definition, which described power as the ability of one person to compel another to act against their usual inclinations. ...
Introduction
Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) is a knowledge translation framework that focuses collaboration between researchers and knowledge users (KUs) to generate research findings. KUs can be policymakers, clinicians, or those with lived experience who partner with researchers. While advocated as an approach that democratizes research and reduces power imbalance between researchers and KUs, it is not known if the implementation of IKT by health researchers actively addresses power imbalances. The aim of this study was to review research using an integrated knowledge translation approach to explore how power is addressed within these research studies. By looking broadly at how the studies addressed/described/discussed/dismantled power we explored examples of when this was done well and not so well, exposing the assumptions sometimes made by researchers.
Methods
We drew from systematic review procedures combined with a modified critical discourse analysis (CDA) lens. We searched Medline, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, Social Science Database, SocIndex and Google Scholar for English language studies that focused on IKT and power. Data were extracted on study characteristics and a modified CDA which included questions in relation to power (e.g., description of power, phrases used to describe power, evidence of power dynamics, strategies for addressing power imbalances) and end user engagement (e.g., Did they ask KUs how they wanted to be involved? Did they engage in reflection with KUs? Did they discuss dissemination strategies with KUs).
Results
Eleven studies were eligible after screening 381 titles and reviewing 40 full-text studies. The use of IKT to address power varied significantly, revealing both positive examples as well as some missed opportunities to address power imbalances from study inception to dissemination.
Conclusion
Revisiting the use of IKT to examine how power is defined, shared, and managed in relationships with KUs could provide valuable insights. Using a CDA framework to explore these dynamics would indeed address the nuances of power in research contexts. Future research should focus on developing strategies to effectively implement IKT to address power imbalances, leading to research that has a better chance of being useful, usable and used in practice.
... Jacques Derrida (1976) mengemukakan bahwa dekonstruksi bukanlah upaya untuk meruntuhkan atau menghancurkan pengetahuan, melainkan untuk menggoyahkan batas-batas dan struktur biner yang mendefinisikan konsep-konsep dasar, seperti subjek-objek, benar-salah, dan faktaopini. Dalam epistemologi, dekonstruksi mengungkap bahwa pengetahuan tidaklah netral; akan tetapi dibentuk oleh berbagai kepentingan, perspektif, serta relasi kekuasaan (Foucault, 1980). Pendekatan ini membantu untuk melihat bahwa setiap klaim kebenaran dan pengetahuan tak lepas dari konteks sosial, budaya, dan politik yang melingkupinya. ...
Perkembangan akuntansi modern masih dominan menggunakan pendekatan metodologis yang kaku dan kurang fleksibel dalam merespons dinamika sosial dan ekonomi yang kompleks. Penelitian ini mengeksplorasi pemikiran Paul Feyerabend, terutama pendekatan "anti-metode" dan pluralisme metodologis, untuk mendorong akuntansi yang lebih adaptif dan kontekstual. Melalui kajian literatur dan analisis konsep, penelitian ini mengungkap bahwa penerapan pluralisme metodologis memungkinkan akuntansi untuk tidak hanya mengintegrasikan isu keberlanjutan dan tanggung jawab sosial, tetapi juga nilai-nilai ekonomi Islam, yang menekankan keseimbangan, keadilan, dan dimensi spiritual. Temuan ini menegaskan bahwa prinsip-prinsip Feyerabend berpotensi memperkaya teori dan praktik akuntansi, menjadikannya lebih inklusif dan relevan dalam merespons tantangan global saat ini.
... O conceito de comunidade de práticas se fundamenta a partir da Sociologia e Teoria Social (Lave, 1988;Bourdieu, 1977;Giddens, 1984;Foucault, 1980;Vygotsky, 1978) e tenta explicar o caráter social da aprendizagem humana. O termo foi trabalhado por Wenger (2010) e envolve, essencialmente, a aprendizagem das relações sociais com base na inserção das pessoas em comunidades, embora tenha interação com a perspectiva de tradição de sistemas (Wenger, 2010). ...
