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Journal ArticleDOI

The Exotic Effect: Foucault and the Question of Cultural Alterity

01 May 1999-European Journal of Social Theory (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 2, Iss: 2, pp 147-165
TL;DR: In this article, the relationship between Foucault's general concerns and his neglected work on non-western societies is examined by examining two related questions: what role does exoticism play in his theoretical imaginary, and how does his work on Japan, Iran and the non-Western world contribute to a different understanding of his thinking.
Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between Foucault's general concerns and his neglected work on non-Western societies. It does so by examining two related questions. Firstly, what role does exoticism play in his theoretical imaginary? Secondly, how does his work on Japan, Iran and the non-Western world contribute to a different understanding of his thinking? As such, four general themes will be followed in order to underline the interplay of cultural difference with Foucault's broader projects: the limits of Western reason, genealogical schemes of history, power and resistance, and, finally, subjectification. Throughout, an attempt will be made to highlight the interdependence and mutual constitution of Foucault's thought and matters of cultural alterity.
Citations
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Book
09 Apr 2008
TL;DR: In this article, an analytical framework based on the political philosophy of Antonio Gramsci is proposed to examine the international politics of post-conflict reconstruction in Guatemala, and the authors argue that counter-insurgency reflects the impulse to secure the "remainder" of disarticulation - the exploited, marginalised, 'traditional' element of society constructed around semi-proletarian labour.
Abstract: This thesis examines the international politics of post-conflict reconstruction in Guatemala To do so, it articulates an analytical framework based on the political philosophy of Antonio Gramsci The framework emphasises the nature of power, coercion and consent, and the problematic of political subjectivity, augmenting Gramsci's understanding of the latter with insights from Michel Foucault's notion of neoliberal governmentality Based on this theoretical framework, the thesis examines the historical-material development of the Guatemalan ensemble of social relations into one of counterinsurgent disarticulation It argues that counterinsurgency reflects the impulse to secure the 'remainder' of disarticulation - the exploited, marginalised, 'traditional' element of society constructed around semi-proletarian labour - a sector of society that is both (re)produced through disarticulation and denied by its 'modem' element A crisis of counterinsurgent disarticulation leads to the Guatemalan peace process, which involves negotiations structured around certain understandings of democratic participation that protect elite privilege, particularly electoral democracy and consultation with 'civil society' The divisions within Guatemala's elites are not entirely resolved through the peace process: the accords reflect an unstable 'caesarist' resolution (a form of 'passive' hegemony) that relies o n a coalition of modernising elites, the international community and the guerrilla This coalition agrees a set of peace accords that would reconstruct the post-conflict Guatemalan state along neoliberal lines, at the level of both society and individual subjectivity Although the agreements are not fully implemented, the pattern of implementation itself reflects particular neoliberal priorities, while the normative project of peace validates the ethico-political claims of neoliberalism and (re)deflnes progressive politics in Guatemala in terms of the implementation of the neoliberal accords The thesis thus argues that peace processes may function as technologies for the (re)construction of neoliberalism

40 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore key changes in orientations toward encountering and experiencing the other in new consumption venues as a result of the transformations in globalization and modern culture, and explore the means that enable people to construct new constellations of identities and experience the other.
Abstract: We explore key changes in orientations toward encountering and experiencing the ‘other’ in new consumption venues as a result of the transformations in globalization and modern culture. Our research aims to provide insights into how ‘experiencing the other’ is increasingly sought in high-society bazaars by both upper and lower social classes, respectively representing the westernized and traditional social elements in Turkey, where the West meets the East. Findings unravel the means that enable people to construct new constellations of identities and experience the other in these consumption spaces. As a result, we revisit and extend different theoretical insights on identity construction and otherness by recognizing more recent cultural trends and sensibilities that guide and motivate people to seek multiplicity and to experience difference.

23 citations


Cites background from "The Exotic Effect: Foucault and the..."

  • ...Similarly observed in constructing otherness depicted in theories that explain West–East relations, the West’s urge to construct images of the East (Said, 1979) is encountering resistance (Kurasawa, 1999; Shah, 2010)....

    [...]

