Buffeted by the twin forces of postmodern cultural shifts and momentous technological developments, the conceptual structure of marketing that had crystallized during the 1960s and 1970s is being s...

Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. By L. H. Martin, H. Gutman and P.H. Hutton (eds). Tavistock Publications, London, 1988, 166 pp., ISBN 0 422 62570 1 (paperback).

Theoretical and philosophical implications of postmodern debates: some challenges to modern marketing:

Implementation of quantified self technologies in workplaces relies on the ontological premise of Cartesian dualism with mind dominant over body. Contributing to debates in new materialism, we demonstrate that workers are now being asked to measure our own productivity and health and well-being in art-houses and warehouses alike in both the global north and south. Workers experience intensified precarity, austerity, intense competition for jobs and anxieties about the replacement of labour-power with robots and other machines as well as, ourselves replaceable, other humans. Workers have internalised the imperative to perform, a subjectification process as we become observing entrepreneurial subjects and observed, objectified labouring bodies. Thinking through the implications of the use of wearable technologies in workplaces, this article shows that these technologies introduce a heightened Taylorist influence on precarious working bodies within neoliberal workplaces.

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The quantified self: What counts in the neoliberal workplace

Contemporary theorizations of neoliberalism are framed by a false dichotomy between, on the one hand, studies influenced by Foucault in emphasizing neoliberalism as a form of governmentality, and on the other hand, inquiries influenced by Marx in foregrounding neoliberalism as a hegemonic ideology. This article seeks to shine some light on this division in an effort to open up new debates and recast existing ones in such a way that might lead to more flexible understandings of neoliberalism as a discourse. A discourse approach moves theorizations forward by recognizing neoliberalism is neither a ‘top-down’ nor ‘bottom-up’ phenomena, but rather a circuitous process of socio-spatial transformation.

Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism

This paper is devoted to an examination of Foucault's changing notion of truth in relation to the changing practice of education. In the first section I examine briefly the notion of truth as Foucault uses it to investigate the socio-political sphere. The remainder of the essay is given over to Foucault's six lectures entitled 'Discourse and Truth: the problematisation of Parrhesia', given at Berkeley during the months of October-November in 1983. In these lectures, Foucault outlines the meanings and the evolution of the classical Greek word 'parrhesia' and its cognates, as they enter into and exemplify the changing practices of truth-telling in Greek society. In particular, Foucault investigates 'the use of parrhesia in specific types of human relationsips' and 'the procedures and techniques employed in such relationships' (34/66). Central to his analysis is the importance of education and its relations to 'care of the self', public life and the crisis of democratic institutions.

Truth-telling as an Educational Practice of the Self: Foucault, Parrhesia and the ethics of subjectivity

In all areas of academic or practical work related to disaster risk, climate change and development more generally, community and its adjunct community-based have become the default terminology when referring to the local level or working ‘with the people’. The terms are applied extensively to highlight what is believed to be a people-centred, participatory, or grassroot-level approach. Today, despite, or because of, its inherent ambiguity, ‘community’ tends to be used almost inflationarily. This paper aims to analyse the way the concept of ‘community’ has come into fashion, and to critically reflect on the problems that come with it. We are raising significant doubts about the usefulness of ‘community’ in development- and disaster-related work. Our approach is to first consider how ‘community’ has become popular in research and with humanitarian agencies and other organisations based on what can be considered a ‘moral licence’ that supposedly guarantees that the actions being taken are genuinely people-centred and ethically justified. We then explore several theoretical approaches to ‘community’, highlight the vast scope of different (and contested) views on what ‘community’ entails, and explain how ‘community’ is framing practical attempts to mitigate vulnerability and inequity. We demonstrate how these attempts are usually futile, and sometimes harmful, due to the blurriness of ‘community’ concepts and their inherent failure to address the root causes of vulnerability. From two antagonistic positions, we finally advocate more meaningful ways to acknowledge vulnerable people’s views and needs appropriately.

Technologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault. By L. H. Martin, H. Gutman and P.H. Hutton (eds). Tavistock Publications, London, 1988, 166 pp., ISBN 0 422 62570 1 (paperback).

Citations

Theoretical and philosophical implications of postmodern debates: some challenges to modern marketing:

The quantified self: What counts in the neoliberal workplace

Neoliberalism as discourse: between Foucauldian political economy and Marxian poststructuralism

Truth-telling as an Educational Practice of the Self: Foucault, Parrhesia and the ethics of subjectivity

Uncovering ‘Community’: Challenging an Elusive Concept in Development and Disaster Related Work