Apresenta as bibliotecas públicas como instituições sociais, culturais e de memória que enfrentam desafios como a desconexão entre as dimensões teórica e prática e a falta de aderência e ressonância social. Com vistas na desconexão teórico-prática, apresenta como estratégia de fortalecimento desses espaços, visando contribuir para diminuição do distanciamento entre essas instituições e a comunidade, uma proposta teórico-metodológica de alinhamento do conceitos de práticas informacionais com o método comunidade de práticas, aplicável ao ambiente das bibliotecas públicas. Para tanto, utiliza-se de textos de autores seminais para apresentar os fundamentos teóricos das práticas informacionais e das comunidades de práticas. Como resultado, apresenta um modelo teórico-metodológico que combina o método da triangulação (teoria, prática e contexto sócio-histórico) com as dimensões da comunidade de práticas (domínio, comunidade e prática), ambos permeados pelas práticas informacionais as quais se constituem e são propagadas ou contestadas em interações sociais durante ações informacionais rotineiras e formais nesses espaços. Conclui que há potencialidades na adoção das comunidades de prática como método para desvelar as práticas informacionais nas bibliotecas públicas.
... [9,12] Rather than relying on Foucault's analysis of power, which primarily situates power as dispersed and not inherently linked to gender, feminist theorists argue that power in healthcare is deeply gendered and has specific implications for nursing practice. [19] Postmodern feminism, in particular, is useful in criticizing the existing power structures in healthcare that often marginalize the voices of nurses. Feminist theorists such as Dorothy Smith and Patricia Hill Collins emphasize the importance of standpoint epistemology, which argues that 5 of 10 knowledge is situated and that the perspectives of marginalized groups, including women and nurses, provide valuable insights that are often overlooked by those in positions of power. ...
Background: Breast cancer remains the most common cancer among women in Qatar, with a high mortality rate partly attributed to low participation in breast cancer screening (BCS). Nursing practice in Qatar operates within hierarchical healthcare structures that often marginalize nurses' knowledge and limit their autonomy, impacting their ability to contribute to breast health promotion.Aim: To explore how postmodern feminist perspectives can address the marginalization of nurses' knowledge and contributions within breast screening practices in Qatar.Methods: A philosophical inquiry using postmodern feminist analysis was conducted, drawing on a case study of breast screening practices in Qatar. The study compared two paradigmatic perspectives: logical positivism and postmodern feminism.Results: The findings highlight systemic barriers limiting nurses' roles in breast health education and advocacy. Logical positivism, with its emphasis on measurable outcomes, reinforces hierarchical power structures, while postmodern feminism advocates for inclusive, context-sensitive approaches to nursing practice. This analysis demonstrates how empowering nurses through a postmodern feminist framework can enhance their contributions to patient care and health promotion.Conclusions: Adopting a postmodern feminist perspective enables a reevaluation of nursing practice, emphasizing the value of nurses' knowledge and advocating for collaborative healthcare models. These findings suggest the need for policy changes to support nurses' autonomy and expand their roles in breast health promotion, particularly in culturally sensitive contexts like Qatar.Implications for Profession and/or Patient CareEmpowering nurses in Qatar could improve participation in breast screening by fostering trust and enhancing patient education. This shift would enable nurses to engage more actively in health promotion and patient advocacy.
The core focus of the study of Patristics (generally also called Patrology) has been the teachings and practices of the so-called Fathers and Mothers of the early Christian Church (or the leading exponents of the Christian Faith, primarily from after the times of Jesus of Nazareth and the writings of the New Testament to the so-called Early Middle Ages (or the emergence of Islam) (e [...]
