Ava Kanyeredzi, Laura McGrath and Ian Tucker (University of East London, UK), Steven D. Brown (The Open University, UK) and Paula Reavey (London South Bank University, UK) published in The Sociological Review Volume 67 Issue 2 (March 2019)
Abstract
The climate or atmosphere of a ward in secure psychiatric care is typically studied by examining the relationship between social and environmental factors.
However the experiences of patients are irreducible to a set of discrete dimensions or factors. Drawing on recent work in affect theory and architectural studies, we argue for an approach to atmosphere that places it ‘in-between’ persons and space, as a ‘spatially extended quality of feeling’ of which patients are intimately aware.
The article discusses empirical material drawn from a broader study of inpatient medium-secure forensic care in a large hospital in the South of England. We show how the process of becoming attuned to the fluctuations and shifts in the atmosphere of the ward is a critical aspect of everyday life for patients. Attunement cuts across existing notions of power and resistance in these settings.
We also demonstrate how attachments to a range of objects, some created by patients, can either expand or punctualize attunement, enabling change in the overall atmosphere. We conclude by speculating on how we might rethink spaces of recovery on an ethospheric basis.
Showing posts with label Foucault. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foucault. Show all posts
Friday, 8 March 2019
Saturday, 17 February 2018
How to tell the truth about climate change
an article by Kellan Anfinson (University of South Florida, Tampa, USA) published in Environmental Politics Volume 27 Issue 2 (2018)
Abstract
Scientific knowledge, it is argued, is insufficient to overcome climate skepticism. Spiritual truth is proposed as a way to do so.
First, the cases of Eric Holthaus and Paul Kingsnorth are examined. Though they knew about climate change, they were only able to tell the truth and act on it after a personal collapse that transformed them. Telling the truth in this way carried a political force that their previous advocacy did not.
These figures help animate and adapt Foucault’s notion of spiritual truth for climate change.
Finally, this theory of spiritual truth is compared to Naomi Klein’s argument that climate science determines political truth and Bruno Latour’s argument that politics should decide the truth of climate science.
Spiritual truth accommodates the insights these perspectives provide while adding transformation as a key element for telling the truth about climate change.
Abstract
Scientific knowledge, it is argued, is insufficient to overcome climate skepticism. Spiritual truth is proposed as a way to do so.
First, the cases of Eric Holthaus and Paul Kingsnorth are examined. Though they knew about climate change, they were only able to tell the truth and act on it after a personal collapse that transformed them. Telling the truth in this way carried a political force that their previous advocacy did not.
These figures help animate and adapt Foucault’s notion of spiritual truth for climate change.
Finally, this theory of spiritual truth is compared to Naomi Klein’s argument that climate science determines political truth and Bruno Latour’s argument that politics should decide the truth of climate science.
Spiritual truth accommodates the insights these perspectives provide while adding transformation as a key element for telling the truth about climate change.
Saturday, 26 August 2017
Confessional technologies of the self: From Seneca to social media
an article by Norm Friesen (Boise State University, USA) published in First Monday Volume 22 Number 6 (June 2017)
Abstract
Foucault’s general notion of “technologies of the self” provides an invaluable starting point for investigating a range of broadly “confessional” practices and technologies over time – from medieval confession to contemporary forms of networked identity construction. Foucault defines technologies of the self as “reflected and voluntary practices by which men not only fix rules of conduct for themselves but seek to transform themselves, to change themselves in their particular being, and to make their life an oeuvre.”
These are practices or techniques, in other words, that are both undertaken by the self and directed toward it. Specifically confessional technologies involve a deliberate and often structured externalization of the self, often with the help of a confessor or a confessional text or context.
Building on existing work (e.g., by Fletcher and Hall), this paper begins by some of the earliest Western confessional practices and “technologies” as described by Foucault, and then proceeding to explain medieval Christian confession and its subsequent “reformation.”
Next, by appealing to Louis Althusser’s notion of interpellation, it develops this conception of confession further, comparing it finally to today’s digital media of social self-disclosure, focusing on Facebook in particular. Such contemporary media, the paper concludes, build upon practices and technologies of the self that have been evolving for centuries, if not millennia.
Full text (HTML)
Hazel’s comment:
I had to work hard to read this article but it was worth it, and the illustrations really do illustrate the text.
Abstract
Foucault’s general notion of “technologies of the self” provides an invaluable starting point for investigating a range of broadly “confessional” practices and technologies over time – from medieval confession to contemporary forms of networked identity construction. Foucault defines technologies of the self as “reflected and voluntary practices by which men not only fix rules of conduct for themselves but seek to transform themselves, to change themselves in their particular being, and to make their life an oeuvre.”
These are practices or techniques, in other words, that are both undertaken by the self and directed toward it. Specifically confessional technologies involve a deliberate and often structured externalization of the self, often with the help of a confessor or a confessional text or context.
