scholarly journals Foucault and Althusser: Epistemological Differences with Political Effects

2013 ◽  
pp. 134-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Marxist Tradition

Michel Foucault was at times critical of the Marxist tradition, and at other times more sympathetic.  After his dismissal of Marx in The Order of Things, he conceded the existence of a more compelling, non-humanist version of this discourse.  Louis Althusser’s innovations are crucial for the existence of this second Marxism.  While consideration of the relation between Foucault and Althusser varies between those who emphasize relations between State and capital, and conversely those who inscribe Marxist considerations into a micro-political account, the distinction between the two thinkers takes place earlier in the development of their respective outlooks.  Foucault initially emphasized Marxism as an anthropological eschatology; he revises this argument, commending the possibility of an epistemological mutation of history inherent in Marx’s thought.  I locate crucial distinctions between Foucault and Althusser in the early work of the 1960s as inflecting relations in the seemingly more proximate work of the 1970s.  In this approach, we can better examine Foucault’s non-Marxist contentions in order to consider the reciprocal distinctions and contributions between these two forms of anti-humanism, providing the necessary groundwork for debates regarding the nature of subjectivity, the State, and revolution.

Formative Influences

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilary Radner ◽  
Alistair Fox
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Roland Barthes ◽  
Film Analysis ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Christian Metz ◽  
The Way

In this section of the interview, Bellour describes how he began to engage in film analysis in the 1960s, beginning with a sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, with the aim of establishing the way it worked as a “text.” He proceeds to describe his personal encounters with major figures like Roland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Foucault, and his friendship with Christian Metz, suggesting how his interchanges with them helped to shape his own thinking, and how it diverged from theirs.

Rewriting the Narrative

2019 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 54-77
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
American Indian ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Mixed Media ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Art Scene ◽  
The 1960S

A vibrant American Indian art scene developed in California from the 1960s to the 1980s, with links to a broader indigenous arts movement. Native American artists working in the state produced and exhibited paintings, prints, sculptures, mixed media, and other art forms that validated and documented their cultures, interpreted their history, asserted their survival, and explored their experiences in modern society. Building on recent scholarship that examines American Indian migration, urbanization, and activism in the twentieth century, this article charts these developments and argues that American Indian artists in California challenged and rewrote dominant historical narratives by foregrounding Native American perspectives in their work.

Foucault, Lenin, and Western Marxism

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-267
Keyword(s):  
Public Intellectual ◽  
Philosophical Tradition ◽  
Real Problem ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Revolutionary Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Significant Figures ◽  
Marxist Tradition ◽  
Western Marxism

This article others a brief historical account of the complex relationship between Michel Foucault and certain theorists in the Western Marxist philosophical tradition. In the context of the history of the “short twentieth century,” Western Marxism is an intellectual trend based on an interpretation of non-Western revolutionary praxis (by Bolsheviks, Maoists, Guevaristas, etc.). Comparative analysis of several schematic portraits - of Lenin’s revolutionary intellectual, of traditional as opposed to organic intellectuals in Gramsci, and of Foucault’s public intellectual - shows that Foucault in a certain instances was not an external enemy of the Western Marxist tradition, but rather its internal critic. Foucault comes across as a revisionist who engaged in a debate with Lenin about the strategy of the revolutionary movement in France of the 1960s and the 70s. Foucault’s criticism of Leninism unexpectedly turns out to be consistent with the basic struggle of post-WWII Western Marxism to find an alternative to the Bolshevik experience of revolution. This deliberate concurrence makes Foucault one of the significant figures in the history of late Western Marxism, but this becomes a real problem for current historians of neo-Marxist thought when coupled with his generally anti-Marxist views. The article discusses two possible solutions to this problem devised by Perry Anderson and Daniel Bensaid. Anderson’s description of the role of Foucault in the fate of Western Marxism is limited to conceptual questions about the relationship between Marxism and (post) structuralism. Bensaid tries to explain how Foucault fits into the Marxist tradition by appealing to social changes, specifically the changing ideology of capitalist society (in the spirit of The New Spirit of Capitalism by Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello). Building on Bensaid’s work, the article shows the link between Foucault’s position on public intellectuals and the crisis of the revolutionary movement of the last half-century, in particular by reference to the famous “Iranian episode” in Foucault’s biography.