Bonnie Honig, in Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics (1993), criticizes John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas for abstracting politics from real practices, prioritizing normative principles and ignoring the role of dissent. For Honig, democratic vitality lies in conflict and contestation, not in rational consensus. She defends politics as a space of innovation, where new forms of life and organization emerge from struggle. In works such as Antigone, Interrupted (2013) and Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair (2017), she explores how conflicts and public things uphold democracy. In Declarations of Independence (1991), she argues that political foundations are always acts of creation and struggle. Honig criticizes Rawls for abstracting politics from concrete realities and Habermas for seeking consensus that erases conflict. In A Feminist Theory of Refusal (2021), she proposes feminist resistance practices as examples of agonistic politics, capable of challenging oppressive structures and producing transformation. Her approach combines theoretical analysis with empirical examples, arguing that political theory must recognize politics as a field of ongoing dispute and value a plurality of voices. The revitalization of public things, for Honig, is fundamental to democratic agonism, as it provides spaces where different interests can be expressed and heard, strengthening democratic resilience against forces that seek to homogenize or silence public debate.
The PhD journey can be arduous, especially for those who follow a less traditional path. For marginalised subjects, such as mature aged women pursuing topics of social and political importance in higher degree research, the journey can carry additional challenges. The non-linear path can be akin to entering Alice’s rabbit hole; disorienting, unnerving, and full of unanticipated challenges and joys. Continuation in and completion of the PhD rely on diverse forms of capital—economic, psychological, social—but also entail a personal weighting exercise; is the value worth the effort? In this chapter I explore my own motivations for enrolling and continuing in the degree, the challenges that placed pressure on my journey, and the variables that upon ‘weighting’ carried me through to completion. Drawing on feminist theorisations of Foucault, I speak especially to the role of my PhD in shaping a changed social justice subjectivity for me, and how this became the benefit and value of the process, over and above the formal degree.
This study introduces a novel framework for understanding refugee agency, focusing on the experiences of refugee women in three distinct stages and contexts: in countries of asylum, during forced migration, and in asylum. The research, based on 24 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with refugee women from the Middle East and Africa residing in Portugal, challenges traditional views that emphasize refugees’ efforts to change their circumstances. Instead, it proposes conceptualizing refugee women’s agency as twofold: as emancipatory resistance against oppressive structures and as resilience, an adaptive ability to navigate these constraints. The aim of this study is to provide a deeper understanding of how refugee women actively confront and challenge oppressive structures, advocating for an emancipatory approach that transcends conventional analyses. At the same time, it highlights the resourcefulness and creative strategies employed by these women to adapt and survive within these structures, thus redefining resilience. Key findings from the interviews reveal that refugee women employ various forms of resistance to oppressive conditions while simultaneously demonstrating remarkable resilience through adaptive strategies. This dual perspective enriches academic discourse by offering a more comprehensive understanding of refugee agency. Furthermore, it provides practical insights for policymakers and humanitarian practitioners, helping them to better support and empower refugee women in their daily lives.
Digital technologies and databases have repeatedly been associated with grand infrastructural promises in the European Union (EU)'s so-called management of borders and migration. Interoperability, i.e., the capacity to process traveler data across multiple databases, has been widely promoted as the latest and most transformative infrastructural innovation in this context. Yet, the contentious claims, voices of dissent, and opposing views regarding the remaking of this border infrastructure have often been neglected by scholarship on digital borders and interoperability. This article explores how the interoperable data infrastructure of borders has emerged as a point of contestation. It introduces the concept of terrains of technopolitical contestation to examine how multiple claims about interoperability have been articulated and contained. Drawing on interviews and the analysis of online and offline documents, the article identifies three key terrains that have shaped the nature and scope of contentious claims: the parliamentary, consultative, and civil society terrains. The article argues that each of these terrains characterizes the boundaries between the political and technological dimensions of interoperability, producing distinct forms of contestation. This boundary-making process is crucial not only for shaping how claims and issues can be framed but also for limiting the space of critique and critical interventions in the current technopolitics of the EU border regime.