  • ...These findings cause us to revisit the discourses regarding identity construction and otherness (Bohrer, 2006; Kurasawa, 1999; Nochlin, 1989; Said, 1979) in early modern times, which mainly rest on domination, resistance, conflict resolution, and distancing one from the other....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors discuss the extension of Foucault's work on governmentality into the fields of global studies in general and development studies in particular, drawing on insights from post-development theory and critical race theory, they present an adaptation of governmentality that is intended to bridge the gap between those studies dealing with the regulatory aspects of development in the global South and those dealing with construction of ethical identities in the North.
Abstract: In this article, I discuss the extension of Foucault’s work on governmentality into the fields of global studies in general and development studies in particular. Drawing on insights from postdevelopment theory and critical race theory, I present an adaptation of governmentality—labeled developmentality—that is intended to bridge the gap between those studies dealing with the regulatory aspects of development in the global South and those dealing with construction of ethical identities in the North.

11 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the concepts of heteronormativity and sexual subject in respect of reflections on social invisibility and absence as enabling rather then necessarily repressing same-sex sexualities in India.
Abstract: Featured in a special symposium on Adrienne Rich and Michel Foucault for the 10th Anniversary edition of the journal 'Sexualities' this paper examine the concepts of heteronormativity and sexual subject in respect of reflections on social invisibility and absence as enabling rather then necessarily repressing same-sex sexualities in India.

8 citations


Cites background from "The Exotic Effect: Foucault and the..."

  • ...…rhyme, in retrospect, with Buddhism, so too was Foucault interested in Zen and Shiite Islam, as alternatives to the rational discursive regimes that have shaped contemporary western subjectivities, the worldly limitations of which Foucault, in part, laments (Kurasawa, 1999; see also Magee, 1997)....

    [...]

  • ...Much as Schopenhauer found his own philosophy to rhyme, in retrospect, with Buddhism, so too was Foucault interested in Zen and Shiite Islam, as alternatives to the rational discursive regimes that have shaped contemporary western subjectivities, the worldly limitations of which Foucault, in part, laments (Kurasawa, 1999; see also Magee, 1997)....

    [...]

  • ...This is certainly the prevailing impression that Foucault engenders; one which he later modified (Kurasawa, 1999: 159)....

    [...]

  • ...…Fuyuki Kurasawa has explored ways in which the binaries of ‘reason/madness, truth/falsehood, repression/freedom, normality/pathology etc.’ (Kurasawa, 1999: 148) that are intrinsic to Foucault’s paradigm are premised on Western/Eastern, Occidential/Orientalist assumptions that are less…...

    [...]

References
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Book
18 Apr 2012
TL;DR: Foucault shows the development of the Western system of prisons, police organizations, administrative and legal hierarchies for social control and the growth of disciplinary society as a whole as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: In the Middle Ages there were gaols and dungeons, but punishment was for the most part a spectacle. The economic changes and growing popular dissent of the 18th century made necessary a more systematic control over the individual members of society, and this in effect meant a change from punishment, which chastised the body, to reform, which touched the soul. Foucault shows the development of the Western system of prisons, police organizations, administrative and legal hierarchies for social control - and the growth of disciplinary society as a whole. He also reveals that between school, factories, barracks and hospitals all share a common organization, in which it is possible to control the use of an individual's time and space hour by hour.

11,379 citations

BookDOI
01 Dec 1971
TL;DR: The Prose of the World: I The Four Similitudes, II Signatures, III The Limits of the world, IV the Writing of Things, V The Being of Language 3.Representing: I Don Quixote, II Order, III Representation of the Sign, IV Duplicated Representation, V Imagination of Resemblance, VI Mathesis and 'Taxinoma' 4. Speaking: I Criticism and Commentary, II General Grammar,III The Theory of the Verb, IV Articulation, V Designation, VI Derivation,
Abstract: Publishers Note, Forward to the English Edition, Preface Part I: 1.Las Meninas 2.The Prose of the World: I The Four Similitudes, II Signatures, III The Limits of the World, IV the Writing of Things, V The Being of Language 3.Representing: I Don Quixote, II Order, III The Representation of the Sign, IV Duplicated Representation, V The Imagination of Resemblance, VI Mathesis and 'Taxinoma' 4. Speaking: I Criticism and Commentary, II General Grammar, III The Theory of the Verb, IV Articulation, V Designation, VI Derivation, VII The Quadrilateral Language 5. Classifying: I What the Historians say, II Natural History, III Structure, IV Character, V Continuity and Catastrophe, VI Monsters and Fossils, VII The Discourse of Nature 6. Exchanging: I The Analysis of wealth, II Money and Prices, III Mercantilism, IV The Pledge and the Price, V The Creation of Value, VI Utility, VII General Table, VIII Desire and Representation Part 2 7. The Limits of Representation: I The Age of History, II The Measure of Labour, III The Organic Structure of Beings, IV Word Inflection, V Ideology and Criticism, VI Objective Synthesis 8. Labour, life, Language: I The New Empiricities, II Ricardo, III Cuvier, IV Bopp, V Language Became Object 9. Man and His Doubles: I The return of Language, II The Place of the King, III The Analytic of Finitude, IV The Empirical and the Transcendental, V The 'Cogito' and the Unthought, VI The Retreat and the Return of the Origin, VII Discourse and Man's Being, VIII The Anthropological Sleep 10. The Human Sciences: I The Three Faces of Knowledge, II The Form of the Human Sciences, III The Three Models, IV History, V Psychoanalysis and Ethnology, VI In Conclusion