A Legitimacy Crisis of Representative Democracy?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacques Thomassen ◽  
Carolien van Ham
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Short Description ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Support ◽  
Systematic Fashion ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Established Democracies ◽  
Legitimacy Crisis

This chapter presents the research questions and outline of the book, providing a brief review of the state of the art of legitimacy research in established democracies, and discusses the recurring theme of crisis throughout this literature since the 1960s. It includes a discussion of the conceptualization and measurement of legitimacy, seeking to relate legitimacy to political support, and reflecting on how to evaluate empirical indicators: what symptoms indicate crisis? This chapter further explains the structure of the three main parts of the book. Part I evaluates in a systematic fashion the empirical evidence for legitimacy decline in established democracies; Part II reappraises the validity of theories of legitimacy decline; and Part II investigates what (new) explanations can account for differences in legitimacy between established democracies. The chapter concludes with a short description of the chapters included in the volume.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aled Davies
Keyword(s):  
International Monetary System ◽  
The State ◽  
Real Economy ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Monetary System ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Post War ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
City Of London ◽  
The City

The aim of this book has been to evaluate the relationship between Britain’s financial sector, based in the City of London, and the social democratic economic strategy of post-war Britain. The central argument presented in the book was that changes to the City during the 1960s and 1970s undermined a number of the key post-war social democratic techniques designed to sustain and develop a modern industrial economy. Financial institutionalization weakened the state’s ability to influence investment, and the labour movement was unable successfully to integrate the institutionalized funds within a renewed social democratic economic agenda. The post-war settlement in banking came under strain in the 1960s as new banking and credit institutions developed that the state struggled to manage. This was exacerbated by the decision to introduce competition among the clearing banks in 1971, which further weakened the state’s capacity to control the provision and allocation of credit to the real economy. The resurrection of an unregulated global capital market, centred on London, overwhelmed the capacity of the state to pursue domestic-focused macroeconomic policies—a problem worsened by the concurrent collapse of the Bretton Woods international monetary system. Against this background, the fundamental social democratic assumption that national prosperity could be achieved only through industry-led growth and modernization was undermined by an effective campaign to reconceptualize Britain as a fundamentally financial and commercial nation with the City of London at its heart....

Symbolic Figures of the Decembrists in the Memorial Space of Irkutsk (Early 20th Century - 1991)

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-138
Author(s):  
Yekaterina I. Krasilnikova ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
Regional Identity ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Politics Of Memory ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Memorial Space

The author explores the problem of reflecting the collective memory of Siberians about the exiled Decembrists in the memorial space of Irkutsk at different historical stages. The aim of the article is to characterize the developing dynamics of a segment of the memorial space system that includes Irkutsk's memorial places associated with the Decembrists in the chronological framework of the Soviet period of Russian history. The study is based on the principle of historicism. The methodological reference point of the research is the problem field of memory studies; the concepts of the places of memory of P. Nora and cultural memory of J. Assmann and A. Assmann are used. The author also employs historical-genetic and historical-comparative methods. Within the framework of the Soviet period, three stages of forming the segment of the Irkutsk memorial space associated with the memory about the Decembrists were identified. The first stage, from the 1910s till 1925, reflects the general weakness of Irkutsk city residents' collective memory about the Decembrists, which was manifested in neglecting memorial sites, and the beginning of the awakening of interest in the Decembrists among the local liberal-minded intelligentsia. At the second stage, from 1925 (the 100th anniversary of the Decembrist uprising) till the 1960s, under the influence of the state politics of memory that recognized the Decembrists as the first generation of Russian revolutionaries, the intelligentsia of Irkutsk were actively forming the locus of the Decembrists' memorial space in their city. Based on the memory about the Decembrists, the intelligentsia was constructing their social identity. But the local authorities did not provide the intelligentsia with the desired support, which significantly complicated achieving the memorialization tasks. At the third stage, in the 1960s-1980s, the memory about the Decembrists' stay in Irkutsk was in demand among the local authorities, who used it especially actively during celebrations dedicated to the anniversaries of the city. Many memorable places were designated, and their protection was improved. The sharply increased attention of Irkutsk local administration and city residents to the exiled Decembrists reflected the growth of their regional identity. The author revealed the dependence of reflecting the collective memory about the Decembrists in the Irkutsk memorial space on the state and regional politics of memory, as well as on the local intelligentsia initiatives, for which the memory about the Decembrists served as one of the foundations for constructing their social identity.