I denne artikel undersøges skolefra- vær og tidlig skoleafbrydelse fra et perspektiv af levet ungdomsliv. Et sådant perspektiv – der ofte ikke inddrages – hjælper os til at begribe komplekse sociale mekanismer og dynamikker, der ellers forbliver usynlige. Artiklens empiriske materiale er indsamlet over en periode på halvandet år med seks elever i alderen 10-22 år, og inkluderer således levede skoleerfaringer gjort i hhv. mellemtrin, udskoling og gymnasiet. Argumentet er i hovedtræk, at hvis vi for alvor ønsker, at flere unge mennesker, skal vælge skolen til, er vi nødt til at lytte til dem, der finder skolen mindst overbevisende. Dominerende diskurser har en tendens til at individualisere fænomener som skolefravær og tidlig skoleafbrydelse. Herved overses betydningen af de strukturer, ideologier og særligt praksis- ser i skolen, der (mere eller mindre systema- tisk) udelukker dem fra at deltage i skolen. For at udfordre disse individualiserende diskurser introduceres som en del af artiklens analyser Butlers begreb om “viable lives” (2004) samt Deleuze og Guattaris (1987/2005) begreber om “striated/smooth” (muligheds)rum. Jeg fremhæver, hvordan dét at lytte til elevers fortællinger om deres hverdagsskoleliv gør det muligt at undersøge underliggende processer af mobning, eksklusion og diskrimination; processer, der gør skolefravær og/eller tidlig skoleafbrydelse til et spørgsmål om pushout snarere end dropout En stor tak til professor Dorte Marie Søndergaard for medlæsning og diskussion under udarbejdelsen af denne artikel
One feature of contemporary writings on Japan is the framing of a ‘false’ homogeneous Japan ‘myth’ against the ‘reality’ of a mixed or multicultural Japan. One problem with this approach is that it ignores the fact that these positions represent (largely) indigenous discourses which, at different points in Japan's history, have had – and, in the case of the former in particular, continue to have – a key role in structuring both national identity and social reality for many Japanese. This paper uses the notion of discourse, together with associated theories such as invented tradition, imagined communities, and the social stock of knowledge, to re-evaluate the myth vs. reality binary. A number of concrete examples are presented – both historical and contemporary – to illustrate how those discourses which resonate with popular lived experience can successfully take root in the popular psyche and become part of the Japanese world-view. The argument is that rather than dismissing such popular assumptions, perceptions, and beliefs as ‘illusory’, it would be more useful to closely examine their role in constructing and maintaining social reality and public policy in Japan.
While sociological discourses have long engaged with societal transformation, recent decolonial critiques have challenged traditional approaches. The emergence of Indigenous Universities in Latin America offers a new perspective on autonomous and alternative knowledge production that challenges Western discourses of epistemic decolonisation. This MA-thesis shows how the Universidad Autónoma Comunal de Oaxaca (UACO) and Universidad Campesina Indígena en Red (UCIRED) as Indigenous Universities reframe sociological knowledge production by grounding it in the lived experiences of Indigenous anticolonial resistance, while similarly informing the Sociology of Societal Transformation. The thesis first examines the historical perspective of the Sociology of Societal Transformation within the German-speaking discourse and then moves on to the Sociological Imagination and Public Sociology as key concepts of the discourse. It provides an overview of the Sociological Imagination, focusing on its central pillars, normative foundations, epistemic strategies for societal transformation, and history reception. Then, it analyses the Public Sociology, its constitutive dimensions, epistemic structure, conceptualisation of societal transformation and reception. The first part closes with a comparative analysis of both concepts, subsequently identifying how they produce monocultures of knowledge as well as their potential for a new, critical conception of the Sociology of Societal Transformation. Secondly, it argues for epistemic oppression as a connecting dot between the epistemic privileges of the aforementioned concepts and the challenges from which Indigenous Universities part their journey to autonomous knowledge production. It introduces the Zone of Non-Being, Epistemicides, and Internal Colonialism to account for the historical and current divisions within the geopolitics of academic knowledge and grasp the impact of the long-lasting effects of colonialism on knowledge production. It then applies this heuristic to identify different orders of epistemic oppression within the sociological knowledge production, thereby revealing how the suppression of Indigenous knowledge has been foundational to global knowledge hierarchies that shape sociological thought. Thirdly, it examines two different Indigenous Universities and their anticolonial praxis of academic knowledge production. Beginning with a general overview on the subject, it then traces