7,353 citations

Book
01 Jan 1969
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define the Statement and the Archive and define the Enunciative Function 3. The Description of Staements 4. Contradictions 5. Change and Transformations 6. The Formation of Concepts 7. Conclusion Conclusion Index
Abstract: Part I: Introduction. Part II: The Discursive Regularities 1. The Unities of Discourse 2. Discursive Formations 3. The Formation of Objects 4. The Formation of Enunciative Modalities 5. The Formation of Concepts 6. The Formation of Strategies 7. Remarks and Cosequences Part III The Statement and the Archive 1. Defining the Statement 2. The Enunciative Function 3. The Description of Staements 4. Rarity, Exteriority, Accumilation 5. The Historical a priori and the Archive Part IV Archeological Description 1. Archeology and the History of Ideas 2. The Original and the Regular 3. Contradictions 4. The Comparative Facts 5. Change and Transformations 6. Science and Knowledge Part V: Conclusion Conclusion Index

6,196 citations

Book
01 Apr 1991
TL;DR: Governmental rationality - an introduction, Colin Gordon politics and the study of discourse, Michel Foucault questions of method and governmentality -the genealogy of capital (police and the state of prosperity), Pasquale Pasquino peculiar interests - civil society and governing "the system of natural liberty", Graham Burchell social economy and the government of poverty, Giovanna Procaci the mobilization of society, Jacques Donzelot how should we do the history of statistics, Ian Hacking insurance and risk, Francois Ewald "popular life" and insurance technology, Daniel Defert crim
Abstract: Governmental rationality - an introduction, Colin Gordon politics and the study of discourse, Michel Foucault questions of method, Michel Foucault governmentality, Michel Foucault theatrum politicum - the genealogy of capital (police and the state of prosperity), Pasquale Pasquino peculiar interests - civil society and governing "the system of natural liberty", Graham Burchell social economy and the government of poverty, Giovanna Procaci the mobilization of society, Jacques Donzelot how should we do the history of statistics?, Ian Hacking insurance and risk, Francois Ewald "popular life" and insurance technology, Daniel Defert criminology - the birth of a special knowledge, Pasqale Pasquino pleasure in work, Jacques Donzelot from dangerousness to risk, Robert Castel.

6,189 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 1974
TL;DR: In this article, the authors define the Statement and the Archive and define the Enunciative Function 3. The Description of Staements 4. Contradictions 5. Change and Transformations 6. The Formation of Concepts 7. Conclusion Conclusion Index
Abstract: Part I: Introduction. Part II: The Discursive Regularities 1. The Unities of Discourse 2. Discursive Formations 3. The Formation of Objects 4. The Formation of Enunciative Modalities 5. The Formation of Concepts 6. The Formation of Strategies 7. Remarks and Cosequences Part III The Statement and the Archive 1. Defining the Statement 2. The Enunciative Function 3. The Description of Staements 4. Rarity, Exteriority, Accumilation 5. The Historical a priori and the Archive Part IV Archeological Description 1. Archeology and the History of Ideas 2. The Original and the Regular 3. Contradictions 4. The Comparative Facts 5. Change and Transformations 6. Science and Knowledge Part V: Conclusion Conclusion Index

5,673 citations