scholarly journals ‘We Too Have a Word to Say’

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 48-68
Author(s):  
Muzaffer Kaya
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Main Determinant ◽  
Governmental Policy ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Right ◽  
In The Beginning

This article seeks to explain how in the beginning of the 1960s in Turkey the right to strike was adopted as a social right. The existing literature is divided regarding the factors that led to the shift in governmental policy. While some argue that the state granted this right without any struggle on the side of the workers, others propose that the main determinant in the process was the struggle of workers. By scrutinizing the interaction between political developments at the state and party levels, and the actions of the workers in that period, I argue that the recognition of the right to strike was the combined result of several interrelated political developments at the local and global level.

Гocкaпитaлизм, Coциaльныe Клaccы, Культуpный Лaндшaфт Coвeтcкoй Дepeвни Cтaлинcкoгo и Пocлecтaлинcкoгo Bpeмeни

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-337 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
Specific System ◽  
State Capitalism ◽  
Agrarian Society ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Economic Exploitation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The 1960S

This article analyzes socio-economic and cultural transformations in the Soviet village from the end of the 1920s until the 1980s. The authors identify the agrarian system of that time as state capitalism and reveal that during the 1950s and 1960s, capital that played a leading role in Soviet agriculture. The authors argue that the emergence of state capitalism was due to the interaction of the state, collective farms, and peasant holdings. The preservation of traditional peasant holdings allowed the state to build a specific system of non-economic exploitation, the core of which existed until the beginning of the 1960s. The authors connect the formation of agrarian capitalism with the creation of new rural classes. The authors conclude that from the 1920s to the 1980s, a combination of economic, political and socio-cultural factors led to the transformation of the agrarian society in the Soviet Union into the state capitalism.

scholarly journals Kongen hersker, men regerer ikke - Guvernementalitet, statificering og statspraksis hos Michel Foucault

2018 ◽  
pp. 89-108
Author(s):  
Nicolai Von Eggers ◽  
Mathias Hein Jessen
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern State ◽  
Giorgio Agamben ◽  
The West ◽  
Historical Investigation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Way Of Thinking

Michel Foucault developed his now (in)famous neologism governmentality in the first of the two lectures he devoted to ’a history of governmentality, Security, Territory, Population (1977-78) and The Birth of Biopolitics (1978-79). Foucault developed this notion in order to do a historical investigation of ‘the state’ or ‘the political’ which did not assume the entity of the state but treated it as a way of governing, a way of thinking about governing. Recently, the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has taken up Foucault’s notion of governmentality in his writing of a history of power in the West, most notably in The Kingdom and the Glory. It is with inspiration from Agamben’s recent use of Foucault that Foucault’s approach to writing the history of the state (as a history of governmental practices and the reflection hereof) is revisited. Foucault (and Agamben) thus offer another way of writing the history of the state and of the political, which focuses on different texts and on reading more familiar texts in a new light, thereby offering a new and notably different view on the emergence of the modern state and politics.

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