the dual history of Indigenous education policies in Mexico as strategies to ‘civilize’ Indigenous populations and a nation-state tool for modernization to demonstrate that these efforts are connected to broader processes of racialisation, colonisation, and patriarchisation. However, it maintains that these processes were essential for the emergence of Indigenous Universities. Next, drawing on ethnographic methods, it examines the UACO and UCIRED as case studies on Indigenous Universities. It argues for the UACO as Indigenous University that disrupts hegemonic academic practices. Centring on Indigenous discourses of Comunalidad (Communality) through their horizontal organizational structures, communal learning, and research grounded in local fights for Indigenous rights, they offer a new vision of academic knowledge production grounded in Indigenous cosmologies. Additionally, it proposes that the UCIRED represents an ephemeral university based on the pedagogy of liberation, learning communities, the production of Artilugios as situational knowledge artefacts and their aim to form agents of radical social change. It then compares both approaches, recurring to the notion of epistemic oppression, the conceptualisation of alternative knowledge production and societal transformation. Fourthly, the thesis concludes with, on the one hand, an argument for indigenous universities as deprofessionalised public sociology that centres autonomous and anticolonial knowledge production. On the other hand, it discusses the implication of this concept for professionalised sociology. It highlights the necessity of ethics of not knowing in professionalised sociological discourses and emphasises that acknowledging the practices of anticolonial movements as theories in their own right is crucial to engage meaningfully with historically absent and invisible forms of knowledge. Lastly, it maintains that by engaging in a systematic dialogue through pluritopic hermeneutics with Indigenous Universities, the discipline can contribute to new forms of thinking and imagining sociological and academic knowledge production, and societal transformation through an anticolonial and critical lens.
This conceptual paper seeks to identify resonances between the theorising of Vygotsky and Foucault that can explain how events which may not be perceived to be exclusionary by educators may contribute to school exclusion or the self-exclusion of students through home education. We explore the subjective conditions of actions that deviate from the normative standards enshrined in school behaviour policies, drawing on Vygotsky’s concept of perezhivanie which, following Chisholm, we situate in an ars pathetica derived from Foucault. The small things of our title refers to incidents, interactions or micro-practices that may be perceived as insignificant by educators but which, nevertheless, have a variable and potentially profound effect on the subjective configurations or imaginings and future actions of students, while the bigger picture describes an educational landscape characterised by high rates of formal school exclusion and growing numbers of home-educated young people where, neither are in their best interests, some demographics are disproportionately represented, and both undermine claims around inclusivity. The concepts explored have relevance internationally as suggested by reports on exclusionary practices globally by transnational organisations. We argue that Vygotskian concepts can explain varied reactions to disciplinary regimes, while Foucauldian theorising introduces a reading of reactions as resistance.
À partir da proposta teórica relativa ao processo de repensar a contem poraneidade africana, no presente ensaio, propõe-se uma análise comparativa dos romances Crónica de Rua 513.2 do moçambicano João Paulo Borges Coelho e Dis grace do sul-africano J.M.Coetzee, cujo enredo decorre durante os tempos de tran sição política dos dois países (independência de Moçambique e o fim de apartheid na África do Sul). A análise foca as formas discursivas de questionamento do po der político que se inscrevem nos projetos da escrita ética presentes na obra dos autores.
The Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE) is a Canadian women’s auxiliary founded in 1900 that aligned with British colonial values. This study explores colonial and post-colonial discourses within the IODE to understand how these dynamic ideologies produced power effects that influenced the Calgary IODE’s child and family public health work. Calgary IODE colonial discourse between 1930 and 1970 reveals that public health resources used to sustain the English-Canadian population were employed as assimilation tools for non-English speaking immigrants and the Indigenous. However, texts produced after 1970 show a shift in ideological positions, which is apparent in the Calgary IODE post-colonial discourse of its texts between the 1970s and the early 2000s, and the shift from family to community public health. This research is on the impact of historical, social conditions and can be expanded to help mitigate systemic practices, improving health outcomes for all Canadians.