Building on existing work (e.g., by Fletcher and Hall), this paper begins by some of the earliest Western confessional practices and “technologies” as described by Foucault, and then proceeding to explain medieval Christian confession and its subsequent “reformation.”
Next, by appealing to Louis Althusser’s notion of interpellation, it develops this conception of confession further, comparing it finally to today’s digital media of social self-disclosure, focusing on Facebook in particular. Such contemporary media, the paper concludes, build upon practices and technologies of the self that have been evolving for centuries, if not millennia.
Full text (HTML)
Hazel’s comment:
I had to work hard to read this article but it was worth it, and the illustrations really do illustrate the text.
Monday, 20 March 2017
The moral frontiers of English education policy: governmentality and ethics within an alternative provision free school
an article by Francis Farrell, Vicky Duckworth, Monika Reece and Philip Rigby (Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, UK) published in Educational Review Volume 69 Issue 3 (2017)
Abstract
This article is a critical poststructuralist analysis of Conservative led free school policy in England focusing on claims made by the New Schools Network and in the 2010 White Paper that free school provision promotes social justice.
The article presents an empirical study of an alternative provision free school as a lens through which these claims can be interrogated. Drawing from Foucault’s concept of governmentality the article analyses the narratives of teachers working in the school in order to gain insights into the microphysics of the policy rationalities mobilised within the discursive site of the free school and claims that such provision promotes social justice.
The teachers interviewed demonstrate a strong alignment to free school policy discourse, but also a blurring of pastoral and disciplinary rationalities expressed in terms of the rehabilitation of students on the educational boundaries of the “normal”.
The article concludes that the school is a tactical move within neoliberal education policy in which the state responsibilises a new polity of actors, including teachers, sponsors and communities contracting out its interventions in order to govern the ungovernable.
The article calls for further empirical research of free school provision in order to contest neoliberal discourses which obfuscate complex systemic failure and the social reality of intergenerational unemployment and disadvantage.
Abstract
This article is a critical poststructuralist analysis of Conservative led free school policy in England focusing on claims made by the New Schools Network and in the 2010 White Paper that free school provision promotes social justice.
The article presents an empirical study of an alternative provision free school as a lens through which these claims can be interrogated. Drawing from Foucault’s concept of governmentality the article analyses the narratives of teachers working in the school in order to gain insights into the microphysics of the policy rationalities mobilised within the discursive site of the free school and claims that such provision promotes social justice.
The teachers interviewed demonstrate a strong alignment to free school policy discourse, but also a blurring of pastoral and disciplinary rationalities expressed in terms of the rehabilitation of students on the educational boundaries of the “normal”.
The article concludes that the school is a tactical move within neoliberal education policy in which the state responsibilises a new polity of actors, including teachers, sponsors and communities contracting out its interventions in order to govern the ungovernable.
The article calls for further empirical research of free school provision in order to contest neoliberal discourses which obfuscate complex systemic failure and the social reality of intergenerational unemployment and disadvantage.
Monday, 27 July 2009
Phenomenology and Surveillance Studies: ...
Returning to the Things Themselves
an article by Norm Friesen (Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia), Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) and Grace Smith (Arapiki Solutions, Inc., Vancouver) in The Information Society Volume 25 Issue 2 (March 2009)
Abstract
In response to the increasingly quotidian, even banal character of surveillant practices in postindustrial societies, this article explores the possibility of a theoretical and methodological re-alignment in surveillance studies. This re-alignment entails a move from broadly Foucauldian, macro-level, structural or poststructural analyses, to the existential-phenomenological study of subjective consciousness and experience. This piece illustrates such an experiential study by taking part of Sartre's famous description of “the look”, and comparing it to a similarly experientially-based description of an everyday context of surveillance – specifically, a bank machine or ATM transaction. Through the analysis of these descriptions, the piece shows how the study of the lived experience of surveillance highlights the role of the body, of social convention, and also of individual agency in surveillant practices that can be overlooked in other analyses.
an article by Norm Friesen (Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia), Andrew Feenberg (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) and Grace Smith (Arapiki Solutions, Inc., Vancouver) in The Information Society Volume 25 Issue 2 (March 2009)
Abstract
In response to the increasingly quotidian, even banal character of surveillant practices in postindustrial societies, this article explores the possibility of a theoretical and methodological re-alignment in surveillance studies. This re-alignment entails a move from broadly Foucauldian, macro-level, structural or poststructural analyses, to the existential-phenomenological study of subjective consciousness and experience. This piece illustrates such an experiential study by taking part of Sartre's famous description of “the look”, and comparing it to a similarly experientially-based description of an everyday context of surveillance – specifically, a bank machine or ATM transaction. Through the analysis of these descriptions, the piece shows how the study of the lived experience of surveillance highlights the role of the body, of social convention, and also of individual agency in surveillant practices that can be overlooked in other analyses.
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