Background
The number of children being taken into care is increasing year-on-year around the world, with particular concern about mothers who experience repeat infant removal. These mothers have often experienced multiple disadvantages, which are compounded by the trauma of child removal. There is an urgent need to understand how to interrupt these cycles of disadvantage, trauma and child removal.
Objective
To identify and explain the perceived influence of contextual factors and mechanisms of an intensive, relationship-based intervention upon: i) the mental health and wellbeing of mothers at risk of repeat care proceedings; ii) and the care outcomes of their infants.
Participants and setting
The study was conducted in the North East of England. Participants of the were 159 mother-infant dyads (n=79 intervention and n=80 received usual care). Additionally, we recruited a total of 39 realist interview participants (n=10 referring practitioners; n=11; Startwell practitioners; n=17 mothers and n=1 partner).
Methods
This mixed-method study employed a realist approach to service evaluation, using quasi-experimental and qualitative methods.
Results
In iterative consultation with stakeholders, we developed three programme theories relating to: i) supporting the mother to safeguard the child; ii) safely challenging behaviour and beliefs; iii) grief and loss.
Conclusion
We found that in the context of surveillance wherein mothers with longstanding negative and adversarial experiences of services, a mother-centred and empathic approach is likely to lead to more accurate and decisive assessment, increase reunification and support mothers to grieve following infant removal.
Rape Culture in the House of David: A Company of Men describes a biblical rape culture sustained and maintained by Yhwh and a host of men―from royal kings and princes to their relatives, counselors, generals, and servants.
This volume reveals that sexual violence in the house of David is not simply perpetrated by its most powerful men. Rather, in the pursuit of power, status, authority, and honor, men form alliances and networks that support the use and abuse of women’s bodies and valorize sexualized violence against other men. The man who is most capable of sexual violence is Israel’s ideal king.
As its name suggests, the Gauguin Cultural Centre of Atuona, Hiva Oa features art by the famous French painter who died and is buried nearby. But recent plans to renovate this space reflect a shift in how the local Indigenous community understands its past and its future. In 2022 the Hiva Oa government launched a collaboration with two European museums that plan to return some 60 local objects in a long-term loan, hoping to exhibit them in a newly renovated Marquesan Cultural Centre dedicated to Indigenous heritage. Anchored in the current trend to engage with source communities and safeguard living and intangible heritage, this initiative illustrates how the process of reclaiming heritage can challenge Indigenous communities to define themselves, their past and their future in new ways. For the Marquesans, who call themselves Ènata, decolonizing their heritage requires a delicate dance between reconnecting with the ancestors and preserving artefacts. Pressured into a preservation paradox, they are seeking to simultaneously satisfy Western standards of museum curation and te tumu, an ancestral source of being based in a fundamentally non-Western relationship to cultural objects. In so doing, they chart not only the future of this tiny museum, but also Ènata.
Keywords: decolonization; heritage; museums; repatriation; Indigenous; Polynesia
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force that
redefines learners’ perception, acquisition, and engagement with
language, literature, and education. As the use of the AI accelerates, it
will continue to challenge conventional pedagogies, literary
interpretation, and even the very nature of human creativity. This
edited volume, Creative Disruption: Impact of AI on English Language and
Literature Studies, brings the diverse academic perspectives that critically
investigates AI’s role in reshaping the teaching and learning of English
language and literature.
The volume explores the relationship between AI and human
creativity, probing its profound impact on language acquisition,
literature pedagogy, translation, and cultural interpretation. The
contributors investigate AI’s effect on re-learning human relationships,
challenges and opportunities in translating poetry and prose, and its
implications. It analyses the presence of AI in classrooms, its role in
augmenting or diminishing creative writing, and its function as both a
disruptive and enabling force in language and literary studies in
English.
Educators, researchers, and literary scholars navigate this rapidly
evolving digital era; the chapters in this volume provide quaint insights
into the ethical, philosophical, and practical dimensions of AI in
language and literature studies. It extends to the interplay of AI with
poetry, storytelling, and authorship, questioning whether AI will serve
as a collaborative tool or an existential challenge to human ingenuity.
With topics ranging from AI-powered translation and conversational
AI to meta-modernism and digital authorship, this volume presents a
nuanced exploration of the promises as well as perils of AI in English
language and literature studies.
Creative Disruption aims at provoking a critical and constructive dialogue
on the ‘future or fate’ of English studies in the age of artificial
intelligence. The questions are whether AI empowers human skills or
thwarts it? Will it be instrumental in enhancing linguistic and literary comprehension, or does it affect the human faculty reasoning and
intellect? This volume addresses these pressing questions and serves as
an academic resource for educators, researchers, learners, and literary
enthusiasts. It offers a comprehensive overview of both the
opportunities and challenges AI presents in language learning and
literary scholarship.
https://amzn.in/d/a35eapH
We examine the integration of critical paradigms into institutional theory to address racial inequities, particularly anti-Black racism. Amid a growing literature calling for explicit recognition of systemic racism, we explore the integration (and lack thereof) of a critical orientation within institutional theory. Through a poststructuralist paradigm, we propose a critical institutionalism framework, integrating Foucauldian poststructuralism, to provide clearer conceptual distinctions and uncover the genealogical roots of white supremacy within structural regimes. We emphasize the necessity of understanding institutional behavior and structures in the context of their historical and ongoing evolution as part of a white supremacist project. Through this Perspectives Essay , we intend to spark meaningful conversations in sport management in regard to how we study and theorize organizational behavior and racial power dynamics. We extend our analyses beyond explicit instances of racism to, instead, study the mundane, everyday, and taken-for-granted structures perpetuating racial inequities.
This chapter considers the alternative provision sector in England. Many young people who have been legally excluded from mainstream education are placed in such settings and schools also purchase remedial short-term packages for students considered at high risk of exclusion. It explores how practices within alternative provision settings are being shaped by the wider processes associated with the neoliberalisation of education, with particular attention to assessment, to the detriment of staff and students. A tension between recent policy directives and adopted assessment practices in this sector is highlighted, demonstrating the far-reaching impact of these wider trends. Concepts drawn from Foucauldian theorising are mobilised to posit the ascendency of neoliberal performative pressures and consequent invisibilisation of the historical core mission of alternative provision.
This chapter examines the conceptualisation of transnationalism in migration studies, focusing on (1) meta-analytic frames, (2) underlying political implications, and (3) the interplay of analysis and politics, termed ‘anapolitics.’ It shows how anapolitics operates using a critique of the conceptualisation by Portes et al. (1999) of transnationalism. It argues that scholars’ lack of awareness of anapolitics could lead to analytic confusion and make them unwitting accomplices in marginalising people they expressly wish to empower. It concludes with the ethical implications for scholarly practice.
The chapter provides a critical examination of key assertions clinical psychology makes about itself in terms of science, therapy and social context. Whilst clinical psychology has the potential to be critically orientated, pursuit of professional interest causes tensions that undermine this. In exploring the potential for a critical positioned clinical psychology, consideration is given to social constructionism and social-materialism as alternatives to mainstream individualistic models. The chapter outlines examples of critical clinical psychology at various levels: within individual work; via opening up space for dissension within organisations; by facilitating group work; and through the support of community projects, social action and involvement in politics.
This article explores the potential of employing a spatial approach in the study of the Ural city during the twentieth century. The established tradition of studying the Soviet industrial space with predominant reliance on the theory of modernisation corresponds to the logic of its perception in the categories of the modern era. At the same time, the conceptual framework of modernisation theory proves challenging to implement when attempting to characterise sociocultural processes within a Soviet city. The development of an “anthropocultural paradigm” for studying the Soviet city, a need that was first articulated approximately three decades ago, remains a subject of ongoing discourse. The article analyses the legacy of Soviet and Russian urbanism in the academic study of the Soviet city. The author examines the place of the idea of space in the study of the history of human society. The analysis draws upon the works of theorists of “social space,” the idea of “production of space” by A. Lefebvre, and adherents of the “spatial turn” who have studied Soviet material. The article emphasises the significance of the contributions of A. Lefebvre and E. Soja, who represent the “Chicago School” of urbanism, for the study of the urban spatial environment. The author of the article employs D. Läpple’s scheme, created under the influence of Lefebvre, to characterise the social space of the Ural city in the Soviet period. The scheme identifies the following constituent elements: physical space, social practice in the production, use, and appropriation of the material substrate, rules and norms as a connecting link between the former and the latter, and symbolic encoding and spatial perception. Given Soviet realities, it is necessary to consider the parallel existence and constant interaction of official and unofficial urban space. Almost all elements of official space can be easily reconstructed with the help of conventional sources used to study the Soviet industrial past. For the examination of unofficial space, among others, sources of personal origin are quite applicable, although locating them requires rigorous additional efforts. The most salient issue today is the subject of symbolic ideas about space in the context of “Ural identity” in the logic of the “spatial turn.” The author concludes that interdisciplinarity must be expanded in the study of the Soviet urban spatial environment. The key to successful application of the spatial paradigm to the study of the Soviet city is extensive experience in its implementation for the analysis of urban problems in various countries and regions worldwide.
Explicit representations of race have played a major role in shaping world order since the era of colonialism. Although overt/explicit racisms have retreated in the wake of anti-racism advancements globally, the legacies of historical racial signification continue. Racialised representations have shifted from explicit notions of biological difference to notions of essentialised and primordialised social difference (wherein biological determinism remains implicit), employing seemingly more neutral and acceptable proxies for race, including culture’, ‘ethnicity’ and ‘religion’. Drawing insights from an eclectic body of works loosely termed ‘critical race studies’, we show how ‘racialisation’ as a representational process organises, structures and produces assumptions about race in mainstream Global North (GN) scholarly, policy and influential media representations of the Global South (GS). ‘Racialisation matters’ not because observers in the GN are necessarily racists, but because the legacies of historical racial significations are so deeply embedded structurally and institutionally. ‘Representations matter’ because they continue to inform the lived experiences of people in the GS, producing real physical effects on them as racialised subjects and on the material conditions of their existence. Revelation of the racialised dimensions of representations of the GS is necessary to reclaim the dignity, identity and agency of the racialised.
In some cases, literary works can be a means to depict social and political life that is unjust and undemocratic. Ideological criticism in literature is an analytical approach that focuses on how ideologies, or dominant systems of thought and values, are represented and critiqued in literary works, particularly to explain a specific representation of power that can be used as a learning tool. This study aims to analyze the representation of power in novels using a qualitative descriptive method and the theory of hegemonic power. Data was collected through a reading and note-taking technique, as well as by comparing data from the novel with data from references. The analysis reveals that the representation of power in novels consists of three forms: authority, legitimacy, and the nature of power. Authority is used to depict how power influences the lives of society, legitimacy is used to depict how power influences the lives of society in a legitimate manner, and the nature of power is used to depict how power influences the lives of society in an illegitimate manner. The representation of power in novels shows that power can take the form of authority, legitimacy, or the nature of power, which influences the lives of society.
Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) have rapidly emerged as a dominant policy instrument in Europe to accelerate urban climate transitions. PEDs target the district scale to optimise energy system performance through a combination of technical and social interventions. These activities are driven by an engineering logic that considers energy infrastructures to be rational, integrated, and governable. In practice, PED stakeholders engage with heterogeneous infrastructure configurations that are influenced by multiple historical, political, and social specificities. In this article, we use the notion of ‘sociotechnical dispositif’ to characterise the processes of reconstituting the heterogeneous infrastructures of three PEDs in Sweden, Belgium, and Austria. We compare and contrast processes of layering the components in each district as well as processes of orchestrating stakeholders towards shared end goals. The findings contribute to critical infrastructure studies by revealing how European policy ambitions for energy transformation collide with heterogeneous infrastructures and by identifying the situated, contingent, and emergent characteristics of reconfiguring infrastructures at the district scale. The study of layering and orchestrating also highlights opportunities for PED stakeholders to develop and practice new forms of decentralised governance within each district that have the potential to influence broader urban transformations.
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